After starting all 82 games last season and 23 times in 2016-17, in need of change Portland Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts moved forward Al-Farouq Aminu to the bench ahead of the team's visit to Philadelphia on January 20. While others could view the switch as a demotion, Aminu has embraced his new role.
The seven-year NBA veteran has averaged 10.7 points in the ten games since moving to the bench, while his three-point shooting percentage has increased to 39% off the bench compared to marks of 7.2 points per game and 25.3% from deep in the 26 games prior. The zenith in "Chief's" improvement came in a season-high 28 points on 8-of-12 shooting in Thursday's loss to Boston. What's more, Aminu's numbers have inflated to an average of 14.7 points on 47.6% shooting from three-point territory over the Blazers' last five games.
"He had it goin'," guard Damian Lillard said of Aminu's performance versus the Celtics.
"He’s played the same, but shots are falling for him," Lillard added. "He’s in a good rhythm, I’d say. His mentality, it’s hard to see a chance because his demeanor is always the same. His production has been at a higher level; he’s in a good rhythm."
"He should be in the Three-Point Contest," CJ McCollum joked upon hearing Aminu's improved numbers. "He comes in here, gets his work in. They do their shooting contest, and I think he’s just finding a rhythm. That’s the biggest thing: find a rhythm, shoot your shot, continue to be aggressive outside of the threes."
Coming off the bench is nothing new for Aminu, who spent time with the LA Clippers, New Orleans Hornets and Dallas Mavericks prior to signing with Portland in the summer of 2015. The Wake Forest product has learned over the years what it takes to be successful in a second unit.
"I came off the bench a lot in my career," said Aminu. "Coming off, you just wanna bring energy, change it up a little bit in the sense of the first unit is just getting out. You wanna make sure you make an impact on the game right when you get in. That’s not always scoring. That’s defense, just doing the right things and different things like that.
"I’ve just taken from what I’ve learned [over the years]," the 26-year-old forward continued. "It’s kinda cool sometimes being a journeyman because you get to do a lot of things in the league.
"I think sometimes, it plays to your advantage."
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With three days between Thursday's loss to Boston and Monday's matchup with Atlanta, the short break has provided the Trail Blazers with a chance to rest and refresh some things on the court in practice.
"We had a really good practice today," Lillard said of Saturday's practice. "It felt good to be out there not learning, but just being able to stop and go over certain things and kinda clear it up. You could feel it being some of the issues we’ve had in the game, so I think it was good to be able to do some live things and be able stop and say ‘No, on this play we need to do this.’"
"It’s always a good time for three days without games," echoed Stotts. "Today, we had about an hour of refreshing our offense and looking some of Atlanta, the things they do and how we wanna cover them. We’ll probably do the same thing tomorrow."
The three-day break is just the second such occurrence in 2016-17 for the Blazers, the first coming in January between win at Boston and a home victory versus the Los Angeles Lakers. Other than upcoming All-Star break, the Blazers won't experience such a period for the rest of the season.
"I’m enjoying this time off, working on some stuff we need to work on," McCollum said. "We don’t get a lot of practice time during the season. It’s good we can focus on that stuff, get some good, hard, competitive practices in with rest days in between."
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While no Portland players were selected to next week's 2017 NBA All-Star Game in New Orleans, McCollum will compete in the Three-Point Contest as part of State Farm All-Star Saturday Night on TNT. The Portland combo guard will compete against the likes of defending champion Klay Thompson of Golden State, Charlotte's Kemba Walker, Dallas' Wesley Matthews, Cleveland guard Kyrie Irving, Houston's Eric Gordon, Toronto guard Kyle Lowry and Nick Young of the Los Angeles Lakers.
Though just a week away, McCollum isn't sweating preparing for the spot-shooting from ball racks just yet.
"If you can shoot, you can shoot," McCollum said. "I’ll probably get some reps on the rack tomorrow. At this point in the season, just trying to get up shots, trying to get game reps is the biggest thing. If you can shoot, you can make shots off the rack."
He added: "I wanna make shots in the game. If I go 0-for-25 in the Three-Point Contest, it doesn’t make me a bad shooter. I’ll make shots. I’ll get one day where I got through [the racks] twice. I’ll go to New Orleans, I got a time scheduled for like 30 minutes where I’ll practice. Other than that, when the lights come on, it’s on."
McCollum recorded 14 points in last year's contest, not enough to advance from the preliminary round. McCollum is shooting 41.2% from deep this season, the third-best percentage in the NBA among players with at least 300 attempts. He's determined to have a better showing this time around.
"I did so poorly last year, hopefully I can have a better performance and not shoot any airballs," said McCollum.
Though he won't be in attendance in New Orleans, McCollum has the confidence of his backcourt mate Lillard.
"That’s my pick," Lillard said of McCollum. "I went last year and watched him, and this time I’m gonna sit this one out.
"I got money on CJ McCollum in the Three-Point Contest."