The good, bad and nerdy from the Portland Trail Blazers over the last week

GOOD: NAPIER BELONGS

CJ McCollum understands what Shabazz Napier has experienced in the first three-plus seasons of his career. The Blazers reserve guard has put in hours of hard work and commitment behind the scenes only to show up on game days and rarely get off the bench.

"I know what it's like to be good enough to play and not play," McCollum said explaining the patience required to develop while stuck outside of the rotation.

It's a feeling Napier, who played sparingly in Miami, Orlando and Portland during his first three NBA seasons, is all too familiar with.

"I've been in this league for four years now and every year has been the same," Napier said. "I unwantedly became accustomed to it. But at the end of the day, I always felt like just be prepared for 48 minutes and if you get called, you get called."

After playing spot minutes in the 10 games of the season, Napier's name has been regularly called in the Blazers' last four games. He's averaging 20.2 minutes per game of his last four contests after playing more than 20 minutes in just four games all last season.

"It's always great to get an opportunity to go out there and play. And I think I did improve a lot in the offseason," said Napier, who's averaging 12.5 points on 60 percent shooting in his last four games. "I worked my tail off."

Napier's teammates have known him to be a talented and fierce competitor since the moment he arrived in Portland. Damian Lillard said he saw it in the first day of training camp last season and McCollum says it's always been obvious in practice and pick up games over the past two years.

But the opportunity for Napier in Portland is always going to be a challenge with Lillard, McCollum and Evan Turner soaking up nearly all of the minutes as the primary ball handlers. It's a difficult equation for Terry Stotts to find minutes for Napier without going to a super small lineup or sitting his stars for extended stretches.

But Stotts has tinkered with his rotation and given Napier more minutes over the past week. His outside shooting and high-energy defense against quicker guards makes him a solid fit next to Lillard and McCollum in certain matchups. He's been a spark off the bench on both sides of the floor as the Blazers have outscored opponents by 10.2 points per 100 possessions with him in the game, second best net rating on the team. He appears to have carved out a meaningful spot in the rotation after three full years of waiting his turn with three different teams.

When pushed Napier clings tighter to his preferred cliche of "staying ready for 48 minutes", but it looks like he might have earned a consistent 20 in the last week.

BAD: ASSISTS

Through the first 14 games of the seasons the Blazers sport a fairly pedestrian offense. They are 16th in the NBA in offensive rating, scoring 104.5 points per 100 possessions, according to NBA.com.

Part of their offensive issues can be tied to the team's assist numbers. The Blazers are averaging 18.9 assists per game, the second fewest in the league ahead of only the Phoenix Suns (17.9). Nearly half of the Blazers field goals (49.9 percent) are unassisted, the third worst rate in the league.

Personnel plays a part in theses numbers. Dumping the ball into Jusuf Nurkic to do work in the post is unlikely to yield a ton of assists and McCollum, while hyper-efficient, usually finds his rhythm by using a few dribbles, which kills his teammates' assist numbers. Throw in a few pull-up jumpers from Lillard and Evan Turner and the assist totals make some sense.

Even last season, when the Blazers were a borderline top 10 offense, they still ranked in the bottom half of the league in assists per game and 26th in percentage of field goals that were assisted. The low assist numbers are part identity and part symptomatic of an offense that isn't quite clicking.

Portland's offense has struggled the most this season when teams have coaxed the Blazers into isolation heavy one-on-one play. Last Friday, the Brooklyn Nets' small ball lineup completely flummoxed the Blazers into abandoning their flow offense in favor of attacking one-on-one. Portland had just four assists in the second half against Brooklyn en route to their worst performance of the season.

This team won't lead the league in assists, but more ball movement could unlock an offense that hasn't been as sharp as most expected.

NERDY: NO DAME, NO CJ

For the last two seasons, Stotts has done his absolute best to keep either Lillard or McCollum on the floor at all times. According to nbawowy.com, in 2016-17 Lillard and McCollum were on the bench for 149 of about 3,650 possible minutes, excluding games where Lillard was injured or both players rested. If Stotts could have one of his star guards in the game, he did.

"To take it a step further, basically it's been five years," Stotts said. "Because my first three years either LaMarcus (Aldridge) or Damian was on the court. It's been something we stuck with for a long time."

Yet over the last two games, Stotts has bucked that trend, voluntarily rolling out a Lillard-McCollum-less lineup. In effort to get Napier on the floor more and let the second unit play without differing to the team's star players, Stotts has experimented with an all-reserves group of Napier, Turner, Pat Connaughton, Noah Vonleh and Ed Davis for just over 12 minutes in the past two games.

"A lot of times guys will look to Dame and CJ," Napier said. "Not parental like 'Oh is he going to let me shoot?' But more so like, 'Should I do this or should I do that?' Instead of just freely playing without thinking about it."

When that group was freed up against Denver on Monday, the all-bench unit extended a four-point lead to 14 in the second quarter, tilting the game in Portland's favor with the starters on the bench. Stotts might not stick with an all-bench unit in every game, but so far that group has outscored the opposition by 9 points in limited action, giving him more leeway to experiment with lineups that don't feature Lillard or McCollum.

-- Mike Richman

mrichman@oregonian.com

@mikegrich