Robert Covington and Derrick Jones Jr.’s Hidden Impact: Offense
Offensively, Covington and Jones Jr. are definitely more capable than 2019’s Aminu and Harkless duo, even though their box scores so far might not necessarily reflect it. Both are averaging just about 7 points a game and shooting below average from 3-point range, yet the team is averaging an out-of-this-world, 123 points per 100 possessions when they are on the court per cleaning the glass. How are they doing this? For one, the two have only played 14 possessions together all season without one of Damian Lillard or C.J. McCollum on the floor, so they don’t have to do too much heavy-lifting on that end. Second, even though Covington is still searching for his shooting touch, he is a career 35% 3-point shooter who defenses still respect enough to close-out on. When he shoots, more often than not, he draws a big-man out of the paint to contest his look, which gives Enes Kanter or Derrick Jones Jr. a chance to snag an offensive rebound for either an easy put-back opportunity or an extra offensive possession. Kanter (4.1 offensive rebounds per game) and Jones Jr. (1.8 offensive rebounds per game) are among the best offensive rebounders at their respective positions. As you can see in the table below, they have been feasting on stray offensive rebounds all season long.
Take a look at these Kanter and DJJ offensive rebounding numbers... they rank in the 96th and 94th percentiles relative to other players at their respective positions. Awesome stuff @cleantheglass pic.twitter.com/VFNp15ozsS
— Hassan Ladiwala (@ladiwala_hassan) February 17, 2021
Third, while Jones Jr.’s tremendous athleticism plays a large part in his ability to grab offensive rebounds, something I’ve also noticed is that his athleticism forces defenses to stick a defender on him or near him at all times as he is one of the most vicious backdoor lob threats in the league when left unguarded, which provides Damian Lillard with a really unique threat to keep help defenders on their toes.
In the future, I’m excited to see Covington and Jones Jr. become more familiar with the offense and hopefully find their shooting strokes, but in the meantime, it’s hard to ask for anything more from these two effort-wise. It’s easy to forget, but this off-season was especially difficult for all the players that switched teams. Derrick Jones Jr. was playing in the NBA Finals for the Miami Heat just four months ago. Robert Covington was traded for on November 16th. These guys have had to learn new playbooks in a matter of weeks so forgive them if they started the season a little bit slowly and get excited about what these guys can do once they have a few more weeks of playing in the Blazers system under their belts.
Portland is back in action tonight at 9 PM EST, facing Zion Williamson and the New Orleans Pelicans. Go Blazers!