Portland Trail Blazers: 4 Blazer players that had Dennis Rodman-esque performances
ESPN’s The Last Dance has shed light on the importance of having a Dennis Rodman-type player that can dominate a game without scoring. In their history, the Portland Trail Blazers have had a few players worth mentioning themselves.
Much to our dismay, we’ve watched the Portland Trail Blazers run out of a lot of things over the last few years. They’ve run out of gas in must-win Playoff games; they’ve run out of money in free agency; heck, they’ve even run out of players before. But one thing that’s never seemed to go short in the state of Oregon?
Bonafide bucket-makers.
There’s no better way to capture the butt-in-seat objective quicker than finding certified scorers. Even without the Madison Square Garden-level mystique, it’s served as one of the reasons Portland ranks among the tops in attendance year-after-year. And, in each of the last twelve years, the Blazers have had at least one, sometimes two, 20-point scorers in the same season. Over that time, only seven teams have scored more points than them.
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But, as history has proven, the need for players that fit in between the gaps and cover intangibles are what separate fun-to-watch teams from fun-to-watch champions. For every Stephen Curry, a Draymond Green must follow. For every Michael Jordan, a Dennis Rodman must be willing to get grimy and cover the “dirty work.”
In appreciation for both ESPN’s The Last Dance and for players like Dennis Rodman, who’ve become especially important in the analytical era, we’ll take a look at some of the players who’ve done so in limited sample sizes. The stars always get discussed, but we sometimes overlook the box score contributions of the do-it-all non-scorer.
And, just for reference, there’s one question to ask: what is a “Dennis Rodman box score?”
This qualifies as one of those video-game type statlines, in which the player barely scores, but does a bit of everything else. In “The Worm’s” case, from 1996 to 1998, Rodman averaged 5.2 points, 15.3 rebounds, 2.8 assists, impacting the game more than arguably any player in NBA history taking fewer than five shots (just 4.8 attempts per game).
So, today’s lines will look like the following. First, a special shoutout to Chris Dudley, who had three different 0-point, 14-rebound performances, as well as the gritty Buck Williams, who had a 0-point, 13-rebound game in 1992. Without further adieu, let’s take a look.