Austin Rivers: kind of a good player now? He’s been playing like this for a while now, long enough that it might not be a fluke. I’ve done my fair share of hating on him (as has just as about everyone else), but he’s proving his haters wrong by, you know, not being totally garbage all the time. What’s the deal? His raw stats, besides efficiency, aren’t too different from what he was doing his second year in the league. So what’s different now? Maybe… he’s been an okay player ever since his dismal rookie campaign? Nah, that doesn’t sound right. People would’ve noticed if he had become not-bad that early in his career.
Everyone talks about “confidence” as the reason for his apparent improvement. Confidence, that mystical word. Everyone wants it from you, but when you get too much of it people start hating (hello Dion Waiters). Rivers must have received an injection of it from Chris Paul or his dad or something. Just one pep talk like “hey man you’re a great player I know you can do this NOW GO OUT THERE AND DO IT!” might be enough. I know if Chris Paul said that to me right before a pickup game I’d probably dominate.
The season is over half past us already, and Rivers is still shooting 40% from three. Does that count as confidence? Or is that just being a good shooter? Or both? Either way, if Rivers keeps this up for three more years until his contract runs out, he’s gonna get hella paid. I think he can do it. Paul has already almost injured himself out of the league, so opportunities for the now-kinda-good Rivers are only going to increase.