The Portland Trail Blazers have at least made a few of their intentions during the NBA Draft transparent, but in regards to free agency, they’ve been mostly tight-lipped. There’s no reputable link between the Blazers and smooth-shooting Spurs guard Bryn Forbes, but given what we know about Neil Olshey and the front office’s affinity with undersized guards who can score points in bunches, it’s wise to cover tracks.
During my nine-month tenure covering the San Antonio Spurs for HoopsHabit, I unofficially had two jobs: covering the Spurs, of course, and working to find creative ways to present Bryn Forbes in a positive light, something other Spurs observers — and raw statistics — weren’t go willing to do.
To a degree, that’s understandable. Out of 624 players, Forbes took the No. 616 spot in defensive points saved, and 612th in D-PIPM. And, as John Hollinger of The Athletic noted, Forbes finished 2019-20 without a single dunk or a block. So, we’re talking historic levels of aversion to doing anything outside of scoring.
So, you can imagine the point of contention among Spurs fans and Gregg Popovich, with him ranking No. 3 in minutes heading into the Orlando bubble, ahead of Derrick White, Dejounte Murray, and Keldon Johnson, right?
That negativity aside, there’s absolutely a place for Forbes in this league; it’s easy to forget how brilliant an offensive weapon he can be when he’s not. There may even be a place on a championship-contending team even, so long as that team has the players capable of covering his defensive shortcomings — in other words, teams not named the Portland Trail Blazers.
When Forbes is at the top of his game, you know it. Once he puts on his defiant scowl and breathes that warmth into his hands, he’s a surefire threat for a nightly 20-point outing. But the Blazers would likely be wise to steer clear of a guard with an 18.5 usage rate, and 1.7 assists per game to show for it.