slick_watts wrote:I doubt it.
For Mullen to be serviceable offensively he's going to have to shoot really well from three point range. Right now he's shooting 43% from 3pt range in the preseason but we've been through this with Mullens before already. After the first couple of weeks last season he was putting up some numbers while shooting an unsustainable 60% from 16-23 feet. A thread was posted on the General board at the time: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1149828
Mullens would regress, and finished the season shooting about 35% from 16-23 feet, with an overall TS% well below 50%. Nearly half of his FGA came from that range, and almost three quarters of his offense was assisted (he cannot create his own offense).
Rationally, and considering Mullens' history, I have to think that he will not be close to a 40% three point shooter. Some are making the comparison to Channing Frye, but Frye was a much better mid-range shooter than Mullens before he began shooting threes in Phoenix. Frye had seasons of 43% and 47% from 16-23 feet before joining the Suns - 10% better than Mullens on average.
He's not good at defense, his rebounding is average at best - but I guess he's had a hot four games shooting three pointers.
Watching Mullen's 31 pt game against the Bucks from last year, he had 14 baskets. More than half were inside five feet. If Mullens was just an outside shooting Ryan Anderson type, I might agree with the grim assessment. Mullens has the potential to be much more because he's a better athlete than Anderson...who is not the worst athlete in the league. To be sure Mullens still has to make marked progress to be considered just an above average ballplayer. We'll see what he looks like two years from now.
