The Ben McLemore redemption tour is happening RIGHT NOW, and hardly anyone is paying attention because James Harden is busy averaging 40 or whatever. All you people who were making fun of him, saying he was washed up, saying he was finished, look at him now. GAZE UPON HIM. He’s a starter for one of the best teams in the West. Maybe he won’t stay the starter, but you can’t deny that he was the starter in this game. Where are the haters now? Nowhere to be seen. I can’t see them anywhere, maybe I saw a troll or two inhabiting a stinky mudpit underneath a bridge, but that was it.
Sure, prior to this game he was shooting 33 percent from the field, but the thing with redemption tours is that sometimes it takes a while for the full redemption to happen. You don’t get it all at once, it’s not like he’s going to average 20 all of a sudden. He has to work is way up to that (and it’s going to happen, mark my words), and the first step is finding a team that will offer consistent minutes and a well-defined role.
McLemore’s role in Houston, like so many others, is too shoot threes. If you’re a role-player on the Rockets and you can’t shoot from deep, you might as well just die because that wouldn’t change your usefulness in the eyes of Mike D’Antoni. He only had 5 two-point attempts on the season before this game, which gives you a good idea of what he’s doing on the court most of the time.