I’ve always thought this kid has made the most of his opportunities whenever given enough minutes. I was hoping to at least see a few minutes of him during the first game, especially with Ja out and nothing. I’m worried he’s going to get the same treatment this year and only get minutes near the end of season…
There are a lot of people in the NBA that fans might consider scrubs who get to lace up night in and night out and actually get playing time. It’s really a testament to conditioning: if your opponent is twice as fast as you, they can shoot half as well as you and still score as many points because speed will give them more opportunities.
The thing is, the margins are thinner than that on field goal percentages. And while they’re not twice as fast as Junior, they don’t need to be: they just need to fast enough be able to reliably get past him. If opponents are getting past him twice as often as they get past X or Trip or Roddy, what’s the point of having him out there?