Rodney Hood: What does the new acquisiton bring to the Toronto Raptors?

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In addition to Gary Trent Jr., the Toronto Raptors have reportedly acquired Rodney Hood from the Portland Trail Blazers in return for Norman Powell.

Trent Jr. is the headliner of the deal for the Raptors — you can read more about what he brings here — but Hood has the potential to bring a scoring punch to a Toronto team that is averaging the fourth-fewest bench points in the league this season.

MORE: How does Gary Trent Jr. fit with Toronto?

The No. 23 pick in the 2014 NBA Draft, Hood has career averages of 11.7 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 26.5 minutes per game. He's a silky smooth scorer who can play with and without the ball in his hands and has the size at 6-foot-8 to play either shooting guard or small forward.

The defining moment of Hood's career came in Game 6 of Portland's second-round series with the Denver Nuggets in the 2019 NBA Playoffs when he scored 25 points off the bench. As his former teammate CJ McCollum tweeted following the news of Hood being traded, the Blazers wouldn't have made the Conference Finals that season without him.

Hood got off to a strong start in 2019-20 with the Blazers, averaging 11.0 points on the best true shooting percentage of his career, but he tore his Achilles 23 games into the season, sidelining him the rest of the way. In 38 games with the Blazers this season, five of which he started in, he posted a career-low 4.7 points on 36.3 percent shooting from the field and 29.8 percent from 3-point range.

On the books for $10.0 million this season, Hood's salary helped the trade between the Raptors and Blazers work financially. While he has one more year remaining on his current contract, it's only a partial guarantee. It's possible that the Raptors will eventually waive him to open up cap space, but this could be a good opportunity for him to get back on track following last season's injury.

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Scott Rafferty is a Senior NBA Editor for The Sporting News