Plenty of reasons for excitement in Portland

4. Zach Collins

The Portland Trail Blazers let their starting power forward from the last few years, Al-Farouq Aminu, walk in free agency and they wouldn’t have done that if they didn’t feel confident enough that Zach Collins is ready to take a leap going into his third season in the league.

Collins will still be just 21 years old when the season starts, but he should be ready to be a meaningful contributor for the team. He will start the season at power forward alongside Hassan Whiteside and then eventually will play along Jusuf Nurkic as well.

Collins is extremely talented on both ends of the floor, and his 7’0″, 236-pound frame makes him hard to deal with. He can score down low with post moves, from the mid-range and space the floor with his 3-point shot. Collins has good feet, moves well, runs the floor in transition and makes smart basketball decisions.

On the offensive end, Collins makes life easier for the guards and should become one of the more deadly pick-and-pop/pick-and-roll big men in league with Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum and Anfernee Simons.

On defense, Collins can body up bigger guys down low and bang around for rebounds. He also has the rare ability for a big guy to switch onto guards out on the wing and not get exposed. Collins loves to block shots. He will challenge anyone at the rim and will also run hard to chase down guys from behind and attempt to contest their dunk or layup.

This aggressiveness is what makes Collins who he is and makes him a fan favorite. However, he has to calm down a bit with it because he has a reputation for picking up cheap fouls and that limits him from being on the floor and contributing.

The Blazers traded up into the top 10 in the 2017 NBA Draft for him and after a couple of years of growing his game and showing plenty of flashes of what he can do during the regular season and playoffs, it’s time for Collins to have his breakout season.