Mikistan wrote:I posit that he had higher peaks in his second season in terms of in-game takeovers (ie. Mavericks and Hawks games) that were not the same as his rookie year and shower higher peak potential.
You guys routinely don't see the forest through the trees. Scottie was touted as a raw longer term project at the draft. He won Roy and all expectations changed. It wasn't obvious to you guys that his finishing around the basket in his rookie year was unsustainable, so you see his decrease in ts% as playing worse but that is too simplistic of a view of his game.
I see him scoring even further below league-average efficiency as playing worse, yes. Because it was objectively worse. His specific finishing in that 3-10 range was quite impressive for a rook and that it regressed some wasn't a huge surprise, but because he does literally nothing else of value as a scorer and regressed also outside of 10 feet, he couldn't handle that drop-off and it was problematic.
It doesn't mean that we shouldn't keep giving him time, but it does mean we should call a spade a spade: he scored less effectively last year compared to his rookie season. He didn't meaningfully improve at shooting, drawing fouls, his dribble attack, anything.
You saw his role and pecking order and no joy and say he regressed. No context impacting your assessment just "demonstrably worse"
Ridiculous hyperbole. I'm not buying it.
This is just you peacocking at this point. Yeah, there are some contextual factors. But talent should out to a given degree at some point, not worsen even further. He was below average as a rookie, too. It was acceptable, because he was a rookie, and because he was 20 and had only a year of college ball under his belt, sure. And in his second season, he had some challenges with the declining quality of our team's offense, for sure. But remember exactly HOW bad he was last year (as a scorer), and try to say he wasn't demonstrably worse at it with a straight face. Doesn't mean we give up on the kid, it just means we acknowledge reality. It happens. He was 21. He still has only so much polish on him. Projects like that are dicey propositions and often don't come through (like any pick, really, but with less reliability), so it's also not surprising.
tanuki1031 wrote:A better and more accurate choice of word would say that Scottie was consistent with his first year (if you wanted to make a neutral assessment) or stagnant (if you wished to assign a negative assessment according to your expectations).
Anyone who suggests Scottie regressed is out of touch. Compared to his first year Scottie averaged the same points, almost a rebound less and well over an assist more, with all other stats relatively the same. You'd be saying he regressed mainly because his TS% fell 0.028.
I'm saying he scored worse, which he did.
Scottie held steady and while that might not be what people expected or wanted, by no means did he fall off. The fact that he held his averages in a putrid season like last year is a feat in itself.
No, it isn't. That is definitely inaccurate. He shot more and less efficiently, that's how he maintained his average... and he was still not a focal scorer. Team quality wouldn't affect his rebounding. His assist production went up, so that's something to discuss as a positive on a broader scale. It didn't really help us because we didn't have anyone who can score effectively on this team, but it will be useful when one day we have more tools around him, for sure.
But on a team starved for efficient offense, he was 5.7% below league average, which was a huge problem. He certainly wasn't alone in that regard, but that drop of 2.8% TS was significant and problematic, especially in the context of the 2023 season. He was "only" 1.6% below league average as a rookie, which was more tolerable and understandable: even Lebron was inefficient as a rook, after all, though he was supporting higher volume and facing superior defensive attention.
We don't need to baby Scottie over his second season. It wasn't good and his scoring was worse, a situation exaggerated by the league offensive environment. A decade ago, rookie Scottie's numbers would have been something to be interested in. He'd have been around 2% OVER league average. Twenty years ago, even his 2023 numbers would have been a little above league average.
And again, he's young, he has little polish, we knew all of this. That's fine. We'll see what year 3 brings. In as much as off-season stuff is mostly useless, at least we're seeing and hearing the right things, so all there is to do now is wait for the season and hope he brings something new.
