Utah Jazz alums: Rodney Hood has had horrible luck versus GS in playoffs

After three straight sweeps on three separate teams at the hands of the Golden State Warriors, former Utah Jazz guard Rodney Hood has had it rough against the defending champs.

Let’s face it, the Golden State Warriors have beat up on every team in the NBA over the past five seasons in which they’ve made it to the NBA Finals each time, winning three championships and seeking their fourth this June. Along the way, they’ve punished every team you can imagine, from the Utah Jazz to the Charlotte Hornets to the Denver Nuggets to everyone in between.

Despite their complete and utter dominance over everybody, there are still some teams and players that seem as if they’ve been even more abused than others. The Portland Trail Blazers have faced them in three of the last four postseasons and have been spanked every time, going just 1-12. Chris Paul has been devastated by the Warriors countless times, both as a member of the LA Clippers and the Houston Rockets, who were eliminated by Golden State in each of the past two seasons.

You could throw LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers into that mix as well. Despite the fact that the Cavs arose victorious in the 2016 NBA Finals, the Warriors beat them once pre-Kevin Durant and utterly spanked them in the two most recent FInals with KD in tow. There are certainly other teams that have been stopped dead in their tracks by the Warriors that could be added to the list as well.

But after recent results in 2019, perhaps another player should be added to the mix and ascended to, if not the very top of the list, at least close to it. The player which I’m referring to is none other than former Utah Jazz player Rodney Hood.

Now, I know he’s far from the first guy that comes to mind when you think of players who have undergone epic battles against the mighty Golden State Warriors, but get a load of this crazy fact. Rodney Hood has been eliminated from the playoffs by the Warriors in three consecutive seasons. Not just eliminated, but swept. And most interestingly, that’s occurred for him while playing for three separate teams. Ouch.

The first such sweep came in 2017 when Rodney Hood was a member of the Utah Jazz, and the Golden State Warriors stomped a team that was dealing with a less than healthy Rudy Gobert and an out-of-action George Hill. The second came in the 2018 NBA Finals when Hood was in the midst of a disappointing slump with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Lastly, the third came just this week when the Portland Blazers were stopped short in four games despite hanging tough in Games 2-4.

Talk about a disappointing way to go out so consecutively and a case of dreadful deja vu. The Warriors have had the entire league’s number since their meteoric rise to power, but perhaps no player has felt their wrath so painfully as Rodney Hood has, being swept three straight times despite having different teammates, different game plans and different opportunities. Talk about an unsolvable puzzle.

On the bright side for Hood, it was great to see him finally have a good postseason as a member of the Portland Trail Blazers considering he’d struggled mightily in the previous two. He averaged a playoff career-high 9.9 points per game on 46.8 percent shooting from the field and 35.3 percent from deep. For comparison, in the 2017 Playoffs with Utah he shot just 35.2 and 26 percent, respectively, while in 2018 with Cleveland he went 42.4 and 16.7 percent, respectively.

Last year, he was known more for refusing to enter a game for the Cavs then for actually contributing, whereas this year he actually had some incredible moments for the Blazers. He hit a huge dagger shot in Portland’s quadruple overtime win over the Denver Nuggets and logged seven games in which he reached double figure scoring.

Say what you will about some of the disappointments regarding Rodney Hood’s time in Utah, but he was still a stand-up guy who had some great moments. And as a former Jazzman, it was good to see him play better and appear more confident. Wherever he lands next season, be it Portland or elsewhere, hopefully he will be able to continue to build off the nice flashes he showed in the Blazers’ postseason run.

And ideally, he’ll find himself in a spot where he can compete with the Warriors more than his teams have been able to the past three seasons, so that he avoids being swept by them for a fourth straight year.