Meet the Freshmen: Portland’s Gabe Taylor

As the first verbal commitment for the 2014 recruiting class, Valley Catholic’s Gabe Taylor is the most interesting prospect of the class. Despite verbally committing in December of 2012, there’s not much known about the 6-foot-8 power forward.

At Valley Catholic (Beaverton)

Taylor comes to the bluff from a solid Valley Catholic program that is run by former Portland assistant coach Joel Sobotka, a detail that should help the big man adjust to what Portland does. The 2014 Oregon Class 3A Player of the year led Valley Catholic to the 3A state championship last season leading the team in points and rebounds.

In 2013, Taylor totaled 21 points and 6.4 rebounds per game, shot 60 percent from the field including 41 percent from deep en route to a first team all-state selection and Lewis and Clark League Player of the Year.

Impact at Portland

It’s easy to look at the depth chart and pencil Taylor in as a project this year with Van Der Mars, Riley, and Gerun all returning, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him earn minutes early on. All three of the returning frontcourt players have experience and should see most of the playing time, but it will be difficult to fill the gap left by Pilot great Ryan Nicholas. An underrated part of Nicholas’ game was his three point shooting, and while Riley and Gerun have at times looked like they can stretch the floor a little, neither of them could hit the outside shot with Nicholas’ consistency. If Taylor, and that is a big IF, can adjust to the speed defensively, and knock down a few shots, he could wiggle his way into this rotation.

Rumors around Portland are that Taylor came to the summer session physically stronger and bigger than expected, but still needs to work on his physicality as he could get dominated against the bigger forwards in the league.