Cameron Payne has had a strong start to his Cavaliers career. After scoring ten in his Cavs debut, a fine total, he scored sixteen in this one, the second game of his Cavs tenure. In both games, his three-pointer looked solid, even though history tells us that his three-pointer is definitely not solid at all. It’s more of a liquid. Or a gas. But not a solid.
What I’m worrying about now is the Cavs fans who are getting enthused about this guy, who are pleasantly surprised by the quality of his play and will now expect him to continue to play well. The thing with Cameron Payne is that he doesn’t play well for stretches of time. He has good games interspersed with bad games, and the bad games outnumber the good. We saw this at the end of last season with the Bulls, when Payne was somehow the starter for fourteen games. He would sometimes look okay, but other times he had Bulls fans pulling out their hair and gouging out their eyeballs.
I talk a lot about how I like watching fanbases writhe in the throes of misery, but here I’m going to be more compassionate. Cavs fans, don’t get too excited for this guy. If he does good things on the court, that’s great, but don’t expect those things. Expect the bad things and you’ll be happier in the long run. Then, if he turns out to be consistently good (which is unlikely), your low expectations will have been thoroughly exceeded and you can be happy about that.