https://youtu.be/HwiJ0Y9OPR0
Nickeil Alexander-Walker AKA “Hell NAW” saw a large amount of improvement from his rookie year to his sophomore year. As a rookie, he was a blatant shot chucker who shot 37% from the field, which was among the worst field goal percentages for players who played significant roles for their team that season (Terrence Ferguson, Jordan Poole, and Treveon Graham were worse, among a few others). This year, he’s still just as blatant of a shot chucker, but his efficiency has taken a huge leap, and he now shoots 42% from the field for the season.
It’s actually interesting to note that Hell NAW’s field goal attempts per 36 minutes have been static at roughly 16, but now he makes seven of those shots instead of six of those shots. So he’s the same player, but scoring two more points per 36 (the value of that one extra shot). If he can continue this year-over-year improvement, in just a few years he’ll be one of the best scorers in the league, and by his tenth year in the league, he’ll actually be making MORE shots than he attempts. I’m not sure how the rules of basketball are going to change within the decade to allow a player to go, for example, 13-of-10 from the field, but apparently such a change is coming. It might involve some “new math” that is unknown to the mathematicians of today, concocted by the crazed genius Adam Silver scrawling inscrutable equations on a chalkboard for 18 hours a day. Or he’ll just come up with some box-score trickery and force his statskeepers to submit to his will.
Hell NAW was the Pelican’s best player in this game, and he hit a clutch shot with less than thirty seconds to play that gave the Pelicans a one-point lead. On account of his “best player on the team” status, he was allowed to take the Pelicans’ final shot with six seconds left that could have been the game-winner. Unfortunately, Juan Toscano-Anderson defended the play very well, and the three-point attempt from Hell NAW was an airball. If JTA didn’t yell “HELL NAW!!!” after that shot, that’s frankly the biggest missed opportunity in trash-talking history.