Based solely on this 26/6/6 statline (a line which I call the “number of the beast” statline, because players who achieve it are usually beasts), I’m gonna go ahead and say that Damyean Dotson is the next Tyreke Evans. That sounds awesome, doesn’t it? Who wouldn’t want a player who compares favorably to a former ROTY of the year?
The thing is, Tyreke Evans made a name for himself by constantly underachieving. Some of it was on him, and some of it was on his teams/coaches who didn’t know how to utilize him. In fact, he’s severely underachieving right now, and I don’t know if it’s because his athleticism dropped off a cliff, he stopped caring about basketball, or if the Pacers are misusing him.
As long as Dotson is on the Knicks, he is at risk of underachieving as well. Currently, he is overachieving because nobody expected a whole lot from him, but when expectations are recalibrated in the off-season, some fans are going to expect him to be a 16/4/4 guy out of the gate. I don’t know if I “expect” those kind of numbers from him per se, but I definitely think he’s capable of those numbers if the situation is right.
Best case scenario, he’s third banana to Kyrie and Durant. Worst case scenario, his career gets ruined by the Knicks and he crawls to Europe a broken, despondent man.