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NBA power rankings: With McCollum out, Blazers will need more from Hood

Despite being used primarily as a small forward with the Blazers and Cavaliers, there's evidence that Hood is a better fit at shooting guard.

PORTLAND, Ore. — Now that we know Portland Trail Blazers star shooting guard CJ McCollum will miss at least a week with a left knee strain, it's time to look at how the team will replace his production while he's out.

McCollum will miss three home games, against the Indiana Pacers, Dallas Mavericks and Detroit Pistons, before he's re-evaluated. Whether he misses just the three games or is out for longer, Portland will need to replace McCollum's minutes (34.1 per game), points (21.3) and efficient shooting (46 percent from the field, 38 percent from the 3-point line).

The players who could theoretically pick up most of those minutes are Rodney Hood, Seth Curry and Evan Turner. Jake Layman isn't included because he's played only two percent of his minutes this season at shooting guard.

Let’s start this exercise by ruling out Turner. That move would leave the Blazers’ starting lineup too thin on outside shooting. Best to leave Turner in his role running the offense for the reserve unit.

RELATED: What is a popliteus strain? CJ McCollum's knee injury explained

That leaves Curry and Hood as options to chew up most of those starting minutes while McCollum is out.

The first thing to consider is their size. Curry is 6-foot-2 and 185 pounds, similar to McCollum’s 6-3, 190-pound frame. Hood, at 6-8 and 206 pounds, brings more length and size to the position.

This season, Curry has played the majority of his minutes with the Trail Blazers at shooting guard (68 percent, according to basketball-reference.com), while Hood has played 84 percent of his minutes in Portland at small forward.

Despite being used primarily as a small forward in his short stint with the Blazers and during his 66 games with the Cavaliers the past two seasons, there's evidence that Hood is a better fit at shooting guard, at least on defense. In his first three and a half seasons in the NBA, with the Utah Jazz, Hood played about 80 percent of his minutes at shooting guard.

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On defense, Hood’s height gives him a size advantage against most shooting guards in the NBA. That’s not as true at small forward, because though he’s tall, Hood isn’t very long, with a wingspan of just 6-foot-8.5.

If you look at Hood's advanced stats, he's a better defender at shooting guard than small forward. In every season of his career, he's held opponents to a lower effective field-goal percentage (an advanced analytic that adjusts field goal percentage to include 3-pointers) when playing shooting guard, according to 82games.com.

OPPONENT EFFECTIVE FG% BY POSITION

The same holds true for his defensive rating, with Hood’s teams allowing fewer points per 100 possessions when he plays shooting guard as opposed to small forward.

DEFENSIVE RATING BY POSITION

Starting Hood would give the Blazers more length in their starting five. Hood, Maurice Harkless and Al-Farouq Aminu could switch between shooting guards, small forwards and power forwards effectively.

What about offense? McCollum’s value to the Blazers is on offense, as a high-volume scorer and efficient shooter. At first glance, it appears Curry could best replicate that. He’s shooting 44 percent from the field and the 3-point line. Curry isn’t a high-volume scorer like McCollum, though. He’s averaging just 13.7 points per 36 minutes this season, and the highest per-36 scoring average of his career was the 2016-17 season with the Mavericks, when he averaged 15.9 points per 36 minutes.

Hood is also a good shooter. He’s shooting 45 percent from the field and 39 percent from the 3-point line this season and is a career 37-percent 3-point shooter. Like Curry, he hasn’t been a high-volume scorer this season, averaging just 14.3 points per 36 minutes. But during his career, he’s averaged about 17 points per 36 minutes, including 21.8 in 2017-18 with the Jazz.

Until McCollum returns, the best bet for the Blazers is to start Hood at shooting guard and give Turner and Curry the backup minutes at both guard positions.

Here's a look at how the Trail Blazers fared in the latest batch of NBA power rankings:

ESPN: Blazers rank No. 7 (down 1)

What they wrote: Guard CJ McCollum and the Blazers breathed a sigh of relief when he was diagnosed with a popliteus strain in his left knee. With McCollum out for at least a week, Portland will need some scoring from usual reserve guard Rodney Hood. Hood is averaging 11.3 points and 1.6 made 3-pointers per game in March. The five-year NBA veteran scored a season-high 27 points against Charlotte on March 3. — Marc Spears

NBA.com: Blazers rank No. 7 (down 1)

What they wrote: The Blazers' starting lineup continues to rank near the top of the league in minutes played (both total and per game) and, since the break, has outscored its opponents by 21.2 points per 100 possessions, the best mark among 14 lineups that have played at least 100 post-break minutes. But their bench has struggled to maintain leads (Enes Kanter has had a positive plus-minus in just one of his 11 games with Portland) and they'll be without C.J. McCollum (left knee strain) for at least a week. Considering the alternative, the McCollum diagnosis was good news, but the injury was a reminder that this team has been relatively fortunate health-wise. In the 25 months since the Blazers acquired Jusuf Nurkic from Denver, McCollum, Nurkic and Damian Lillard have missed just four, 11 and 12 games, respectively. — John Schuhmann

CBS Sports: Blazers rank No. 7 (down 1)

Editor's note: The theme of this week's power rankings is "The Big Question," in other words, "what's the one big question that can be answered about each team between now and [the start of the playoffs]?"

What they wrote: The Big Question: Will the Enes Kanter trade come back to bite the Blazers? Because of his poor defense, Kanter has the worst on-off differential on the team. In Kanter's 11 games with the Blazers, they have been outscored by 11.3 points per 100 possessions when he's on the floor, and when he's off the floor, they outscore opponents by 14.6 points per 100 possessions. Since the trade, this team is nearly 25 points per 100 possessions better with Kanter on the bench. Why not less Kanter and more Zach Collins? — Reid Forgrave

Sports Illustrated: Blazers rank No. 9 (down 1)

Editor's note: The theme of this week's power rankings was poetry and poetic moments.

WHAT THEY WROTE

Concerned With the Top

Lurking in the packing

Looking to cause an upset

But cannot get swept

Additional notes

C.J. McCollum has a knee strain that will be re-evaluated in a week, but the injury could have been much worse.

Jusuf Nurkic once had Kobe cuss at him in Bosnian because of course Kobe would do that. — Khadrice Rollins

The Athletic: Blazers rank No. 8 (up 2)

Editor's note: The theme of this week's power rankings was best or biggest moment of the season.

WHAT THEY WROTE

Jason Quick on the Portland Trail Blazers’ moment of the season: It may seem small or insignificant, but a moment that came to define this year’s team came on Nov. 18 at Washington during the first quarter. The Blazers made nine passes in a possession that ended with a Jake Layman 3-pointer. The shot gave the Blazers a 29-12 lead, but came to symbolize the unselfish and fluid style the team for which the team is known.

Harper update: Portland is currently 1.5 games out of the 3-seed, behind the Houston Rockets. Normally, I’d love their chances of breaking through. Their schedule isn’t that tough the rest of the way, and even their four-game road trip is something they can actually sweep. But losing CJ McCollum, even if it’s just for a week, puts enough of a damper on the rest of their regular season that it will be tough to catch Houston. Just focus on getting McCollum back healthy, and hope you can keep OKC away from taking home court advantage in the first-round. Even still, the Blazers should feel pretty good about where they are. — Zach Harper

Jared Cowley writes about the Trail Blazers and other topics for KGW.com. He's also the co-host of the 3-on-3 Blazers podcast (listen here). You can reach him on Twitter @jaredcowley.

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