https://youtu.be/g043dWhCvPA
While the Thunder were tantalizing their fans with glimpses of the future, what with Aleksej Pokusevski being the next Nikola Jokic, Theo Maledon being the next Tony Parker, and Al Horford being the next Tito Horford, the Mavericks were showcasing… Josh Richardson, who isn’t the next anybody, and Jalen Brunson, who is maybe the next Fred VanVleet. Where was Porzingis? Where was Doncic? J.J. Barea? If I were a Mavs fan, I would’ve turned off the game in protest.
Being the next Fred VanVleet (but with more of a penchant for midrange pull-ups) is cool, but it’s not going to put butts in seats or draws eyes to screens. If I were optimistic, I could say that after this game, he could be the next Allen Iverson, but everyone knows that the REAL next Allen Iverson is Trey Burke (2 points tonight, the highlight video for that is going to have to wait until after I get done all 200-ish players who had a better game than him tonight).
Not trying to rag on Brunson here, he had a great game with some nice buckets, but there’s a reason that he’s not the future of the franchise. He’s just a complementary piece of that future, but not so complementary that the Mavs would try to keep him around with any special level of vigor. Just a guy. A guy who can be short, shoot floaters, and score enough points to sometimes get a DownToBuck highlight video made for him.
Looking over what I just wrote, I think I just spent three paragraphs saying absolutely NOTHING. Just a whole bunch of meaningless sentences strung together that might seem meaningful on the surface, but are merely fluff and blabber. Sorry.