Trail Blazers: Undrafted rookies Moses Brown and Jaylen Hoard deserve more playing time

If the Portland Trail Blazers aren’t winning games, there’s no reason not to see what these young prospects can really do when given the chance.

Whether they win or lose, the Portland Trail Blazers seem to always keep things close. Of the 18 games they have played, only two were decided by a margin of less than 15 minutes as most came right down to the wire. This means the duo of undrafted rookies Moses Brown and Jaylen Hoard have only seen the court for a collective 14 minutes.

This is also probably a big mistake.

Hassan Whiteside, Kent Bazemore, Mario Hezonja and Anthony Tolliver headlined Portland’s big summer acquisitions. Yet, all have disappointed to varying degrees. Unexpected contributors like Nassir Little, Skal Labissiere and Gary Trent Jr. have risen up from the end of the bench and made a big difference.

Both former highly touted draft prospects, it’s time the Blazers see what they’ve got with Brown and Hoard as well. Brown was ranked No. 15 in ESPN’s 2018 recruit rankings, with Hoard not far behind at No. 22. They join teammate Little as all former top 25 recruits now on the Trail Blazers.

Hoard played incredibly well in the Las Vegas Summer League, seemingly always in the right place at the right time. He displayed shades of former Blazer Maurice Harkless with his solid defensive skills. Hoard parlayed this momentum into the G League, where he has averaged 18.7 points and 7.7 rebounds on 56.7 percent shooting from the field. He appears to have the tools necessary to immediately become a ‘glue guy’ in the league.

Meanwhile, Brown oozes potential but hasn’t had the opportunity to flash his skills quite yet. He has only played a total of 40 minutes in the Summer League, G League, and NBA combined.

Moses averaged 9.7 points, 8.3 rebounds and 1.9 blocks in just 23.4 minutes played per game during his sole season with UCLA. If he can add a little muscle to his 7-foot-1 frame and improve on his poor shooting form (only 35.2 percent of his free throws in college), Brown has all the intangibles to become a quality NBA player.

But we’ll never know just what we have if we don’t let them play.

And that’s not to say G League and college stats are enough to justify tossing a couple 20-year-olds out there on the court. The NBA is a whole new ball game. But injuries and a poor roster composition have severely hampered this team. Portland’s current frontcourt depth is pathetic, and if we were all seriously going to watch the corpse of Pau Gasol play a dozen minutes a night, I don’t see how letting Brown log a few minutes here and there would hurt anything.

On the other hand, Hoard showed a ton of awareness and overall looked like a much more refined player than Nassir in the Summer League. Considering Little has been a breakout star for the Trail Blazers early on, rolling the dice and offering Hoard more minutes seems like a smart gamble.

Dear Terry Stotts, I sincerely hope you had a wonderful birthday. Now do us a favor and give the fans a present of their own: more minutes for Moses and Jaylen!