“Who the hell is this paging me at 5:46 in the morning
Crack of dawn and now I’m yawnin’
Wipe the cold out my eye
See who’s this paging me and why”
Remember pagers? I know I am dating myself by acknowledging that I used to have a translucent cocoa-colored one clipped to my pants pocket or belt at all times. Still not sure why I felt the need to be so accessible to people. Must be an age thing because nowadays I love nothing more than when my phone does not ring.
I wish this week’s feature player had a pager so I could send him a 911 message for him to find his game and get it going. Or, I could ask Doc to fire up the DeLorean and take me back to the time when this player was living up to their potential and warn them of what is to come. There I go dating myself once again.
Perhaps I am being too harsh too early.
As Biggie said, it is the “crack of dawn” and some people do not roll out of bed until noon. That is quite enough of an intro so “let’s slow down love, please chill, drop the caper”…
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Affectionately referred to as MPJ but no matter what you call him do not call him hot right now because he is not. The hype train for this man was standing room only and it was warranted. There were so many reasons to love the potential upside of this man that made it impossible not to be thoroughly excited for the season.
For starters, there is the unfortunate injury to Jamal Murray opening up a tremendous opportunity for a spike in usage, which for good players, translates, to increased production on the floor. We were also encouraged by a top 20 finish on Yahoo last season behind 19 points, seven rebounds, and 2.8 threes on a stellar 54.2% from the field and 79% from the line. With the ability to see growth in all of those areas minus the field goal percentage since that is already elite for a shooter, the trajectory was tantalizing.
Seven games into this season has left us with a bad taste in our mouth for a player routinely selected in the second round of drafts this season. MPJ is shooting 34.5% from the field, which is 20 points below his average from last season. 62.5% from the free-throw line, 17 points under last season’s mark. He is hitting half as many threes as last season at 1.4 per game and clearly, as a result of that abysmal shooting, he is only offering 10.7 points per game.
Some may believe that this is the true MPJ and last year was an outlier and to those people, I would say
“Let’s make a deal”
This is buy-low territory if ever there was one and I will tell you why.
I am encouraged by the minutes as he is averaging 32 per game. The shot volume is low but certainly can be corrected as he starts to find his shot. He has the green light with the contract to prove it. Denver is invested in MPJ and wants to see him succeed more than anyone so he will have a ton of leash to do just that.
His fantasy owners are definitely concerned and now is the time to float some offers out for the young forward. I believe that he will catch fire sooner than later and once he does he will be off the market and the buy-low window will close hard.
Depending on the needs of his owners, I would be selling high on players like Harrison Barnes, Spencer Dinwiddie, Seth Curry, and rookie Chris Duarte. I believe that by seasons end, MPJ will rank higher than those players who are currently playing above their worth.
Good luck out there and as always hit me in the comment section and we can chop it up whether you agree, disagree, or have a comment leave it below.
Peace.
