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Portland Trail Blazers: Will Gary Trent Jr be their trump card this season?

Add a scintillating 27-point game-winning performance on August 6 against the Denver Nuggets to his list of impressive performances this season, Portland just might have the edge

What is it about Gary Trent Jr? Sheer audacity in the court? Supreme confidence? A cool head to deliver in crunch situations? At this stage, especially after his 27-point performance for the Trail Blazers against Denver Nuggets on August 6, you would have to agree he's pretty much all the above. Leading to the big question — if Gary is actually the trump card for Portland this season?

Safe to say he just might be. Just take a look at what he's done in the last few games. He gave the team a crucial win against the Houston Rockets scoring 16 points and made four of the nine 3-pointers. Prior to that, he was asked to man Ja Morant in overtime that helped in digging a win out against the Grizzlies. When they faced off against the Boston Celtics, there was another performance from the shooting guard although they lost a close game with the final score reading 124-128.

Against the Nuggets, it was a clinical performance where he ably assisted Damian Lillard who perhaps had the game of his life. Overall, it was a day of groundbreaking records for Portland. 23 three-pointers which were a team record. 11 of them by Lillard which tied his own franchise record and 22 for Gary in Orlando which was the most in the bubble. It is fair to say Gary has been Portland's go-to man over the last few games and there's ample proof in the form of positive opinions from NBA fans across on social media. 

"Gary Trent Jr has been absolutely insane these past 4 games. He leads the bubble in 3 point makes with 23 3 pointers Can’t believe he slid to the 2nd round of the draft in 2018," was one of the comments on Twitter during the Nuggets-Trail Blazers game.

Lillard had just the thing Portland fans wanted to hear when he spoke of Gary's performance. "I'm very impressed. It seems like he makes every shot that he shoots. Every time he's going up, I'm like 100% confident it's going in," he said talking post-game. His performance already stirred a debate among fans where they hoped the Los Angeles Lakers wouldn't run into the Trail Blazers in the first round.

"The Lakers absolutely DO NOT want to play the Blazers in the first round. With the emergency of Gary Trent Jr, they have tons of shooting, and Dame and CJ are obvious problems. But the most important thing is, the Blazers have the size to match up with the Lakers. #Blazers #Lakers," one of the fans wrote. And in a way, most of us are inclined to agree, especially while watching an average performance by the Lakers against the Rockets (74-19 at the time of writing) in the absence of LeBron James sitting out due to a groin injury.

That said, Gary's courageous and rugged play is definitely what the Trail Blazers will be looking for when they take on the Los Angeles Clippers next.