Timberwolves fans may not believe this, but Shabazz Napier was good, once upon a time. He was legitimately good in his last season with Portland (the only place he stayed for more than one year), and was kinda okay in Brooklyn. And that stint with Brooklyn was just last year! He has a recent history of helping teams win basketball games, I know this sounds crazy, but it’s true.
Napier is also the player who was so bad that LeBron James had to flee Miami just to avoid playing with him, a fact that may be more in line with Timberwolves fans’ current opinion of him.
We don’t have a huge sample size to work with for him this season, but from what we do have, one thing is clear: he’s not helping anyone win basketball games except for the other team. His percentages are gnarly; he’s shooting way WAY under 30 percent from three while taking tons of them (as many as he can reasonably get up before getting benched again).
But the Timberwolves’ point guard situation is dire, so he gets to play. And tonight, he earned his lavish 2 million dollar contract for this year. He literally earned it all in this one game, because he basically willed Minnesota to a win in overtime, during a stretch where winning games is almost literally impossible for them. 24 points, 8 assists, an incredible performance considering what we’ve been seeing for him. I can’t wait to see what he does next game.
My guess: 4 points, 7 assists, 1-for-22 shooting, 0-13 from three, 6 turnovers. I’ve seen it time and time again, some bad player has a good game, gets it into their head that they are no longer a bad player but actually a good player, and come out way too confident in the next game, leading to disaster.