Portland Trail Blazers: Zach Collins has ‘terrible’ Summer League debuts

Here’s how the NBA world reacted to Zach Collins’ 2017 Las Vegas Summer League debut with the Portland Trail Blazers.

When it comes to the NBA Draft, being selected in the lottery tends to warrant rather lofty expectations, so it’s no surprise that Portland Trail Blazers fans have continued to keep a close eye on 10th overall pick Zach Collins throughout his rookie offseason.

In his first preliminary game of the 2017 Las Vegas Summer League on Saturday, Collins finished with 10 points, seven rebounds, one assist, four blocks, two steals, six turnovers and three fouls in a 72-63 victory over the Utah Jazz. He shot 3-of-13 from the field, 1-of-4 from behind the arc, and 3-of-4 from the free throw line.

Collins displayed brilliant footwork all game long, proving to be incredibly coordinated and fundamental for his size. He rolls off his screens well and constantly looks to seal his man, and he shows a willingness to share the ball and hit the cutter.

He had some solid sequences on the other end as well, showing great instincts as a rim protector and a high-post defender. In addition, he was pretty solid when hedging the pick-and-roll and looked impressively quick when forced to recover, and he did a great job staying vertical and out of foul trouble.

There were some question marks about Collins’ physicality and strength going into the draft, and it definitely showed in Saturday’s Summer League game against the Jazz big men.

Collins proved unable to back his defender down in the low post throughout the entire game, and he constantly lost the ball while working in traffic. In fact, Collins almost seemed to bounce off defenders like a pebble being thrown against a brick wall, and he noticeably looked to be out of breath in the second half.

To his credit, however, Collins continued to fight until the final buzzer, regaining his composure in the final minutes of the game.

Of course, it doesn’t help that Collins has drawn comparisons to underwhelming Blazers big man, Meyers Leonard, and it definitely doesn’t help that Collins was outplayed by Portland’s 26th overall pick, Caleb Swanigan. Swanigan recorded a double-double and has quickly established himself as a new fan favorite.

But as underwhelming as he was Saturday, Collins did end up showing some flashes both early and late in the game, and there’s really no where else to go but up. Plus, Leonard apparently treated Collins out to dinner after the game, so it couldn’t have been all that bad of a debut for the Rip City rookie.

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Collins and the Blazers played their next Summer League game Sunday against the Boston Celtics, and the rookie wasn’t much better, finishing with only five points, six rebounds, three steals, two blocks and four fouls in 29 minutes, going 1-for-7 in the process.