Because he has shown the ability to score somewhat efficiently when he finishes with 8-12 FGA, some people think that means his efficiency and effectiveness will carry over if he's attempting 16-20 FGA instead. Similarly, because he has excellent vision and is a good passer while having a solid handle, some think that we (or Scottie) would be better off with him as the primary ball handler without realizing how prone to mistakes (on both ends) due to fatigue Scottie is. Being the primary ball handler and attempting 15 shots a night would burn Scottie out in no time and/or cause a significant drop-off in his defence -- which has really been improving the last few games.DreamTeam09 wrote:Why is Scotties shots total even a topic of discussion. Many of us didn't even expect 10ppg this szn and he's already had multiple 20pt games.
He's still a rookie,
Scottie is blowing away even the most optimistic predictions. 15/8/3 while averaging almost a block and steal per game and suddenly draining threes at an extremely high rate over the last 6 games. Every few games, Scottie shows us something different too.
First 4 games: a menace on the offensive glass (3.5 OREB), elite inside scoring (23/36 or 64% in the paint) and flashed a bit of a midrange game (4/8)
Next 3 games (before injury): dominated the defensive glass (7.0 REB), cut down on the turnovers (from almost 4 per game down to 4 total in 105 minutes) and increased his playmaking a bit (from 1.3 APG to 3.0 APG) while significantly increasing his mid range attempts (5/13)
Next 4 games (after injury): struggled to find his offence at times and seemingly turned down a lot of open looks (39 of 50 attempts came inside the paint in which he converted just 49%), but he played some very solid all around games (14/8/4) and had some incredible defensive highlights
Next 5 games: struggled mightily with his inside scoring (11/33 in the paint) and had more defensive lapses in this stretch than the entire season up to this point, but he continued to flash his playmaking ability (4.6 APG)
Last 5 games: suddenly blossoming into a three-point shooter (11/24 in 5 games after going 4/16 in the first 16 games) while continuing to rebound (7.4 REB), find teammates (3.4 APG) and work on the defensive end
How he is being utilized right now is pretty darn close to perfect. Just look at the development already. He is getting significant burn (probably a few minutes too much for a rookie at nearly 36 MPG), he is playing off-ball, he initiates the offence sometimes and he is defending every position. There is no need to run the offence through him every single possession and it is extremely important for him to continue to get these three-point reps in.
People need to remember that, whether they like it or not, Scottie is playing on a decent team with 3 borderline all-star players and a lot of additional youth that needs to also be developed. In the last ~15 years, the only players to come into the league and pretty much be handed the keys to a franchise were Durant, Wall, Kyrie and Lillard -- and all of which dominated college then mostly joined terrible teams. Durant played for the 20-win Sonics and his best teammate was probably Earl Watson, Wall played for the 23-win Wizards and his best teammate was either Blatche or Crawford (for the last 20ish games lol) and Kyrie played for the 19-win Cavs and his best teammate was a 35-year-old Jamison. Lillard was the only player of the 4 to play with some actual NBA talent (all-star Aldridge plus young Matthews and Batum). Expecting Scottie to be getting 15 FGA so he can score 20 PPG is extremely unrealistic lol.
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