LeBron must be sitting somewhere in Ohio, smirking at the box-scores on his phone and thinking, “I told everybody this guy can play”. Remember, the sole reason Shabazz Napier was drafted by the Heat in 2014 was because LeBron tweeted about him, and the Heat wanted LeBron to be happy. It was a classic case of a player getting pumped up by the NCAA tournament and perhaps getting drafted too high.
But…did he even get drafted too high at this point? Did LeBron know something the rest of us didn’t? Shabazzle Dazzle scored 32 last game and followed it up with 25 in this one. He, frankly, did a pretty good Damian Lillard impersonation in these two final regular-season games for the Blazers. Even if he never has a good game again, getting those point totals out of the 24th overall pick is not so bad.
But then you look at his time with the Magic, where he could have gotten minutes if he had just been able to produce. Instead, he shot 34% from the field, collected a fair number of DNP-CD’s, and in general didn’t look like he belonged in the NBA. He spent most of this season looking nearly as useless, despite the Blazers’ acute desire for a real backup PG.
Perhaps Napier will be most notable for being the first act of LeBron the GM (or “LeGM”). Hopefully he tweets about me next so I can get drafted.