Wesley Matthews, Portland Trailblazers – Wesley Matthews started his NBA career with the Utah Jazz after going undrafted in the 2009 NBA Draft. Throughout his career, Matthews has been a very solid shooting guard, but has never been in the discussion as one of the better two-guards in the league. Each season, Matthews has steadily improved. Last season, Matthews averaged 16.4 points, 3.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 0.9 steals per game, and shot 44.1 percent from the field and 39.3 percent from beyond-the-arc. While everyone acknowledges Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson as the best shooting backcourt in the league, the fact is that Matthews, alongside Damian Lillard, were not that far behind the Splash Brothers. Matthews is also an underrated defender. While he may not be a lock-down defender like Tony Allen, he is a tough competitor and takes each defensive assignment as a personal challenge. And while Matthews stands at just 6’5, he is strong enough to switch onto small forwards and hold his own periodically. Matthews may not be the flashiest shooting guard in the NBA, but he is rock solid and is a big reason why the Portland Trailblazers were one of the surprise teams of last season. http://www.basketballinsiders.com/the-nbas-most-underrated-shooting-guards/
Looking at the numbers it is way closer than I would have thought as well. Wes had very comparable numbers to Klay, Klay just took more shots. Impressive, hopefully this gives Wes some love from the people that think he is where we can upgrade our starting line-up. I always thought that Klay was one of the few guys that I would replace Wes with and now its much closer than I thought. Thanks for the info Sly, repped.
I actually think it's better that Wes is overlooked. It seems he plays the underdog well. That's why I think Wes and Lillard are so compatible because they both love to prove everyone wrong.
Remember that cat from Houston who got a max contract from Dallas this offseason? Matthews' stats from last year are quite comparable to his. I don't see us being able to keep him past this year.
What surprises me about Wes is how poor his rebounding numbers are. For his size and his bulk, he should be averaging at least five a game.
Yeah that's one of the numbers I would like to see him improve on. Then again, he's doing a lot of 3 point shooting and usually assigned to the other teams scoring perimeter player. I would think the energy spent on defending the perimeter is more important than rebounding. Our team was still the best rebounding team in the league last season.
Which should be considered in that we have good rebounders at every position including Dame. So there are only so many to go around and it may be by design for him to get out on the break more often than rebound
And that's really what's important. If we are the best rebounding team, the individual stats aren't as important IMO. The key to winning games are doing all those things "hustle stats" better than the other team. We may not win all the games, being able to out rebound them, we have a much better shot.
I'd like to see our transition defense improve by A LOT, so I'd be happy to cede guards offensive rebounding at least. Yes, I'd like to see Wes do a little better at defensive rebounding.
Not to mention Wes is always one of the first guys out in transition. Remember he was the one who tossed the alley oop to Barton after the TRob block on Brewer!
Well if C.J. is a good as advertised he will have Mathews starting job in a few seasons or less and you see how much value Wes has?
I think Monta Ellis might be the most underrated SGs in the game. You can not like his shot selection/shooting percentage all you want, but he gets it done!
