As an outside observer to this sub, I see some people saying he’s overpaid and a glorified role player, others say he’s a cornerstone of the future of Denver. What’s really going on? I think its a misunderstanding of professional experience.

• MPJ was drafted in 2018 and has played 207 career NBA regular season games and 49 playoff games. He essentially didn’t play in college.

• Jalen Brunson (the best player drafted after MPJ in 2018), has played in 364 regular season games, 36 playoff games and 116 college games. He has had double the amount of games since high school relative to MPJ, despite sharing a draft.

• When Brunson was on game 207, he had just started the 2022 season (his breakout year) after spending 2021 averaging 12/3/3 in 25 mpg, mostly playing off the bench behind THJ and Josh Richardson. The Mavs lost in 7 to the clippers that postseason, while Brunson went 8/2/1.4 off the bench.

• Jamal Murray has 418 regular season games, 53 playoff games and 36 games in college. Again, nearly double the amount of games since high school relative to Mike.

• When Jamal was at game 207 of his NBA regular season career, it was the middle of the 2018-2019 season where he averaged 18/4/5 on 44/37/85. In the playoffs that year he had 21/4/5 on 42/34/90. The season ended with him going 4-18 in a 4 point game 7 loss.

• MPJ is currently averaging 17/8/2 on 58% EFG.

• Players with around the same amount of total NBA experience as MPJ are guys like Ant Edwards and Immanuel Quickley. Guys with as much total experience since HS would be guys like Evan Mobley and Trey Murphy. I feel like all of these guys are considered “Up and comers” in a way that MPJ isn’t.

Maybe his age makes people think of him as a vet, but I find it more likely he is still learning the NBA game just as much as any of the other guys mentioned in this post with similar experience. He is defending and rebounding much better in the past year and some of the moves to get free in the midrange in the past two weeks certainly look new to me. While his spacing is vastly important (I would even say underrated) to the Denver offense, I agree with critics who say you have to be more than solely a top 10 shooter in the world to deserve a max contract. However, why is there any doubt he’s able to improve? This is a guy with the experience of a third year player who was maxed to keep a young asset and improves every year, particularly on defense. Why is there negativity about him here? My Wizards would kill for a player like this.