I think it’s apparent from the box-score that Eric Paschall was OFFICIALLY the number one option for the Warriors last night. He played forty minutes (eight more than the next highest minutes-getter, Ky Bowman) and took nineteen shots (five more than the next highest shot-taker, Jordan Poole). With every “good” player on the Warriors out with one injury or another, somebody had to use up possessions, and that somebody was Paschall.
ESPN headquarters must be in a state of near-anarchy right now. They just televised a game where one team was being led by a second-round rookie. That’s cool from a DownToBuck perspective, because I always wish that more second-round rookies would be given large scoring loads from the very beginning of their careers, but that’s definitely not cool for ESPN. I wouldn’t be surprised if ESPN leadership turned out to be making trade calls on behalf of the Warriors, trying to convince teams to trade their stars for injured Klay Thompson by impersonating Bob Myers on the phone. “Yeah, we don’t want Klay anymore…please give us DeRozan so we don’t embarrass ourselves on national TV anymore…”
Paschall had better be enjoying this because, once Russell and Curry come back (and assuming they don’t re-injure themselves in tragic ways), he’s unlikely to be a number one option on many teams in the near future. That is, unless he uses this opportunity to prove that he’s a legit 20/10 scorer and is Elton Brand 2.0.