Mason Plumlee’s Top 5 Games With The Portland Trail Blazers
The Portland Trail Blazers dealt away center Mason Plumlee after a season-and-a-half with the franchise. Here’s a look at his five best performances while playing for Rip City.
The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported Sunday afternoon that the Portland Trail Blazers dealt starting center Mason Plumlee and a 2018 2nd Round draft pick to the Denver Nuggets.
ESPN writer Zach Lowe adds that the Blazers also paid $2.85 million cash to Denver as part of the deal.
In exchange, Portland received rising Bosnian center Jusuf Nurkic and a 2017 first-round pick. Denver received that pick from the Cleveland Cavaliers, but it originally belonged to the Memphis Grizzlies.
Prevailing sentiment is that the trade is good for both sides. The Nuggets ship out a young player that was being crowded out by Nikola Jokic (another rising European center), was aware of it, and was outwardly bothered by it.
Related Story: 25 Best Players to Play for the Portland Trail Blazers
In return, they get an all-around center that can score, rebound, and even pass well.
Meanwhile, the Trail Blazers look towards the future by getting a talented center with a lot of upside and a third first-round pick in what has been hyped up as a loaded draft.
Those draft picks will allow them to either pick up three prospects in June or send away a pick or two for another established player that can help the team improve.
Despite the trade’s practicality, Mason Plumlee’s departure was still a surprise to his former Trail Blazers teammates.
Among them, star guard Damian Lillard told Blazers.com‘s Casey Holdahl he was stunned by the trade. He was hoping Mason Plumlee would be a part of the team’s growth.
"“We had a lot of talks and a lot of it was long term, about us just continuing to grow and staying together. I vented to (Plumlee) a lot about what I thought we could do better and what I thought he could do more and he did the same with me. “We had a lot of those conversations and a lot of it went past this year. I’m sure it was sad for him to have to leave. You think you’re going to be a part of something special and then it’s cut short. It’s a tough one.”"
Mason Plumlee very well could have been a solid part of the Blazers’ future. However, it was that all-around talent that made him such a valuable trade piece.
Portland Trail Blazers
Plumlee arrived in Portland via trade on draft night in 2015. He and the draft rights to Pat Connaughton came from Brooklyn in exchange for Steve Blake and the rights to Rondae Hollis-Jefferson.
He played and started in all 147 regular season and playoff games in which he sported a Trail Blazers uniform. Plumlee averaged 9.9 points, 7.8 rebounds, 3.3 assists, and 1.1 blocks per game in the regular season.
He averaged 7.0 points, 11.8 rebounds, 4.8 assists, and 1.0 steals during the 2016 NBA Playoffs.
Some of his best work was pivotal to the team’s success. But we’ll see in this article that it was often overshadowed by gaudier numbers or crazier storylines.
Nearly 20 months later, he is on his way to the Mile High City.
Today, we observe some of Mason Plumlee’s top performances as a Portland Trail Blazer.