The Kings commentators were making a big deal of Garrett Temple emerging from his recent slump, which made me wonder two things. The first thing I wondered is whether or not a role-player of Temple’s caliber is even able to have slumps, or if dips in production are to be expected of players of limited offensive skill. The second thing I wondered was how hard Temple would have to slump to make it notable. So I went to basketball-reference and I looked it up.
In the five games before this one, Temple scored a combined total of ten points in 85 minutes of game action. He made four field goals in 24 attempts, dished out six assists, and grabbed four rebounds in that time. He had a statline where his only contributions to the box-score were one steal and four fouls in eleven minutes, not even attempting a shot.
That rebounding number is what really blows my mind. I honestly think that if an NBA team was dumb enough to play me 85 minutes in five games, I would probably luck into at least two rebounds. Temple barely improved on the low bar I just set.
So, yeah, Temple was in a big slump, but I’m still reluctant to believe that a low-scoring player like Temple can even have a slump. What is the true nature of slumping?