Trail Blazers: Don’t look now, Nassir Little is the real deal

Nassir Little shines in his first start with the Portland Trail Blazers, doing just enough to warrant an extension on this experiment.

If you missed last night’s game against the Toronto Raptors, I pity you for missing out on the Nassir Little show. While the box score certainly won’t do his performance justice, he has done all the right things to work his way into the starting lineup for the Portland Trail Blazers. If he keeps this up, I don’t think anyone will argue he deserves to stay there.

While Little is certainly still an unpolished project, he does carry a high ceiling due to his sheer athleticism and a body born to play basketball. Oftentimes, these prospects are highly touted due to perceived potential, but fail in the NBA because of a low motor and a clear disinterest in playing their hardest.

That isn’t the case with Nassir.

There’s a very clear reason why we’ve seen Little’s play time increase with each appearance and chance to prove himself. He’s outworking everyone else on the court. Little probably won’t ever be the type to pour on the points or hit crazy shoots from deep; we already have Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum, and Anfernee Simons for that. But what he does provide is something unique no one else on the roster boasts.

https://twitter.com/trailblazers/status/1194864763387297793?s=20

On Wednesday night, Little appeared to be the only player capable of guarding Pascal Siakam, who poured 36 points on the Trail Blazers and was hyper-efficient anytime Nassir was off the court. If not for foul trouble and a general distrust in handing rookies the keys, having Little out their longer could have potentially tipped the scales in Portland’s favor.

Whenever he wasn’t playing stifling defense, Little could be seen getting dirty down low in the trenches. He reeled in five rebounds (two of which were offensive) and put himself in position to have twice as many while contesting Toronto’s big men in the paint. Unfortunately, the Raptors are as well-coached as they come and did not allow the Blazers to capitalize on simple mistakes.

But other teams will, and Nassir will be there to take advantage of it. He showed great awareness on both ends of the court, being at the right place at the right time. This largely explains why he is one of only three Blazers who didn’t post a negative Plus/Minus against Toronto.

He also wowed the crowd with a steal and a highlight block. I mean, who could forget that block?

While he could definitely improve on his shooting, (3-for-10 from the field and 1-for-5 from deep), Little always found ways to get open and was never out of position. Whether he’s hitting those shots or not, he’s making the right move by demonstrating to opposing defenses that he’s not afraid to jack it up. They’ll either concede wide-open threes to him every game, or they’ll be forced to close out and give Dame and CJ even more breathing room to create.

Although he was at one time a consensus top-5 prospect, 24 other teams passed on Little due to the perceived importance of being able to shoot the ball in the modern NBA. I almost feel sorry for them, because they missed out one of the most gifted and hard-working players in the entire draft class.

In just six games, Little has already experienced a meteoric rise from not even being in the rotation to already earning the starting spot for a team notorious for under-utilizing their rookies early on. The Trail Blazers need help anywhere they can get it, and Nassir Little is here to let everyone know he’s ready to take on the spotlight.