Raptors fan’s collective excitement for OG Anunoby has rightfully declined as he has declined in most statistical areas despite playing the exact same minutes per game (twenty) as last season. His field goal percentage has gone down, his three-point percentage has gone down, and his free-throw percentage has gone down. He’s averaging more points simply because he’s become a slightly more aggressive shooter. With each game of bricked shots, it gets harder and harder to remain hyped for him, even if he’s playing defense just as well as he always had.
(Note: I am assuming that Anunoby plays defense because he seems like the kind of guy who would play defense. DownToBuck does not care about defense and therefore does not intend to do any real research on the matter.)
Luckily, fans of the Raptors have Pascal Siakam’s rapid ascendency into quasi-stardom to keep them placated. There’s also the fact that they’re winning a bunch of games. Winning can help ease the pain of knowing that your prized rookie actually regressed in his second year, defying every conception we have of normal player development in the NBA. I think Anunoby would have do go 0-of-40 in the next five games before Raptors fans could come off from the high of Siakam scoring 44-game and say “Man, Anunoby hasn’t really been playing that well, has he?”