Portland Trail Blazers: Four worst things from this season

3. The Rodney Hood injury

The injury to Rodney Hood sums up the Blazers season. He was starting to feel comfortable with the team in his second season before he was stopped with a torn left Achilles.

Hood was starting to figure out the Blazers system and his place in it. Last season Hood averaged 9.6 points, 1.7 rebounds, 1.3 assists, and 0.8 steals per game. His slash line was 45.2/34.5/80.5 which is pretty good for a player who came in late via trade, playing 27 games.

This season in his 21 games Hood averaged 11.0 points, 3.4 rebounds, 1.5 assists, and 0.8 steals. His offensive efficiency is what catches the eye looking at his numbers with an efficiency line of 50.6/49.3/77.8.

Hood took 3.4 of his 8.2 shot attempts from beyond the arc this season. His shot simply had to be respected considering that he made almost half his attempts from deep. The Trail Blazers needed a healthy Rodney Hood to be successful.

When Hood had 14 points or more the Trail Blazers were 5-2. Interestingly the two losses were when Hood shouldered too much of the scoring load, scoring 25 points each time. The magic number for Hood and the Blazers was between 14 and 20.

Unfortunately, Hood’s injury took away what might have been.