During his time in Brooklyn, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson (hereafter shortened to RHJ [pronounced “ree-haj”] for brevity) slowly worked on incorporating a funky midrange game into his repertoire. It looked totally awful, the most hideous jumper this side of Giannis, but it was fun. I might have dissed it a bunch at the time, but that was because I was trying to hide my true feelings about my enjoyment of his wonked-out form.
It’s a good thing I (and everyone who watched my RHJ vids) got to enjoy it when I did, because it’s not happening very much anymore. He has a total of 17 shots made this year that weren’t right at the rim (compared to 94 at the rim). He’s turned into a 6-6 center, complete with the rebounding and hustle. I bet he wants to keep doing tons of midrange work (he actually does shoot a non-trivial amount of them but they just never go in), but does Nick Nurse? Absolutely not. He’s not a full-on proponent of Moreyball, but RHJ midrange jimbos should not be in any coach’s gameplan.
Accordingly, all of RHJ’s made shots this game are layups or dunks. The layups are of a somewhat higher quality than usual, but they’re still just layups. I want threes! Everyone clowns Ben Simmons for never taking them but RHJ has taken only 14 over 41 games. Not as few as Simmons, but this is the modern NBA. I appreciate his hustle and effort and rebounding and stuff, and the fact that he’s providing more impact in general (while on a better team) than he ever has before, but I’m kinda missing the old days.