Portland's Playoff Hopes

Wesley Matthews went down. Not long before that Arron Afflalo was involved in a trade that sent him to Portland. Okay, we have Afflalo to start. The only thing is, what will they do in the Playoffs. Arron Afflalo is no Wesley Matthews. He is simply not as great as Wesley Matthews. Lets take a look at what Matthews brought to this Portland team.

Wesley Matthews

• 15.9 PPG
• 44.8% FG
• 38.8% 3 point range
• 2.9 3 point makes per game
• 1.3 Steals per game
• 1.4 Turnovers Per Game
• 2.3 ASP
• 3.7 RPG
• Defensive Rating (points allowed per 100 possessions) 99.4
• +4.6 on the court

Arron Afflalo

• 13.6 PPG
• 42.6% FG
• 35.0% 3 Point Range
• 1.5 3 point makes per game
• 0.5 Steals per game
• 1.6 Turnovers Per game
• 1.7 APG
• 3.2 RPG
• Defensive Rating (points allowed per 100 possessions) 105.7
• +2.3 on the court

Wesley Matthews leads in all of those categorizes. Look at the +/- advantage. Matthews has double than Afflalo does with the Trailblazers. The teams defense is better with Matthews and they give up more points with Afflalo. I'm not saying Afflalo is a bad player. I love Afflalo, but he is just not as good of a player as Wesley Matthews. I think that Portland's playoff hopes have really been lost since Matthews went down. Afflalo is a great player, and Portland has Damian Lillard and LeMarcus Aldridge, but Wesley Matthews is the player that made this team so great. Now he's not here. How will they win in the playoffs without him?