Nassir Little, Portland Trail Blazers.
The Portland Trail Blazers continue to tank the 2021-22 season in the hot pursuit of better draft picks. But, thinking about the future, one player already on the roster comes to mind, Nassir Little.
The one and done North Carolina Tar Heel product’s 6’5″ frame makes people think he’s built like a shooting guard. However, Little’s 7’2″ wingspan and bulky 220-pound frame have Blazers fans believing the team might already have their “small forward of the future” question already figured out.
This season has been like watching a plane crash into a train on a sinking ship during a natural disaster. Injuries to star players coupled with a lack of motivation from some veterans left first-year Portland Head Coach Chauncey Billups doing his best MacGyver impersonation. He has to piece together a competitive, motivated team out of third-string players and G-League castoffs.
During that mad dash to get the team back to mediocrity, Portland found a pair of diamonds in the coal mine. One was combo guard Anfernee Simons, who by now has let the Portland Trail Blazers secret out of the bag. He looks to have a long, bright future in Rip City and is likely an eventual All-Star.
Despite stepping up his play this year, the other player who stood out didn’t receive as much praise. However, Portland’s 2019 first-round draft pick, Nassir Little, is a high-energy, athletic, burgeoning defensive stopper. The kind of player every NBA team needs.
A rough start to the Portland Trail Blazers season became even rougher when they had to play without Damian Lillard (core muscle injury) and CJ Mccollum (punctured lung) for an extended period. Simons finally got the chance to start, and so did Nassir Little. Simons began to light up the scoreboard nightly, doing his best Dame impersonation.
When Billups moved small forward Norman Powell to shooting guard, Little got his chance to start as well. He began to emerge as the teams’ best perimeter defender.
Tasked with guarding anyone from opposing point guards to power forwards (or even defending the team’s integrity), Little’s effort on the court became contagious. Center Jusuf Nurkic became consistent again effort-wise. After moving to the bench, Robert Covington seemed to come around defensively. Even CJ Elleby and Simons started to look like capable defenders.
In Littles’ last 12 games, where he played 30 or more minutes, the team went 8-4. So the efforts began to show up in the win-loss column. In January, before his season-ending shoulder injury, Little was tearing it up. He averaged 13.1 points with 5.7 rebounds per game while shooting 40 percent from three-point range. Stats put up while he was the starting small forward for team-winning ball games.
When Nassir Little was drafted, my first impression was that he reminded me of ex-Portland Trail Blazers forward Gerald Wallace. It was the athleticism, the effort, the poor perimeter shooting. But, aside from the shooting issues, I was excited about Little’s potential down the road. It’s no secret that the Blazers struggled to find a solid small forward since the departure of Nicolas Batum.
When Little’s minutes increased in December, he started showing Rip City what he could do. I threw out a Jerome Kersey comparison in a previous article. Not comparing them on talent, but comparing them on their heart. That’s an obvious complement to Little. He’s a player I think Jerome would have appreciated.
Another player who compares to Little is Andre Iguodala. A 6’6″ small forward with a 6’11” wingspan, weighing in at roughly 215-pounds, Iguodala is another high-energy, lockdown defender type. There are some early differences. Andre or “Iggy” played two years in college compared to Little only playing one NCAA season. Iggy also got 30+ minutes a game as a rookie when Nas averaged about 11.
Both players put up similar per 36-minute numbers in their first few seasons despite the differences. Iguodala made a significant jump from his second to third seasons. Little can make a similar jump from his third to fourth seasons, or both players age 23 years. I might be getting ahead of myself, but I think the potential is there.
If Nassir can realize his potential, it would immediately solve one of the two voids in the starting lineup. It might be a best-case scenario; if Nassir comes back improved this fall, he could make the other Portland Trail Blazers’ offseason goal easier.
With small forward handled, the Blazers can focus on finding their long-term answer at power forward. Assets could then be leveraged toward finding the four they so desperately need. Whether it’s combining picks to move up in the draft or packaging them together for trade.
Portland Trail Blazers fans, what do you think about Nassir Little’s potential? Let us know in the comments section below.