Assessing the Portland Trail Blazers options at small forward

Small forward option number three – Jaylen Hoard

Two-way player Jaylen Hoard may be a break-glass option for the Blazers, but he is the only player with prototypical NBA size. At six-foot-eight and 216 pounds, Hoard is a tall, lean slasher, who although he is raw, is a good long-term investment on a two-way deal or potentially a minimum in the summer.

Hoard only played 100 NBA minutes this season after one year at Wake Forest. It’s hard to gauge his impact from these 100 minutes, but as a forward, in the G-League, he was great as a slasher and rebounder. Like Little, his shooting hasn’t developed yet, but he has a similar ceiling as a defender.

Though we haven’t seen a lot of Hoard on the court, if Melo or Gary Trent Jr were to go down, Hoard would likely be required to play serious minutes.

His rebounding, size, and athleticism would be great for the team, even without the required spacing that usually comes with playing the three. Maybe when a stretch option like Collins is at the five, Hoard will fit in nicely. But if he were with Hassan Whiteside at the five and then Jusuf Nurkic at the four, the team spacing would be terrible.

Hoard will likely only play garbage time unless there is an injury to Trent Jr or Melo.