I’ve been optimistic in the past that Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and his spastic, unorthodox scoring game can find a place in this league. But my optimism can’t help but me dampened when the stats present us with the following fact: RHJ has regressed across the board from last season to this season.
From 14 PPG on 47% shooting to 10 PPG on 41% shooting, RHJ has gone from what I considered to be a core piece of Brooklyn’s future to a piece that might have to find a home somewhere else. If he had continued on his upward trend of improvement year over year, or even just plateaued at the level he reached in his third season, the Nets would absolutely want to retain him. But if that third season was a fluke and RHJ is just a defender with questionable offensive skill, they might not be interested in keeping him around.
Obviously, RHJ won’t fall out of the league. He’s too good for that. But the best case scenario for him might be on a playoff team where he starts, but isn’t expect to contribute on the average offensive possession. The Blazers are doing this right now with Moe Harkless, and it seems to be a mutually beneficial parternship. Maybe RHJ can find another team like that.
Or he’ll un-regress himself and all this worrying will have been for nothing. Let’s hope for that.