JordansBulls wrote:It really depends on how much scoring he does really. I think his assists will go up to maybe 8 to 9. He will probably average 24-25 ppg with the squad they have now. They just have too many weapons for him to average near 28-30 ppg on that squad. Hell in 2008 on Cleveland he barely even averaged 30 ppg and that was playing 40 mpg.
Outside of his rookie season and 2011, he's never been under 27. Even that's misleading as from January-April in 2011, after the team had settled in a little bit, he put up 28.5 on 60.4% TS over 45 games. He's not going to fall under 27 now, and certainly not in the 24-25 ppg range. It's just not going to happen.
2008 was before he made the progression he did in 09 and 10, so I'm not sure why you're even bringing that up. He had no one to take any offensive pressure off of him, had close to ZERO spacing, and was still putting up a league-leading 30.0 per game on 57% TS with 7.2 assists. Take out his 1 and only game off the bench and the game in December where he injured himself and played only 19 minutes, and he was at 30.4 a game with 7.3 assists on 57% TS in 73 games.
Again, I don't see what point you're trying to make by bringing that season up, especially since the next two years we see him put up 28.5 in 37.7 minutes a game (a career-low at the time) on 59% TS with 7.2 assists again, then the season after, he puts up 29.7 a game on 60% TS with 8.6 assists a game, which was 30.0 on 61.1% TS through the 63 games prior to his injury in early March.
I think we can expect ~28 points a game again from him this season