It’s early in the season. I’m aware of that. That doesn’t mean that the sample sizes we have seen so far are totally worthless. There are things we can take note of, and analyze.
Like Emmanuel Mudiay’s garbage shooting percentage. Before tonight’s game, which will bump it up a fair amount, he was shooting barely over 30 percent. That’s totally horrible, and for some reason no one cares. When Austin Rivers also shot like garbage during his rookie season, no one ever shut up about how historically awful he was being. People still bring it up, years later.
As I said, I realize that the sample size is small. But 30 percent is also small. Combine that with Emmanuel’s also-terribad assist-to-turnover ratio, and I’m wondering where the criticism is. The internet loves to hate. That’s what it was invented for. I want to hear angry people spewing vitriol against a rookie who is just trying his best.
We might not hear it for a while after his performance tonight. 10-of-16 shooting is actually quite good, and while having more turnovers than assists yet again diminishes it somewhat, you can’t really argue with 26 points.