The 2025-26 NBA season saw the Portland Trail Blazers emerge from the basement of the Western Conference and make the Playoffs for the first time since 2021. The excellent year did showcase a few different weaknesses of the roster, however, the biggest one being shooting. So it was a match made in heaven when the Blazers brought in sharpshooter Vit Krejci from the Atlanta Hawks at the trade deadline. Right?
Krejci was enjoying his third straight season shooting above 40% from behind the arc. He was a great
shooter off the bench, and even got a handful of starts in Atlanta. And then he was traded to Portland. How did he do after the trade deadline? Let’s take a look at Krejci’s year representing Rip City.
Season Stats
Stats shown are for Krecji’s time in Portland.
- Minutes: 19.2
- Points: 7.2
- Rebounds: 2.7
- Assists: 1.7
- FG: 40.5%
- 3PT: 30.3%
- Blocks: 0.3
- Steals: 0.5
- Turnovers: 0.6
Other Stats
Krejci played in just 19 games as a Blazer this season. He saw his minutes decrease as the season wound down, then found himself out of the rotation almost entirely in the playoffs. The reason he was acquired from Atlanta was for his shooting, which would have helped a near league-worst Portland team get some much needed help. However, as soon as he left the Hawks, his shot ran cold.
In Atlanta this season, Krejci shot 42.3% from three and made 2.2 of his 5.2 attempts from deep per game. In Portland those numbers dropped to just 30.3% from three and 1.4 made threes per game, despite still shooting 4.7 attempts from behind the arc.
His numbers were down across the board as soon as he got traded. And as for why he eventually fell out of the rotation? Well, what do you do with a shooter who can’t shoot.
Change Year-Over-Year
- Krejci made a name for himself as a sharpshooter in the NBA. He shot 43.7% from deep in the 2024-25 season. As mentioned before, that number dramatically decreased with the Blazers.
- In the 2024-25 NBA season Krejci averaged 2.7 assists per game, compared to 1.7 per game with Portland. The Blazers had an abundance of ball-handlers in Jrue Holiday, Deni Avdija and Scoot Henderson, allowing Krejci to play almost entirely off the ball. That was the main contributor to his decrease in assists, but he was still able to find the open man when tasked.
- Most of Krejci’s other stats stayed roughly the same this season. Well, except any of the ones tied to shooting (true shooting? eFG%? You name it, it’s down). He’s a specialist player who is tasked with being a catch-and-shoot threat and not much else. However, he was unable to reliably do that this year. He shot just 29.6% on his catch-and-shoot three point attempts, compared to a 45.6% mark last season.
Analysis
On paper, the trade for Vit Krejci seemed like a match made in heaven. Two second-round picks and Duop Reath, who had suffered a season-ending injury, is not a high price either. Being able to improve the spacing of a team that ranked near the bottom of the NBA was a no-brainer move. However, that’s not how it worked out. Krejci was frustrating to watch, then missed extended time with injury.
During the playoffs, Krejci played just 14 minutes over two games of Portland’s five-game series loss to the San Antonio Spurs. Despite the slump he had been experiencing throughout his time as a Blazer, I found myself asking why he wasn’t on the court throughout the series. San Antonio clearly outmatched the Blazers, but Portland found themselves close in a couple of the games as a scrappy underdog. Why not bet on a shooter getting hot at the right time to steal a game from a heavily favored team?
Despite not being able to find his shot, Krejci had to be respected as a flamethrower. He did provide some spacing by not allowing his man to sag off, he just struggled to punish defenders on the occasions that they did.
If Krejci is able to find his shot again, he would be the perfect complement to Portland’s existing offensive identity, and for that reason he has a lot of value for the Blazers. Which leads us to:
Future Outlook
Krejci is under contract for next season, and has a team option for the 2027-28 NBA season. That means, barring a trade, he will be in town for at least one more year. Some regression to the mean is expected going forward, as Krejci has a much larger sample size as a good shooter than a bad one. However, he will have to earn his spot in the rotation back after expected improvements across the roster.
Assuming Krejci is a lot more like the player he has been over the first four and a half years of his career than the player he was for the final 19 games this season, his shooting will be a major benefit for the Blazers next season. The offensive gameplan for the Blazers sees them shoot a lot of threes. However, their personnel is lacking for shooters who can make shots from deep at a high clip. Krejci, along with adding Damian Lillard back to the equation, can help change that next season.
