Any of the second year players are actually out performing Mathurin on their careers.
Larger roles don’t actually means players are playing better. Paolo, Sharpe, Ivey, etc have all had a LOT of time playing as a number 1 option even when they didn’t actually earn it
They’ve all had a lot of games given heavy minutes and a ton of time with the ball in their hands. . Last night Mathurin played great, but he also played a lot more minutes than normal and had a few more on ball reps than normal
Each of the other ones are more involved every game (except Ivey this year only, he’s actually moving down to a third stringer now. ouch).
So don’t always pretend grass is greener and I won’t say who’s going to be the best
But I categorically disagree with everyone ready to throw him under the bus because he’s not featured like most talented 20 year olds
I’m with you. I see Mathurin as a microwave scorer off the bench. That player archetype is super valuable on a good team.
Of course, if you say that’s he’s anything less than a hall of famer in the making, a very vocal subset of fans is all over you.
Probably because it’s unlikely he will get worse or stay the same
He was already the best bench scorer in the NBA as a rookie Saying his floor is his ceiling is kinda crazy too me
That’s ridiculous. Leage average EFG last year was 54%, Mathurin was at 48.7%. He was an inefficient gunner last year and has made no major improvement in efficiency so far this year (49.5% EFG). These numbers were against mostly opposing backups and/or not being the primary focus of the defensive attention.
He has a long way to go to becoming even a league average scorer. It’s much more likely that he tops out as a bench scorer than him going on to be the first or second option on a good team. Again, there’s nothing wrong with that; good teams need bench scoring.