"Play him with me, not behind me" - When Clyde Drexler suggested to his former Blazers coach to play Drazen Petrovic more

The late hoops legend Drazen Petrovic had a forgettable start to his NBA career that began in 1989. In his first one-and-a-half years in the Association, the Portland Trail Blazers had him near the bottom of their depth chart. He played even less during his sophomore campaign after the team traded for Danny Ainge.

Given that the Blazers were in the first year of a stretch of three consecutive conference finals trips during Petrovic's rookie season, they didn't have much need for the Croatian phenom. Still, franchise icon Clyde Drexler once said that he advocated for his former teammate to get more playing time in Portland.

"Drazen was an awesome individual who worked extremely hard," Drexler said of Petrovic in an interview with Rick Olivares of Bleachers Brew. "And I loved being his teammate. It was a tough situation for him to come in and play right away because we had some very good guards and forwards at that time. I told my coach, 'Play him with me, not behind me.' But that didn't happen."

Petrovic shone on another team

Clyde also praised Drazen for working hard to feature prominently on an NBA rotation and lighting up the league. However, that didn't happen with the Blazers. Only after Petrovic was traded to the New Jersey Nets did he finally find the chance to showcase his abilities.

The European legend finished second in the Most Improved Player voting in the 1991-92 season before securing an All-NBA Third-Team selection in 1993. There is also an argument that he should have been named an All-Star that same year but sadly didn't get enough votes, with Petrovic chalking up the snub to politics .

Drexler and Petrovic - what could have been

With how great Petrovic turned out to be after he was utilized properly on the court, it's a great thought experiment to imagine how a duo of him and "The Glide" would have prospered if "Mozart" was given the opportunity. Even Drexler had wondered about it.

Perhaps then-Blazers coach Rick Adelman should have considered playing Petrovic more at the point guard slot, which he excelled at during one garbage time against the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1989-90 campaign.

Adelman could have also run more plays to get Petrovic open behind the 3-point line, which he was pretty efficient from throughout his playing career.

The additional offensive weapon could have greatly benefitted Portland in its matchup against the Chicago Bulls in the 1992 Finals. No one among the Blazers players sank more than four 3-pointers (Michael Jordan had six in the first half of Game 1 alone) and converted more than 23.5% of their attempts from long distance. If the coaching staff had listened to Drexler's plea to have Petrovic play alongside him on the floor, things might have turned out differently for Portland.

Related: “He was born to be a basketball player” - When Vlade Divac heaped praise about Drazen Petrovic