Normally I don’t 100 percent trust black-box analysis where someone throws a bunch of numbers in, magic happens, and rankings or whatever pop out. Presumably that’s how ESPN’s draft analytics models worked when they claimed that Jerome Robinson was more of a late-second round type of player than the type of player who would be selected 13th overall. But in this case, their model seemed to be right; Robinson’s been getting DNP’s like there’s no tomorrow, and that’s if he’s even on the active roster, which he wasn’t for huge chunks of last year. With a career-high of only 10 (which was an insane scoring bonanza by his standards), he’s done basically nothing in the NBA.
Nothing until tonight, anyway, where he unfettered himself from the shackles of bustitude and dropped 21 points on the Hawks. This is by far the most productive game of his career, finally a performance similar to what he was doing in his last year at Boston College. Take that ESPN! Take that analytics! You can try and predict shooting percentages or rebounding numbers or what have you, but you can’t predict HEART and the WILL TO WIN!
The way the commentators were talking about him while he was torching the Hawks, you can tell they’re just relieved that he finally showed something. When you haven’t shown anything, there’s nothing to build off of, no foundation. Now there’s a foundation. I wouldn’t be surprised if he never surpasses this total again and washes out in a few years, but that’s what I thought before. Now I also wouldn’t be surprised if he carves out a limited role-player role for himself.