There weren’t very high expectations when the Portland Trail Blazers signed Chris Kaman this off season. Could you blame any Trail Blazers fan if they didn’t get excited when it was announced that Kaman had taken his talents to Portland?
It’s not exactly a high profile signing, especially with Kaman coming off of a season where he had long stretches of the season riding the pine on an absolutely horrid Lakers team. Thankfully, Kaman has been one of the very best players to have coming off of the bench this year.
It’s a little bit hard to remember that Chris Kaman was, at one point, an All-Star. There was a point in time where Kaman was putting up offensive numbers similar to those of Dwight Howard, as he had seasons where he would averaged 18 points and nine rebounds.
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That’s not to say that Kaman was ever as good as Howard. For one, Kaman was never a defensive anchor for any team. Apples and oranges. The point of this being that Chris Kaman was once considered a top center in the NBA. Granted that was a very long time ago.
However, it is looking like he has found a little bit of that production with Portland. It certainly is refreshing to finally have a bench player who can come in and get the job done, especially with how bad the bench has been over the past few seasons.
Kaman likely won’t be an All-Star ever again. And that’s perfectly fine, because Kaman might be able to contend for another prestigious award: the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award.
The award has been notoriously stacked towards guards, as the last center to win the award was Cliff Robinson way back in 1992-93, fittingly enough, with the Portland Trail Blazers. Since then, no other center has won it, with guards winning it 13 times out of 20.
I bring this up to point out that history is stacked against Kaman. He may need to produce even better numbers to edge out the Nick Young‘s and the Jamal Crawford‘s of the NBA. Averages of 10.4 points and 6.8 rebounds per game is great production, but it certainly isn’t as flashy or eye popping as what Crawford puts up on a yearly basis.
Even though Kaman has been an absolute revelation off of the bench, it likely won’t be enough to win the award. Simply put, he doesn’t play enough minutes to be able to edge out all of the other candidates for that award.
Jamal Crawford, who was last seasons winner, played more than 30 minutes a game and averaged over 18 points per game. Clearly, Kaman’s 19 minutes per game won’t let him surpass Crawford in terms of production, even if Kaman ends up having better Per 36 Minutes numbers and advanced numbers.
There’s simply too much raw production from other players for him to surpass in 19 minutes.
As good as Kaman has been, it’s a bit disappointing that it’s looking like he won’t be able to win the Sixth Man of the Year award. He is playing some of the best basketball he has played in years and it’s paying off for Portland, who has exploded out of the gates to start the seasons.
In the end, personal achievements aren’t as big as team achievements and I’m sure Chris Kaman is well aware of that.