Although his tenure as a member of the Portland Trail Blazers has been relatively short, it’s easy to see why Rodney Hood loves calling Rip City home.
Last year, the Portland Trail Blazers immensely benefited from the sharpshooting ability of Seth Curry, who drilled 45 percent of his shots from deep and helped stretch the offense in crucial moments. This year, it appears Rodney Hood has stepped up as the dependable sniper on the team.
Over the offseason, we were very vocal about Portland’s need to address the lack of shooting on their roster. After all, only Curry, Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum, and Meyers Leonard completed more than 34.5 percent of their attempts last season. With Curry and Leonard gone, someone was going to have to step up to the job.
However, no one could have predicted this radical of an improvement from Hood, whose previous career average from beyond the arc sat at 36.7 percent. This year, Rodney is driving home a ridiculous 50.8 percent of his 3-point shots.
That mark comes on a fair sample size of 3.6 attempts per game (33-for-65 on the season), and is good for the second best of any player in the NBA. Only Marcus Morris of the New York Knicks has hit them at a higher rate — but his positional advantage and 36 percent career average probably indicate he’s due to regress at some point.
Hood appears liable to get hot on any given night, and never over-steps his boundaries on the night’s his shot is failing him. In the 18 games Hood has played, he has scored at least 16 points on six occasions. On the other twelve games, he has only attempted more than 10 field goals once.
The Trail Blazers have long been waiting for an offensive spark plug that knows his role and can help take the load of Dame and CJ, and Hood appears to be that exact player.
Currently, the Trail Blazers boast four plus shooters in the starting lineup. Between Lillard, McCollum, Hood and Carmelo Anthony, this roster composition looks entirely different than what we’ve had in recent seasons with Maurice Harkless and Al-Farouq Aminu on the perimeter.
Since Carmelo has joined the team, Hood’s shooting has only improved. He has made 52.6 percent of his 3-pointers since Anthony started suiting up, indicating Melo’s presence has had a positive residual effect on Portland’s shooters.
This roster experienced some trials and tribulations fighting through injuries and roster to start the season, but have since been on fire. Portland has scored an average of 118.6 points per game over the course of their last five. That number would be good for second best in the NBA if extrapolated across the entire season so far.
Of course, a five game sample size is a bit shallow, but it’s clear as day to see the improvements this team has made as of late. If players like Rodney Hood can keep stepping up when it counts, the Trail Blazers will continue to pile on wins and get back into the playoff picture.