Portland Trail Blazers: Should they sell high on Shabazz Napier?
By Ty Delbridge
Shabazz Napier has been making headlines in Rip City with his recent good play. Should the Portland Trail Blazers sell high on him?
Shabazz Napier is having his best season in the NBA this year. The fourth-year guard out of UCONN is playing 20 minutes a game and averaging 9.5 points, 2.3 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.3 steals per game. Napier is shooting 41 percent from 3-point range and 48 percent from the field.
He has been the backup all season but lately had to step up his game with some injuries to starting point guard Damian Lillard. Lillard missed five games from Dec. 22-Jan. 1 with a hamstring injury. Napier started four of those five games. In the one game he didn’t start, he played 37 minutes.
For those five games, Napier averaged 18.0 points, 5.0 assists, 4.6 rebounds and 2.2 steals in 36.7 minutes per game, shooting 36 percent from 3 and 42 percent from the field.
Damian Lillard came back for two games and then was a late scratch from the San Antonio Spurs game on Sunday with a calf strain, so Napier was called upon to start his fifth game of the season.
He did not disappoint, as he led the Blazers to a double-digit comeback win. He played 33 minutes, had 15 points, seven assists, five rebounds, two steals and one block. Napier had some flashy assists and crafty finishes in this game and had some fans wondering just for one night who the All-Star was on this team.
Napier plays so well when he gets the opportunity he helps the Blazers not miss a beat on offense with Lillard out. It’s also no question that he is a better defender than Lillard and C.J. McCollum.
He is a gnat on defense and always seems to be wherever the ball is. Napier has eight games with three steals and six games with two steals this year. He can finish at the rim, pull up in the mid-range, knock down 3s and make plays for his teammates.
He knows how to be a leader and how to win. Bazz led his seventh-seeded UCONN basketball team to a national championship in 2014. There was a reason he was LeBron James‘s favorite player coming out of the 2014 NBA Draft.
Napier is a high IQ basketball player with a lot of skill and really helps the Blazers in a ton of ways, but the question now stands: Should they trade him and cash in on his current, all-time high value?