Portland Trail Blazers: 5 takeaways from 2017-18 NBA season

5. The Blazers need another small forward that can shoot 3-pointers

The Blazers sorely missed Allen Crabbe‘s 3-point shooting in 2017-18. In 2016-17, Crabbe was the second-best long-distance shooter in the NBA, knocking down 44.4 percent of his attempts. Portland dealt Crabbe to the Brooklyn Nets in July for Andrew Nicholson. They waived Nicholson days later for cap relief.

Portland attempted to fill the gap by giving Pat Connaughton a bigger role and having other rotation players take more outside shots. For instance, Al-Farouq Aminu increased his 3-point attempts by 1.4 per game, while Damian Lillard shot 0.9 more.

However, it wasn’t the same. The Blazers offense took a hit as a result. Portland’s offensive rating dropped from 107.8 (11th in the NBA) to 106.1 (16th) between 2016-17 and 2017-18. Their 3-point percentage dropped from 37.5 percent (sixth) to 36.6 percent (11th) over that span.

Maurice Harkless came the closest to filling Crabbe’s role in 2017-18, going 41.5 percent from beyond the arc. Unfortunately, there was a limit to his effectiveness. Harkless only played 59 games and put up 118 attempts in 2018. By comparison, Crabbe managed to play 79 games and take 302 3-point shots in 2017.

Additionally, inconsistency sidetracked Harkless’ season at the beginning while left knee surgery did him in at the end. He missed the final nine games of the season and played only two games in the playoffs. Harkless went 2-for-6 from deep in both games. That left Evan Turner to play the 3 in his absence — a player who shot 31.8 percent from outside this year and went 1-for-7 in the playoffs.

In Portland’s offense, it’s important to have reliable outside shooters. Having them allows the floor to open up so that Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum have more room to operate. Hopefully the front office can find someone else this summer that can help Harkless fill that role.