Camden wrote:TheFuture wrote:Camden0916 wrote:...Wiggins at his worst is still better than Muhammad. And that's coming from someone who dislikes their games equally.
You don't think Bazz can provide us with 15 pts 1 reb 1 ast in 38 mins while playing lackluster defense and not in team flow on offense? I'd say he is more than capable of doing such and likely has a far more impressive stat line EVERY GAME with routine playing time.
Bazz Muhammad is not an NBA-caliber player. I've seen more talented, more productive, more versatile players forced to take their games to Europe or China. He's not worth giving any minutes to.
I'm sure many will remember from my posts at the time that I hated the Bazz pick. I wanted to draft CJ McCollum instead of trading down. Once we traded down, I would have taken the Greek Freak even though I'll admit I wasn't sure he'd become what he's become. I loved his potential and never liked Shabazz.
However, I disagree with the suggestion that Bazz isn't an NBA caliber player. We can all look at his game and evaluate it based on our own "eye test." But at the end of the day, we have to acknowledge his stats as an objective measure of his ability. And those stats tell us he's definitely an NBA caliber player.
Over his career he's averaged 9.2 points on 47% shooting and 2.8 rebounds in just under 18 minutes per game. Extrapolating those numbers to the 37.2 minutes Wiggins has averaged over his career to date and Bazz would be at 19.1 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. 19 points on 48% shooting and 5.6 rebounds per game would definitely be NBA caliber. If only our soon-to-be max player, Andrew Wiggins, could grab 5.6 rebounds per game.
Bazz's 2nd season is even more telling. That was his final season under Flip and it was also the season he had the most playing time. That season he averaged 13.5 points on 49% shooting and 4.1 rebounds in 22.8 minutes per game. He also shot 39.2% from behind the arc. Those numbers extrapolate to 22 points and 6.5 rebounds at 37.2 minutes per game.
We all know that Bazz hasn't been a particularly good defender to say the least. But neither has Wiggins. And at least Bazz gives consistently great effort on that end of the floor. I'm not saying Bazz should be starting in place of Wiggins. But the numbers tell us he's definitely an NBA caliber player. And given the need for more bench minutes at the wing position, it's ridiculous that Bazz isn't getting any minutes at all unless there's something significant we don't know -- an injury or serious misconduct. Flip told me he thought Bazz would become a very good starting SF in the NBA. Thibs seemed thrilled at the prospect of re-signing Bazz when I asked at a season ticket holder meeting about adding wing depth to the roster.
I don't know what's going on, but it seems nuts to have Bazz sitting on the bench while Thibs continues to overplay our starters, particularly as Wiggins continues to play so poorly. Again, 1 rebound and 1 assist from our starting SF against one of the worst teams in the NBA is absolutely inexcusable. And of course, we can't say that performance was an aberration for Wiggins because it wasn't. I wish Bazz wasn't our only recourse, but unfortunately he is and he's good enough to get some significant minutes off the bench under these circumstances.
