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All week long SBNation's NBA sites are participating in Rookie Week, a rundown of the best (and sometimes worst or most comical) rookie stories of the season. The Portland Trail Blazers boast three rookies on the roster with a combined 130 minutes of playing time. All together. For the sake of comparison, CJ McCollum has played over 2200 minutes this season. That's over 50 rookies' worth. Yeah.
But since it's Rookie Week and not Most Improved Destroyer of All Teams Who Underestimate Him Week, here's our piece on one of Portland's stars-in-waiting.
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Luis Montero wants to talk dirty to you. Filthy, unclean, highly bacterial talk.
Appearing in just 7 games of a 65-game season, Montero has the gumption to yap at Rajon Rondo and thinks he's allowed to talk trash to Kobe Bryant. No he's not. But he thinks he is, making him way more fun than your average 14th man.
Buried under a sea of promising young-ish talent, Montero and fellow Blazers rookies Pat Connaughton and Cliff Alexander have 42 combined points this season. Whatever wondrous ways a rookie could score a bucket every 7th game would demand they play more, especially on rebuilding team.
For that, Montero's willingness to put himself out there ought to be admired, if not smirked at. What middle school basketball player wouldn't have wanted to smartass their way with an NBA team? It would be awesome. Site Manager Dave Deckard wrote about how you should "Stick a post-it-note on Summer League 2016 and see how Montero is doing," and those sticky notes are starting to flap in the breeze a bit having been up for 7 months.
Montero hasn't shown much, and that's okay. He's been touted as a "Big guard with great versatility to play 3 positions," and his point guard experience makes it fun to think about Montero as the next coming of Shaun Livingston.
If all we get from Montero is another story about how he heckled Kevin Garnett or Paul Pierce, that would be fine. The Blazers don't need him. But rooting for Montero as the guy running his mouth from the end of an NBA bench is more fun than not.