Obviously Maxey is balling right now, playing lights out.
It’s silly to play the what if game, but I caught myself thinking about this the other day. And then I thought about Nesmith. I don’t think Maxey would be Maxey if he was drafted by Boston. Not playing behind Kemba and Marcus Smart. The same is true of Desmond Bane.
Maxey has played 5942 minutes and Pritchard has played 3117 minutes. Nearly half the time in the same number of seasons. While being healthy (missed a bit of time due to an MCL but nothing serious).
Opportunity matters so much in the NBA as does experience. In fact, we’ve only seen Maxey hit this new level because Harden isn’t there. I think slipping to the 4th guard really hurt his maturation. He had to play behind White, Smart, and Brogdon last year.
Pritchard isn’t playing the best basketball of his life, but he also can’t be moved this year. I think he needs to make the most of his minutes, develop his game, continue to hit the weight room in the offseason and he could turn into a pretty decent player.
He shot .411 .412 in his first 2 seasons from 3. If he can bring that player back along with Hauser who is a .427 career shooter who is still getting better, our bench should be productive. He just needs to find his game again. It’s a long season
Man’s made his living on his rookie year’s reputation lol. The irony is we paid him more money with the hopes that he could at least be as good as his rookie numbers because he’s been downhill since.
I disagree I think for the most part talent finds a way and once either of those players hit the locker room and practiced with the team in the off season, the coaching staff would have taken notice.
You miss guys in the draft every year, you just do. You can’t look back and think about the what ifs. You either get bummed are start saying stuff like this.
Then explain Markannen? Spent years as a mid player and suddenly could be a top 25 guy. Opportunity and fit definitely matters.
Markannen played 30mpg right out the gate with the Bulls and averaged 18.7ppg and 9rpg in his second year.
He had opprotunities in Chicago. He hit another level in Utah but don’t act like he was buried and ever aging 7ppg on 20mpg elsewhere.