Last season, Mario Hezonja regressed so hard that it was like he was literally travelling backwards through time and having his ability to play basketball stripped from him. His haircut game was on point, but the rest of his game was off point. Magic fans were turning on him, and maybe even the people of Croatia were getting worried by his inability to produce at an acceptable level in the NBA.
Now his expectations are adjusted. After that dismal sophomore effort where his winshares were negative and his shooting percentages were almost negative, all I’m looking for now is a guy who can stick around in the league. Forget about him being the fifth overall pick for a second; I just want Hezonja to show that he deserves another shot once his rookie contract comes due. Scoring eleven points is a good start because you can say “well at least he scored some points and looked okay doing it.” That’s the minimum level of praise that I want Hezonja to be able to achieve and he’s gone out there and acheved it.
I could also say something like “Mario Hezonja made LeBron James into his absolute bitch last night,” and it would be almost sort of accurate, but I’m not going to get ahead of myself here.