Week-End Mailbag, Part II

More answers to your questions on Kevin Durant, Zach LaVine, OG's contract, and much more.

Good morning! Here’s hoping we just saw the least entertaining game of the Finals, because yeesh. I’m sure it was bittersweet for many fans to see Kristaps Porzingis have perhaps his grandest NBA moment on the league’s biggest stage, but I for one am happy for the guy. He’s been through a lot and has clearly grown up a lot. In many ways, last night was a decade in the making. Cool to see his immense promise finally come to fruition.

Let’s get to the newsletter.

Week-End Mailbag, Part II

As promised, we’re finishing off the week with some general queries in response to the last nine days worth of newsletters. As always, the level of engagement from the Substack crowd is off the charts, and it makes penning these so much more satisfying than it would be otherwise.

We start today with a question from Elan Rosenblat, who asks about a player whose current popularity makes Karl-Anthony Towns look like Patrick Ewing:

Great article today breaking down KAT. Can you do the same with Zach LaVine? He was so overrated, but has now become underrated in my opinion.

Talk about going from the frying pan to the fire.

Or more appropriately, to the garbage can after you’ve burned your food beyond recognition and it’s now stinking up the whole house.

That’s how LaVine is viewed nowadays - as yesterday’s trash - which is the exact point Elan is making. This is a 2-time All-Star who averaged 25, 5 & 5 over a recent five-year span and isn’t yet 30 years old. Is the overwhelming negativity a fair characterization?

Maybe not, but the arrow isn’t pointing in the right direction. Last year LaVine appeared in just 25 games, with his season officially ending in early February when he underwent surgery on his right foot. When he was on the court, LaVine averaged under 20 points for the first time in half a decade.

This wasn’t purely due to a dip in usage either. After spending three straight years in the 80th percentile or higher in points per shot attempt, he was in just the 65th percentile last season thanks to lower efficiency on both twos and threes and fewer trips to the line. As Cleaning the Glass shows, this is the fourth straight year that both his usage and overall efficiency has declined:

That trend line is very worrisome for a player who turns 30 in March and who inspired a lot of consternation even when he was at his apex.

All that being said, there’s a world where LaVine can still be a wonderful third option for the right team. I just don’t think it’s the Knicks.