Portland Trail Blazers: The best (and worst) clutch scorers in the analytics era

The most clutch (and non-clutch) regular season scorers:

Tier I:

— Damian Lillard — 192-of-507 FG, 58-of-195 3P, 259-of-294 FT (763 minutes)
— LaMarcus Aldridge — 144-of-356 FG, 2-of-13 3P, 129-of-174 FT (822 minutes)
— Rasheed Wallace — 117-of-278 FG, 17-of-62 3P, 94-of-135 FT (639 minutes)
— CJ McCollum — 107-of-240 FG, 25-of-68 3P, 86-of-107 FT (445 minutes)
— Brandon Roy — 106-of-232 FG, 14-of-54 3P, 93-of-108 FT (407 minutes)

As likely predicted, these are Portland’s cream of the crop, go-to scorers since the start of the tracking era. At one point or another, each of them had the franchise on their back, taking the bulk of the pressure shots.

Within the year-to-year research, here were three things that were noteworthy:

(1) — You probably don’t need me to tell you, but that Brandon Roy guy was insanely special when it mattered most. His 2008-09 season deserves mention; he ranked No. 7 in clutch points under these parameters, ahead of Most Valuable Player LeBron James, Joe Johnson, Carmelo Anthony — you name it.

(2) — Perhaps we underrated LaMarcus Aldridge’s clutch ability? He had an underrated clutch season in 2014-15. Only five players in the entire NBA — scored more points. And Aldridge did so on a blistering 58.8 percent shooting. He and Mike Conley were the only players in the top 15 to shoot over 50 percent.

(3) — Damian Lillard has the lowest field-goal percentage of these guys, but give him credit for repeatedly taking on the onus for taking on big shot after big shot. He struggled in his first two post-LaMarcus years, but since then, he’s absolutely lived up to the “ice in vein” billing.

Tier II:

— Nicolas Batum — 48-of-122 FG, 27-of-80 3P, 59-of-71 FT (514 minutes)
— Travis Outlaw — 45-of-92 FG, 4-of-14 3P, 35-of-45 FT (240 minutes)
— Arvydas Sabonis — 45-of-105 FG, 3-of-13 3P, 57-of-80 FT (275 minutes)
— Scottie Pippen — 45-of-118 FG, 18-of-57 3P, 48-of-61 FT (305 minutes)
— Derek Anderson — 44-of-106 FG, 16-of-42 3P, 52-of-65 FT (257 minutes)
— Bonzi Wells — 42-of-82 FG, 8-of-18 3P, 33-of-55 FT (219 minutes)

For length’s sake, just a few things to note, here: (1) Younger fans may not remember, but Travis Outlaw was once referred to as “Mr. Fourth Quarter,” for his almost night-to-night ability to put the casket on opposing teams down the stretch. He was a capable No. 2 clutch guy behind Roy in their early years. (2) 2002 Bonzi Wells deserves to be talked about. He led Portland in crunch-time scoring, and did so shooting 54.3 percent from the field and 60.0 percent from 3-point range.

Tier III, IV, and V:

— J.R. Rider — 36-of-96 FG, 9-of-29 3P, 59-of-78 FT (229 minutes)
— Ruben Patterson — 30-of-59 FG, 1-of-5 3P, 21-of-39 FT (194 minutes)
— Jarrett Jack — 28-of-66 FG, 5-of-19 3P, 63-of-75 FT (215 minutes)
— Steve Smith — 26-of-57, 5-of-19 3P, 38-of-43 FT (174 minutes)
— Andre Miller — 25-of-70 FG, 2-of-14 3P, 61-of-71 FT (165 minutes)
— Steve Blake — 25-of-81 FG, 14-of-50 3P, 37-of-55 FT (286 minutes)
— Jusuf Nurkic — 20-of-43 FG, 0-of-0 3P, 16-of-28 FT (135 minutes)
— Al-Farouq Aminu — 20-of-64, 8-of-41 3P, 26-of-32 FT (284 minutes)

— Moe Harkless — 17-of-31 FG, 3-of-5 3P, 13-of-17 FT (190 minutes)
— Juan Dixon — 17-of-45 FG, 3-of-14 3P, 20-of-22 FT (78 minutes)
— Jamal Crawford — 11-of-34 FG, 1-of-11 3P, 13-of-15 FT (61 minutes)

— Hassan Whiteside — 9-of-9 FG, 0-of-0 3P, 9-of-9 FT (37 minutes)
— Raymond Felton — 7-of-23 FG, 3-of-12 3P, 12-of-15 FT (59 minutes)
— Greg Oden — 3-of-8 FG, 0-of-0 3P, 5-of-11 FT (56 minutes)

These are just players who might have wondered about. Shoutout to Juan Dixon, who played the role of the Portland Trail Blazers go-to scorer in 2005-06, which might not be a good thing. More on some of these guys a bit later.