5 games is a small sample size to be sure, but since his return from the G League, JP is averaging 19 points per game on 46% shooting from 3 and 53% overall from the field. For the season overall, he's averaging 8.9 ppg in less than 13 minutes of average playing time with 48/39/90 shooting splits. He's still primarily a gunner (1.0/0.8 assist/turnover ratio), and he's certainly not great defensively on a team which isn't great defensively either, but if he shoots and scores like he has been doing this season, he's going to be in the league in a "microwave" off the bench role for a long time, and make plenty of money in the process.
JP was bad in his rookie season with the Warriors. Very bad. Some here and elsewhere, including those who had predicted doom and gloom when he entered the draft, seized on this as "evidence" that he was going to be an early washout. Perhaps some/much of this was borne of frustration with some of his late-season play as a sophomore, the reported issues which cropped up with X and JB involving both Jordan and his family, and his decision to turn pro after the season. I get that. However, Jordan also was a kid who gave us some great thrills while he was at Michigan, was All Big Ten Academic as a soph, and was, by all accounts, great in the community at Mott, at animal shelters, and in other endeavors while he was in Ann Arbor. In other words, from my perspective, he was a generally good, albeit immature, 19 year old during his sophomore season. The same could well have been said for many of us at that age.
Whether on the college or pro level, or even in non-sports settings, early career struggles are way too early to form conclusions about careers (see also, Eli Brooks, Jon Teske, Mo Wagner, etc.). JP may well be turning into another example of same.
JP was bad in his rookie season with the Warriors. Very bad. Some here and elsewhere, including those who had predicted doom and gloom when he entered the draft, seized on this as "evidence" that he was going to be an early washout. Perhaps some/much of this was borne of frustration with some of his late-season play as a sophomore, the reported issues which cropped up with X and JB involving both Jordan and his family, and his decision to turn pro after the season. I get that. However, Jordan also was a kid who gave us some great thrills while he was at Michigan, was All Big Ten Academic as a soph, and was, by all accounts, great in the community at Mott, at animal shelters, and in other endeavors while he was in Ann Arbor. In other words, from my perspective, he was a generally good, albeit immature, 19 year old during his sophomore season. The same could well have been said for many of us at that age.
Whether on the college or pro level, or even in non-sports settings, early career struggles are way too early to form conclusions about careers (see also, Eli Brooks, Jon Teske, Mo Wagner, etc.). JP may well be turning into another example of same.
