https://youtu.be/w8xqm-tc4Ec
Doug McDermott is averaging a career-high thirteen PPG per game this season. He’s only had seven games in single digits. This is clearly the most prominent, consistent, and high-usage role that he’s had on any team since his Creighton days. Is he finally turning the corner of his career, finally getting the vote of confidence from the coaching staff to become the player that he was supposed to be coming out college? Or is this just another mirage like so many mirages before it, tantalizing our collective eyesight with visions of things wished for but illusory?
It honestly feels like, every time McDermott has a good game and I make a highlight video for him, I reiterate my desire for him to become a featured scoring threat somewhere. Have my ceaseless pleas finally been answered? Did McDermott’s obvious scoring talent finally convince a team to give him more of a role? This moment is bittersweet. It gives me great joy to be correct about a player’s potential for success, but it gives me perhaps a greater joy to watch a player get unfairly held down so that I can continue to be their champion, to be the one person in the world who sees their basketball talent for what it truly is.
If McDermott is no longer being unfairly held down by the powers that be, for whom will I be a champion? Dwayne Bacon? That guy sucks. Willie Cauley-Stein? That dude is getting held down, but it’s totally fair that he’s getting held down. Since I can’t come up with any good candidates here, I am officially taking applications from underutilized NBA players who want me to support them while their coaches give them unreasonably low amounts of playing time. My rates are mostly reasonable and will adjust based on the size of your contract. HMU me up.