Dalano Banton

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PHOTOS » A look back at Dalano Banton’s 2023 – 2024 Trail Blazers Season

Portland Trail Blazers

Dalano wears the wire for the final home game of the 2023-24 season.

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Dalano Banton Mic'd Up | Portland Trail Blazers vs. Houston Rockets | April 12

Casey Holdahl

While Dalano Banton’s three-point shooting has become much more dependable since joining the Trail Blazers, his ability to get to the rim and finish has been nearly as impressive, even if it’s a skill that has always been a part of his game.

The 6-8 guard/forward, acquired from Boston at the trade deadline, is shooting 62 percent from the restricted area, 60 percent less than five feet from the basket and 53 percent less than eight feet from the basket this season. Those percentages are actually down a bit from last season, but his ability to put pressure on the defensive by getting into the paint has been a welcomed addition in Portland.

“Coach Chauncey and the coaching staff putting me in positions to be aggressive, play to my strengths,” said Banton, who posted a career-high of 31 points on 13-of-23 shooting in Wednesday night’s loss to the Hawks in Atlanta. “I think it definitely goes a long way for me. Defense collapse, try to make the right play all the time. He always preaches rim decisions and I think that’s a big thing for us going forward to help us with our turnovers is making the right play at the rim.”

Banton doesn’t do anything all that fancy nor complicated, but he does have the ability to take advantage of a defender being even slightly out of position, especially when he’s able to get to his right hand.

“(Banton) does have a knack for it but it’s all set up because he can dribble, he’s got a nice handle,” said Trail Blazes head coach Chauncey Billups. “He does a really good job of using his handle to get a guy to shift a little. And as soon as they shift, he don’t go east and west, it’s straight downhill on them. And he’s so tall and so rangy that by time they figure it out he’s already laying it at the basket. It’s all set up because his handle is really good for his size.”

That combination of size and handle has resulted in Banton getting to the rim with relative ease. And once he’s there, he’s able to elevate and finish, as he did with multiple dunks in the fourth quarter of Wednesday’s loss in Atlanta. Billups and his staff often preach making smart “rim decisions,” something Banton has excelled at in Portland.

“Just trying to play downhill, play to my strengths, the guys encouraging me to be aggressive getting downhill, making space for me, making me play in the funnel. Take the lanes that are there, not trying to force anything,” said Banton. “Coach Chauncey and the coaching staff putting me in positions to be aggressive, play to my strengths. I think it definitely goes a long way for me. Defense collapse, try to make the right play all the time.”

Between his finishing, three-point shooting and creation -- he’s averaging 3.1 assists with the Trail Blazers -- Banton has been one of Portland’s most pleasant surprises since the trade deadline and just the latest reminder that making it in the NBA can be just as much about opportunity as talent.

“Opportunity meeting preparation, I feel like, goes a long way,” said Banton. “Just being able to seize the opportunity. But I feel like I fell into a great spot as well.”

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Dalano Gets Downhill With Help From His Handle

NEW ORLEANS -- Trail Blazers guard Dalano Banton drove to within a few feet of the paint with a little less that nine minutes to play in Saturday night’s 126-107 loss to the Pelicans in New Orleans. But rather than finishing the dribble drive for a layup attempt or a kick out, the bread and butter of his offensive repertoire, the 6-8 guard in his third season out of Nebraska took two huge steps backwards in order to set up a three-pointer, not something you’d necessarily expect from a career 25 percent three-point shooter.

Or at least that’s what he shot prior to joining the Trail Blazers.

But for whatever reason, Banton has found his long-range shooting stroke in Portland since being acquired from the Boston Celtics at the trade deadline. So with an open opportunity after an exaggerated stepback, Banton rose up and made the shot, something he’s been doing with increased regularity as of late.

Banton would finish Saturday’s loss with 28 points, the second-highest scoring output of his career, thanks in part to shooting 4-of-8 from three. The Canadian national is now shooting 39 percent from three in 16 games with the Trail Blazers, a 10 percentage point improvement over his best season shooting from three and a significant uptick from the 13 percent he shot in 24 games with the Boston Celtics this season.

Banton says he hasn’t made any changes to his shot nor his approach to shooting, but those attempts are finding the bottom of the net a lot more frequently these days.

“I feel like, even when I was shooting in Boston, Toronto, previous teams, I feel the same way I do now,” said Banton. “I feel like I’m going to knock it down. Sometimes it wouldn’t go in but I still felt like I’d make it. Just trust the work that you put in. I know how many shots I take per day, I know what I do, I see myself make it. So just try to envision it going in, just being confident.”

The improved shooting is not only helping Banton’s scoring (and by extension, his chances of remaining in the NBA with a team option looming this offseason) but is opening things up for his new teammates.

“Three-point shooting is big in the league right now, so I feel like everybody has to work on that,” said Banton. “Definitely just opening the floor for my teammates, being more of a threat from outside the three-point line, guys have to go over my screens, chase me over the screen. I feel like that comes more with shooting off the dribble, putting in more work. Getting chased off screens definitely gets you downhill a lot more, which is my main strength. That’ll open up lobs and kick outs for other guys.”

While 16 games is probably not a large enough sample size to make any broad declarations about Banton’s shooting, it’s worth nothing that his 29 made threes as a Trail Blazer is just one less than he made in his career as a Raptor and Celtic combined. Granted, he’s taking 4.7 threes per game as a Trail Blazer after averaging just 1.6 threes in his most prolific shooting season, but an increase in attempts is no guarantee of an increase in percentage.

But that percentage has increased, and if he can continue to shoot in the mid-30s from three while also preserving his ability to get to the basket, his value increases considerably from that of a player who was traded to Portland for literally nothing.

It’s hard to pinpoint why Banton has experienced a significant uptick in his three-point accuracy but his theory is having the latitude to miss and still remain in the game, a luxury he might not have had in previous stops, is resulting in more makes.

“With the trust of being able to make a mistake and try again, it goes a long ways for all of us being a very young group, it helps,” said Banton. “Confidence from your teammates goes a long ways. They tell me to shoot it, they want me to shoot it, so once you have that, you’ve just got to put it up and believe in it.”

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Banton Finds His Range After Arriving In Portland

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Dalano Banton Postgame Interview | Portland Trail Blazers 107, Houston Rockets 123

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Dalano Banton Highlights (Career-High 30 PTS) | Trail Blazers vs. Houston Rockets

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Dalano Banton Postgame Interview | Portland Trail Blazers 122, Memphis Grizzlies 92

After spending almost the entire month at home (happy Leap Day to you Gregorians), the Trail Blazers head out to begin March with back-to-back games versus the Grizzlies in Memphis. But before shoving off, had to get yet another edition of The Brief Case podcast, which you can listen and subscribe to below, in the can...

Topics on this, the 81st edition, include...

• Portland's loss to the Heat on Tuesday to finish off a winless month of February

• Staying motivated during a nine-game losing streak

• Deandre Ayton suffering a right hand sprain and the status of Portland's injured players

• Portland's offernsive, defensive and net ratings with a month and a half to go

• The Trail Blazers failing to cover in seven-straight games and the increasingly unlikely prospect of hitting the over on their season win projection

And the show wraps up with an interview with Trail Blazers guard/forward Dalano Banton regarding his first few weeks in Portland, the difference between playing for his former team and his current team, whether a "perfect situation" exists, how he would describe his style of play, growing up in Toronto, the state of basketball in Canada when he was growing up compared to where it's at today, his journey from Rexdale to New England to Western Kentucky to Nebraska and what his hopes are for himself and the Blazers in the last month and a half of the season. Good guy.

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Get To Know Dalano On The Brief Case, Episode 81

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Moda Health

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