Yeah, you’re doing the math right. 15 points with 5 threes means that all of Mo Bamba’s points came from outside the arc tonight. The question we have to ask ourselves is this: how stretchy is too stretchy for a young big?
Obviously, it’s good for a 7-footer to be able to shoot threes. There’s literally no harm in having a really tall dude be able to knock down a three when he needs to, or even when he doesn’t need to. The designation “stretch 5” is probably the best designation a player can have, okay, maybe not the best, but it’s way up there. And Bamba, after this performance (but maybe not before this performance), qualifies for that designation.
But you do want your young big to be able to go in the paint and make at least a few buckets. Bamba has been making some shots like that this year, but he’s not too far behind with his hopeful three-point shooting. I’m thinking it’s partially a scheme thing: the Magic don’t seem like a team well-equipped to get an offensively raw center a bunch of easy looks at the rim. But it’s also a Bamba thing: sometimes you just have to go in there and ram it as hard as you can into the hole.