It’s time to bury the “Chrisstaps Porzinguese” nickname for Marquese Chriss. It seems like his days as a stretchy big who shoots jumpshots are over. He has come to the sad, yet vital realization that if he wants to stick around in this league, he should stick to his strengths, his strengths being dunking and blocking shots.
This realization likely was a result of the fact that Chriss was alarmingly close to being out of the league after his uninspiring stints with Houston (barely played) and Cleveland (shot below 40% from the field). His Warriors contract was initially a minimum contract, and then he had to get waived to wait for some roster shuffling to happen, and then he was signed to a two-way (the only type of contract the Warriors could fit him in on), and then his contract finally became a regular contract around the trade deadline. This isn’t a guy who should be feeling secure about his place in the league. This is a guy who should focus on looking as solid as possible so that GM’s will think he is an NBA-caliber player and not just a guy doomed to average 16/10 in the G-League for five years (Joe Alexander waves hello and then I give him the middle finger).
Chriss is only 22 years old, so if he solidifies his position in the league and isn’t living in doubt that his next contract will be an NBA contract, maybe then he can try to re-integrate the jumpshot into his game. That will give him a couple of years practicing it in the off-season but not deploying it in-game. Then, maybe in a contract year, he can pull it out and surprise everybody with the jimboing ability that they thought he abandoned a long time ago. And if the jimboing doesn’t work out (it probably wont’), it won’t be like he was relying on that ability to get him signed to another deal.
Maybe Chriss should hire me as his agent since I clearly have his career arc all planned out. My rates are reasonable, man. I think the NBA instituted new requirements for the credentials of player agents but my NBA highlights channel is all the credentials I need. Take that Adam Silver.