The Portland Trail Blazers got sad news last night, as bench guard Vit Krejci fractured his lower leg in a game against the Phoenix Suns. Krejci was making his seventh appearance of the season, averaging just 10 minutes per game. Those numbers are a bit below what was forecast when Portland traded Duop Reath and a couple of second-round picks for him in February of this year. In fact, due to injuries and a generally low place in the rotation, Krejci has only played 26 games for the Blazers total
in five months of in-season action since joining the Blazers.
Interestingly enough, this question from the Blazer’s Edge Mailbag was scheduled to reach the docket before Krejci’s injury. Let’s tackle it as we wish Vit well and a speedy recovery.
Hi Dave!
I think it’s fair to say Vit has been underwhelming in a Blazers uniform. I kept hearing his amazing 3pt percentage when we brought him in and was excited to have some more firepower off the bench. However, with his subpar shooting, I thought that maybe he’d just had a good shooting year on low usage and that he was over hyped. So I looked it up and he was not over hyped! He averaged 20 minutes and around 40% 3pt shooting on around 4 attempts per game over 4 years before coming to Portland!
When he first struggled here, I thought he just needed time to adjust. But now it’s been 25 games in a Blazer uniform where he is averaging something around 25% from 3. How does someone’s shooting just drop off a cliff like that?
Noah
You’re not lying. Krejci has a career average of 38.9% from the three-point arc. His peak season came in 2024-25 when he shot 43.7% from distance over 57 games, 206 total shots. For comparison, the highest Damian Lillard has ever shot, admittedly on a greater number of attempts, was 40.1%. Krejci averaged higher than that for his entire four-year career with the Atlanta Hawks.
In Portland, though, he’s shooting just 28.8% from long range, a number so low it wasn’t imaginable before he put on the uniform. What gives?
One of the simplest explanations is frequency. Krejci played those 57 games in 2024-25 and 46 for Atlanta before coming to the Blazers in 2025-26. He played 1028 minutes with the Hawks that season, 364 with the Blazers. To be fair, his shots per minute have been as high in Portland as they have been anywhere. It’s not like the attempts have been scarce. But his health, rhythm, and role haven’t been steady. That matters somewhat to all shooters. To some it matters a lot.
That effect may be exacerbated with Krejci because of an aspect few people think about. Krejci scans like a catch-and-shoot, three-point specialist. You look at his stats (three-point percentage, ratio of threes attempted to twos) and say, “I want this guy in the corners as my outlet marksman.” Except that’s not actually his game.
Krejci is a multi-talented offensive player. He’s not precisely a point guard, but he’s got handles, passing skills, even an escape move or two for his jumper. When he’s at his best, he has a defender in front of him, targets on both sides to dish to, and a relatively open field to play in. Dribble, dribble, jab step, step back…money.
None of those things are true when you’re the catch-and-shoot endpoint of the offense. You watch the play instead of initiating it. When the ball comes you do one thing: catch, rise, and fire before a charging defender closes nanoseconds later. You don’t have time to analyze, gather yourself, find a rhythm, or even move. You’re not supposed to dribble. Then the defender reaches the play. You’re not supposed to pass. You are the open guy. That’s why you got the ball in the first place. Just shoot it, three-point guy!
This is a whole different experience that Krejci’s instinctive wheelhouse. Should a professional player be able to compensate? Sure. But if that’s not your thing, that’s not your thing.
Have you ever been bowling? It’s an interesting activity. Most of us start out not knowing what we’re doing. Through repetition, rightly or wrongly, we develop a style that works for us. It’s possible to become a decent bowler once you’re in your zone. I, myself, approached 200 a couple of times when I was in practice.
Remember that feeling and that learning process. Now imagine you’re at the height of it, in your groove, and somebody tells you that you have to change your approach. Instead of three steps you have to take two. Instead of rolling down a certain line you have to take a different one, curving your ball in a slightly altered way. We’re not going to go back to square one when we were in the gutter all the time, but our 200 is going to go back to 100 or 110 pretty quickly until we adjust to the new thing. (If we ever do.)
The process won’t be as pronounced for professional basketball players, but the effect is still there. Plus you have to add in the pressure of NBA defenders giving you almost no time to get comfortable. Will you be serviceable after the forced adjustments? Probably. Krejci is still within shouting distance of 30%. That’s far better than any of us would do. But will you excel? Will you be able to demonstrate why you were recruited into the highest professional league in the world to begin with? Probably not. Especially if you don’t actually get to play regular minutes to work out this new process.
That’s essentially what Vit Krejci has faced with the Trail Blazers. The drop in his shooting percentages and his struggle to adapt may not be his fault, entirely.
Part of the equation to be solved when considering Krejci’s future in Portland is whether or not he’ll ever be able to control the ball more, with freedom to make his own moves and set up others, as his instinctive game merits.
When the Blazers traded for him, the outlook was hopeful. Scoot Henderson was still struggling. Damian Lillard was injured. Ja Morant was not on the team yet. Jrue Holiday existed, but he couldn’t play all the minutes. Krejci looked like a viable secondary ballhandler to ease the pressure on Deni Avdija, hitting threes and spreading the floor besides.
Now Krejci ranks behind Lillard, Morant, Avdija, Henderson, Holiday, and even Shaedon Sharpe in any potential pecking order to handle the ball. He’d only be a regular ballhandler if five of them sat. He’d be the secondary one if four of them were down and he was in the game. How often does that happen?
One thing Portland does not need right now is another guy to take the ball. And that’s the one thing that will make Krejci most comfortable, unlocking the best aspects of his game. He’s not even the “In Case of Emergency, Break Glass” guy on this roster. More like, “Dig under the couch cushions and see if there’s loose change.” Whatever you think of his current shooting, he’s a better player than that.
Do I want Vit Krejci on my team in the abstract? I do. I think he has more talent and skill than he gets to show. Do I think Krejci can prosper with the Blazers? I’m guessing not as long as the roster is constituted this way. He’s kind of like Rudy Fernandez on the Brandon Roy-LaMarcus Aldridge teams: a good all-around offensive player who never gets the chance to show it fully.
I don’t mind if Krejci stays with the Blazers. I suspect he’ll be better off career-wise if they trade him and/or don’t pick up his team option at the end of the year. They might not get a better player overall with that $3 million, but he would probably have a chance to shine more on almost any other team in the league.
Thanks for the question. We want to reiterate that we wish Vit Krejci a speedy and wonderful recovery. Also, if you want to submit a Mailbag question, send it to blazersub@gmail.com and we’ll get to as many as we possibly can!
