His English is so good.
Marcin Gortat. Thatās a deep cut.
Mo is a great interview! Very relaxed, answers the questions honestly and in depth. Impressive, maybe he has a future as a TV personality.
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Soā¦
With the closure of the G-League bubble, Ignas Brazdeikis is with the ābig leagueā club in Philadelphia. Minutes, as we speculated earlier, are scarce - heās played once, for 8 minutes, and missed two shots.
We have also learned that Jordan Poole is NOT an All-NBA player. Since our last update, the shooting struggles have returned - 32.9% from the floor (on over 80 shots), and 29.7% from 3. Obviously, itās hard to know what the real performance is here, when the highs are so high and the lows this low. Poole has been moved out of the starting lineup, and the one commonality in the Curry era of the Warriors is that guys that play with him generally play well, and guys who donātā¦do not. Heās still getting significant minutes, but there is a little too much of the āoldā Jordan Poole right now.
Mo Wagner has played every game since joining the Celticsā¦and this isnāt that good either. Heās shot 30% from the floor and has nearly as many fouls as points. Mo is going to sink or swim based on his offenseā¦and thatās not there right now.
DJ Wilson is playing in Houston! And itās beenā¦ok? Houston is obviously terrible, and heās not playing with many NBA guys at this stage, but heās shooting 47.6% from the floor as a Rocket, and nearly 43% from 3, with over 3 rebounds in 11 minutes.
Caris Levert is struggling with his shot in Indianapolis - obviously there is a rust/conditioning factor here, but Levert has never been that good a shooter in the NBA (part of this is possibly due to constantly having to shake off injury-created rust). Heās under 40% from the floor, and just over 30% from three. There has been a role reversal here - he went from being the ball dominant player in most lineups he played with in Brooklyn to being off the ball in Indianapolis. His assist rate has consequently fallen as well. I think thereās an open question here if playing off-ball next to Brogdon is best use of him, or if he needs to return to the role of bench-mob leader he had in Brooklyn.
Trey Burke has continued in his modest role as ā4th guardā but itās hard to tell with the Mavs as theyāve basically only had 9 players available at any given time for the entire season to date (and now heās out with an ankle injury. His shooting the past two weeks hasnāt been good, but weāre talking about a small sample here.
Basically the only Maverick who HASNāT missed consistent time with Covid, or this or that is Tim Hardaway, who has played in all but 1 game. He continues to be extremely consistent - 46% from the floor, 41% from three - a bit better than his season average but not extremely so. Strictly as a jump shooter, heās one of the better ones in the league (what heās missing to drive his TS% to the stratosphere is basically any FT attempts), and continues to be one of the only reliable things on the Mavericks roster.
After a bit of hot shooting, Duncan Robinson has pushed his 3 point percentage back over 40% - heās made 53% of his three-point attempts over the past two weeks. While his percentages are down from last year, sometimes ā30 pointsā can sound larger than it is - the main difference here is that heās missing 1 additional 3 every 5 games on pretty identical volume from last year. His true shooting is still absurdly high, and the Heat are interestingly better both offensively and defensively when heās on the floor (part of this is being shackled to Butler and Bam in nearly all minutes, but still).
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I donāt watch many Warriors games, but I did want to add one nugget I gleaned from various NBA pods: Both Zach Lowe and the Duncād On pod continue to be pretty bullish about Pooleās passing, even if the assist numbers arenāt there. One of Nate Duncanās hobby-horses this year has been the quantity of assists James Wiseman has killed because he insists on taking 4 dribbles (often to his detriment) once the ball enters the post - theyāve noted that Poole has seen many potential assists killed this way.
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Interesting comments on Poole. I donāt watch enough NBA to know how much it matters who youāre on the floor with, but I know weāve seen that at times at Michigan. If youāre a bench player that never gets to share the floor with the best scorer or starting PGā¦you may suffer some individually and in the statistical columns.
I think another factor is scouting. Once teams realize you may be a problem, theyāre going to start planning for you. Hunter Dickinson is an example of this - he took the NCAA by storm early in the year and dominated everyone. Then the B10 downloaded the book on him, made him their #1 focus in their scouting report, and things got a lot tougher for him. Maybe some of that happened to Poole after his hot start. If anything it is credit to Duncan that heās remained so successful despite not being a surprise anymore.
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I think it has less to do with the makeup of bench units (generally bench players fair better when they play with starters than with other bench players, thats not unique), but a combo of 2 factors:
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Steph is obviously brilliant, the exerts the largest gravitational pull of anyone in the NBA, so on/off metrics will always be favorable to people who play with him because heās really good individually and makes life easier for others.
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There is a larger critique of Kerr, that has been honed over a few years now, that heās built a playing style around the presence of Curry that doesnāt stand up when centered around someone like him - and aside from Lillard that guy doesnāt exist. In other words, when Curry sits, they donāt shake up their offensive approach, they ask Damion Lee to be Steph Curry.
The same trade that sent fellow Deutschlander & Celtic Daniel Theis to the Bulls also netted a younger big man in Luke Kornet. And heās the all-time NCAA leader for 3-point shots made by a 7-footer, so the guy can shoot the rock. Tough situation for Mo to land at the Celtics with another new guy to compete with for minutes. And I love Mo, but itās been a no-brainer to play Kornet more at the 5 because Luke sets really solid picks and plays passable post defense - while also draining his 3ās. Still enjoying having Mo on the team, but heās probably meant for the gold & blue of the Pacers 
I am sorry to say this
But if Mo canāt beat out Kornet, thatās a pretty damning indictment of his future, having watched 1.5 years of Luke Kornet in Chicago.
Theyāre different players for sure. I like Kornetās game so far, heās only been in the league 2-3 years. Certainly not the most fleet of foot, but heās been guarding the PNR really well and boxing out/getting DRebs consistently. Playing better than my favorite NBA player Tacko Fall, Luke could turn into a reliable backup 5 man.
Iām hopeful Mo gets some more PT, the Cās have minutes available for backup 5ās that can shoot and guard/rebound. And heās just a great guy to have on the team.
āAnkle Breakerā¦ WOAHā ~ Gus Johnson
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Caris was like, āYou know you only got Big Ten player of the year because I was hurt, right?ā
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Heās a bucket so I could see him doing really well in Europe.
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Dylan - how would you describe Iggyās decision to leave after his freshman year in the context of this news and what has played out so far?
Previously weāve talked about how it was a āgoodā decision because he got a solid contract worth ~$3M so it made sense. Iāve argued previously that there isnāt really a āwrongā decision for anyone and certainly not if youāre able to pocket some money and get a shot at the NBA. But in hindsight I do wonder what would have happened for Iggy if he stays another year, increases his performance and exposure, and maybe gets a better contract or better shot at playing time. Or perhaps he is what he is and this was the outcome no matter what.
I do think heāll end up playing forever overseas like other guys from Michiganās past (Blanchard, Sims, etc.)
I think it was probably pretty smart. Heās older and doesnāt have a game that projects particularly well to the NBA. He struck while the iron was hot after a great freshman year and cashed in.
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I donāt think there was much of a chance of Iggy significantly upgrading his game in such a manner that would outweigh the liability of an extra year of age. And I donāt think the extra year would have developed him so well that he would be noticeably better equipped to stay at the NBA level.
If Iggy is what he is, then going when he went was absolutely the right choice. He got to spend a couple years on two-way contracts, playing in NBA games. Heās seen what he is and isnāt. It is likely that whatever he is doing next year is what he would have been doing next year regardless; this way he has some NBA experience and NBA money. He can always go back to school later.
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I think people underestimate NBA development, especially with someone like Iggy who was still playing live games pretty often for the G League affiliate. If he couldnāt develop there, itās just not very likely that anything he did in Ann Arbor would change that and make him a long term NBA guy. I think he made the right choice.
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Honest question. For the people who think Iggy made the correct decision. Can you name a player in the last ten years or so who you would say made the wrong decision by leaving early?
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Plenty of guys have decided to stay in the NBA Draft rather than return to school and end up on the outside looking in without any contract. Those guys, especially after their freshmen year, probably could have looked at the situation differently.
For me: Drafted and signing a contract = made the right decision.
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