For basically every single court appearance of Shake Milton, I’ve gotten a little nervous. He comes in and starts trying to play like he’s an offensive threat at the top of the opponent’s scouting report. For a lot of games so far, that hasn’t mattered, though. The real Wolves threats get it done, and he otherwise creates kind of his own garbage time in a game they end up winning. Still, he wants to be that guy so bad.
But he’s not.
I feel like if Freddy came in to take Shake Milton’s mask off, we’d see he’s Jeff Teague off the bench. Because that’s who he reminds me of a lot. Trying to hero ball in bad moments with a floater that isn’t as consistent as he thinks. How many possessions end that way once the ball enters his hands?
I don’t think he’s a lost cause, though. It’s not like he’s single-handedly destroying a strong Wolves team. But, he needs to remember that he’s not the number one option here, even for the bench line up. He needs to remember what Finch said around the first game of the regular season, in terms of how sticky the ball can get for players trying to earn something bigger.
In essence, he needs to buy into being a bench role player for a team with very serious ambitions. Not someone hoping to get a bigger look somewhere.
It’s just so hard to watch him keep the ball the whole possession once he gets a hand on it. Does anyone actually trust him to take the reins? He has to be okay making a pass once he has the ball. He is the only player on the Wolves who still plays this way.
And as a fan, it’s so frustrating. This is the exact kind of play that made the Wolves a play-in team at best for a while now. I just can’t stand to watch it. I seriously hope he gets threatened with a big minutes reduction, even with Jaden out for injury.
He’s doing what the coaches want him to do, he’s just not executing.
Does everyone remember TP’s first half of a season? It was rough while he tried to figure things out, but once he did it paid off for us. I imagine the coaching staff will treat Shake the same way.