It’s hard to say which Hernangomez brother has been more marginalized during his time in the NBA, but I’m going with Willy on this one. After a promising rookie season where he got to play with his BFF forever Kristaps Porzingis on the Knicks, Willy has not seen a whole lot of success in the league. Mostly, he’s been on teams which already have an established center and an established backup center, meaning his services aren’t needed (or are only needed for five minutes per game).
There’s a glut of mediocre big men in Charlotte right now, so I fully expected the marginalization of Willy Hernangomez to continue, but he’s actually ahead of some guys in the rotation who I didn’t expect him to be ahead of. Frank Kaminsky? Apparently he sucks now. Bismack Biyombo? Overpaid and sucks, but at least he’s building schools in Africa. Hernangomez is, apparently, more playable than both those guys, so he’s been getting decent minutes this season. Not only that, but he’s been moderately productive as well.
These three pointers are great, but I remember inside scoring being Willy’s forte during his rookie season. Maybe it wasn’t happening this game because he had to go against Embiid, but I want some post moves and nifty layups to go with my smooth jumpers. And I think the people of Spain would agree with me on that one.