Last year was not a good year for Juan Hernangomez. I don’t know what happened, but Michael Malone decided that he wasn’t going to play, so he didn’t play. He was inactive for huge chunks of the season. The most telling stat the illustrated his not-goodness: he appeared in part 4 (of 4) of my “All NBA players First Field Goals” end-of-year series. Part 4 was reserved, basically, for total scrubs who sucked as well as players who got injured really quickly. It wasn’t for players like Hernangomez, who is actually kinda okay sometimes.
He was definitely kinda okay tonight. 23 points, a clear season high. He has been receiving some minutes to start the year, though last game was a DNP, while had me really worried. Were we seeing a repeat of last year? Apparently not, even if this was against the Cavaliers who make everyone look good. I’ll be optimistic and say this game marks a return to his rookie-year three-point form, where he shot 41 percent from deep. That was the reason he was so good as a rookie, and if he wants to keep being a legit NBA player, he’ll have to get back to something in the vicinity of that.