Portland Trail Blazers May Have Found New Weapon in Eric Maynor

Time is running out on the Portland Trail Blazers in their bid for an NBA Western Conference playoff spot. The Blazers are saying they need to win at the San Antonio Spurs Friday night but they need to win somewhere every night right now. They’re digging themselves too deep of hole and they’re running out of games.

To get out of that hole, they need every player on the roster to contribute. In Wednesday’s 91-85 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, the Trail Blazers had various players struggle to score and this is not the time of year for that to happen. Everyone needs to have a hot hand of sorts.

The Blazers may have found a hot hand in Eric Maynor. Other Blazers were struggling to score like LaMarcus Aldridge, who was only 2-of-13 from the floor. Maynor, who has been with the Blazers for five games since being traded from Oklahoma City Thunder, has been averaging only 3.2 points but has also averaged 2.3 assists per game, giving him notice as a potential playmaker. He provided further evidence to that on Saturday when he dished out 12 assists against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

But his scoring picked up with 12 points on Wednesday. He played for 25 minutes and was 3-of-5 from the floor and 2-of-3 from 3-point area.

He’s never been that big of a scorer in the NBA, but Maynor also came through against the Charlotte Bobcats earlier in the week with a 10-point performance on 5-of-8 shooting.

He has still been dishing out the ball, but Maynor seems to have gained confidence in his shooting. For Portland’s sake, he needs to develop a hot scoring touch and keep it.