It’s easy to forget that Al-Farouq Aminu was a top-10 pick once upon a time. I guess in a way he still is. There were reasons for why he was drafted that high, real reasons that were really reached by real NBA GMs. Those reasons are gone now. One of them might have been “defense”, but that’s just a total guess. I can also guess that “three-point shooting” wasn’t one of them, because if it was, either they were completely wrong or Aminu regressed hard in that area.
Until now. This year, he’s shooting well over 40 percent from three, taking more of those than twos and shooting better on them as well. A true Blazers fans would be able to tell me why he can’t score from anywhere besides beyond the arc this year. I can’t. Another guess: there’s no Mason Plumlee feeding him open looks any longer. A pretty bad guess, but I’m having trouble coming up with other reasons.