Jackson Ayorinde: The Curious Charm of Mudiay
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Jackson Ayorinde: The Curious Charm of Mudiay
First Seven Games in a Lakers Uniform Intrigue
There's been some interesting results in Emmanuel Mudiay's first 7 games as a Laker
Down went Christian Wood for the season, further putting his Lakers' future in doubt. Then Austin Rivers was ruled out over a month with a broken finger. The Lakers, already mired at the bottom of the league at 7-49, would continue their losing ways and quite possibly not win a game the rest of the year, fulfulling Jestor's preseason prediction of "We won't win 10 games."
But then a funny thing happened. A ragtag lineup of Emmanuel Mudiay, free agent pickup Troy Daniels, Abdel Nader, Cheick Diallo, and Joel Bolomboy stunned the Philadelphia 76ers by 10 points and followed that up two games later with a 16 point thrashing of the Charlotte Bobcats. Suddenly, the Lakers are just one win away from double-digit victories and nearly accomplished it if one more bucket had gone in during regulation in an OT thriller loss to the hot Houston Rockets.
One bucket away from 3-4 in the Emmanuel Mudiay era, and that's not even mentioning the first game had a starting five mixup and the second game featured 29 minutes of zero contributions from starting and injured Rivers. Without two of their best players, the Lakers have suddenly begun playing some of their best basketball of the season.
The Statlines
16.9 points, 6.3 assists, 5 rebounds, 0.4 steals, 0.7 blocks - 33.1% shooting, 24.1% from 3 point range, 2.75 A/TO ratio
Defensive metrics: From 78.4% Drive Stop Rate to 83.1%. PA/SF from 1.0 to 0.95
Yes, you can talk about that horrific shooting and say it cost the team games. But the reality is, without Mudiay's all-encompassing contributions in multiple facets of the game, including the approximated 17/6/5 slash and stellar defensive metrics, the Purple and Gold aren't even within shouting distance. Of the 5 Mudiay/Daniels backcourt games, only one was a blowout loss (to the Clippers). Everything else was single digits or OT - meaning the 2-3 mark is very close to being 3-2 or potentially even 4-1.
Moving from SG to PG has greatly improved his defense, able to bully smaller 1s and his A/TO has been on the level of more heralded names like Derrick Rose and Kemba Walker. What we're seeing is a return to the exciting play the Congolese native provided in his rookie season for the other LA team, when he was a starter in the Rookie/Sophomores All-Star game and made the All-Rookie 1st Team.
"I'm not concerned about the shooting," said Lakers head coach Erik Spoelstra. "We're talking about a small sample size and we're putting work on his shooting. You also have to remember this is a situation similar to what he had in San Antonio, where he was forced to be the #1 option, and that had similar issues. He's still very much a core piece for our future, and as we get him some help and some players to share the scoring load - as guys like Cheick develop - we'll see him get better in that area."
Indeed, what Mudiay has been able to accomplish by putting this woebegone team on his back has been nothing short of remarkable, and it's re-igniting discussions of whether point guard is legitimately his best position after all, rather than off guard as most project him to be.
Commented Jestor, "One thing I always like seeing is what I call impactful players - guys who, regardless of the record, give you the sense that they have a major influence on the game. We had that with Jeremy Lin, Julius Randle, Shabazz Napier... whereas guys like Khris Middleton, Walter Tavares, even Kevin Durant - you had the feeling that even with their stats, it didn't seem like they were truly enforcing their will. What we get with Emmanuel from what we've seen so far is a guy who falls into the first category."
Although the first slate of seven has delivered mixed results, Mudiay is already showing enough from both an individual and team standpoint that he could be the next successful Lakers reclamation project. It will be fascinating to see how things play out as the coaching work continues and more legitimate CSL talent comes into the organization.
There's been some interesting results in Emmanuel Mudiay's first 7 games as a Laker
Down went Christian Wood for the season, further putting his Lakers' future in doubt. Then Austin Rivers was ruled out over a month with a broken finger. The Lakers, already mired at the bottom of the league at 7-49, would continue their losing ways and quite possibly not win a game the rest of the year, fulfulling Jestor's preseason prediction of "We won't win 10 games."
But then a funny thing happened. A ragtag lineup of Emmanuel Mudiay, free agent pickup Troy Daniels, Abdel Nader, Cheick Diallo, and Joel Bolomboy stunned the Philadelphia 76ers by 10 points and followed that up two games later with a 16 point thrashing of the Charlotte Bobcats. Suddenly, the Lakers are just one win away from double-digit victories and nearly accomplished it if one more bucket had gone in during regulation in an OT thriller loss to the hot Houston Rockets.
One bucket away from 3-4 in the Emmanuel Mudiay era, and that's not even mentioning the first game had a starting five mixup and the second game featured 29 minutes of zero contributions from starting and injured Rivers. Without two of their best players, the Lakers have suddenly begun playing some of their best basketball of the season.
The Statlines
16.9 points, 6.3 assists, 5 rebounds, 0.4 steals, 0.7 blocks - 33.1% shooting, 24.1% from 3 point range, 2.75 A/TO ratio
Defensive metrics: From 78.4% Drive Stop Rate to 83.1%. PA/SF from 1.0 to 0.95
Yes, you can talk about that horrific shooting and say it cost the team games. But the reality is, without Mudiay's all-encompassing contributions in multiple facets of the game, including the approximated 17/6/5 slash and stellar defensive metrics, the Purple and Gold aren't even within shouting distance. Of the 5 Mudiay/Daniels backcourt games, only one was a blowout loss (to the Clippers). Everything else was single digits or OT - meaning the 2-3 mark is very close to being 3-2 or potentially even 4-1.
Moving from SG to PG has greatly improved his defense, able to bully smaller 1s and his A/TO has been on the level of more heralded names like Derrick Rose and Kemba Walker. What we're seeing is a return to the exciting play the Congolese native provided in his rookie season for the other LA team, when he was a starter in the Rookie/Sophomores All-Star game and made the All-Rookie 1st Team.
"I'm not concerned about the shooting," said Lakers head coach Erik Spoelstra. "We're talking about a small sample size and we're putting work on his shooting. You also have to remember this is a situation similar to what he had in San Antonio, where he was forced to be the #1 option, and that had similar issues. He's still very much a core piece for our future, and as we get him some help and some players to share the scoring load - as guys like Cheick develop - we'll see him get better in that area."
Indeed, what Mudiay has been able to accomplish by putting this woebegone team on his back has been nothing short of remarkable, and it's re-igniting discussions of whether point guard is legitimately his best position after all, rather than off guard as most project him to be.
Commented Jestor, "One thing I always like seeing is what I call impactful players - guys who, regardless of the record, give you the sense that they have a major influence on the game. We had that with Jeremy Lin, Julius Randle, Shabazz Napier... whereas guys like Khris Middleton, Walter Tavares, even Kevin Durant - you had the feeling that even with their stats, it didn't seem like they were truly enforcing their will. What we get with Emmanuel from what we've seen so far is a guy who falls into the first category."
Although the first slate of seven has delivered mixed results, Mudiay is already showing enough from both an individual and team standpoint that he could be the next successful Lakers reclamation project. It will be fascinating to see how things play out as the coaching work continues and more legitimate CSL talent comes into the organization.
- KW
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Re: Jackson Ayorinde: The Curious Charm of Mudiay
Mudiay shouldn't shoot this bad all season. When he snaps out of his cold spell, I think he'll be a lot better for you. Definitely liking the other facets of his game for you though. He's an all-around good contributor.
His numbers were destined to jump in LA. In LA, nobody but Sykes and Austin Rivers is a threat to take shots away and one is injured. In a perfect world, he's taking only about 10-12 shots a game- enough to make an impact on the game, but not as a leading shot-taker. He is a capable interior scorer, so cutting out the perimeter shots as much as possible will be key to making him efficient enough to be a player once the team is ready to compete. I think he can be a core guy then.
His numbers were destined to jump in LA. In LA, nobody but Sykes and Austin Rivers is a threat to take shots away and one is injured. In a perfect world, he's taking only about 10-12 shots a game- enough to make an impact on the game, but not as a leading shot-taker. He is a capable interior scorer, so cutting out the perimeter shots as much as possible will be key to making him efficient enough to be a player once the team is ready to compete. I think he can be a core guy then.
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Re: Jackson Ayorinde: The Curious Charm of Mudiay
Yep, I'm going to have him be inside as much as possible. I think the pairing with Daniels is showing my hunch to have a 3 point shooter next to him is the right move. Definitely something to look at for this offseason.
His rebounding has really surprised me. Definitely been a key factor. I wonder if that and the worlds better defense is a function of him being at PG. Definitely something to consider - he might be best at the point after all. We'll see how the A/TO ratio holds up over the rest of the season, and how getting Rivers in the mix starts affecting the assist numbers for both.
His rebounding has really surprised me. Definitely been a key factor. I wonder if that and the worlds better defense is a function of him being at PG. Definitely something to consider - he might be best at the point after all. We'll see how the A/TO ratio holds up over the rest of the season, and how getting Rivers in the mix starts affecting the assist numbers for both.
- Flaming Homer
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Re: Jackson Ayorinde: The Curious Charm of Mudiay
Indeed a really good start for him in the purple and gold.
Let's see how he does the rest of the season. He will be on the list of a lot of GM's to give him his pay day I guess.
Let's see how he does the rest of the season. He will be on the list of a lot of GM's to give him his pay day I guess.
- hardenwithnod
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Re: Jackson Ayorinde: The Curious Charm of Mudiay
Mudiay is doing some good things for sure, but man that efficiency is a big problem right now. Maybe with time then he can be fixed, and it will be interesting to see how his career to turn out under your watch.
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Re: Jackson Ayorinde: The Curious Charm of Mudiay
Like we discussed during the trade "negotiations," he is a polarizing talent. Can fill up a stat sheet quickly. That shooting was a problem for me and I wasn''t going to be able to fix it. I hope you can. So far he has struggled to keep it much higher than 40% but I think he is taking a lot of outside shots because early on someone thought his 30%ish 3 PT shooting was something to try and leverage.
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- emplep7
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Re: Jackson Ayorinde: The Curious Charm of Mudiay
I've always liked Mudiay a good bit and think he can be a solid player. Definitely has his flaws, but I'm interested to see what he can do with the proper time dedicated to making him more efficient from the field.
- Ocons
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Re: Jackson Ayorinde: The Curious Charm of Mudiay
I mean, he's nothing to clamor about though, right? And, sure he can't be a part of someone's core. . . but definitely a solid player.
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- Myles
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Re: Jackson Ayorinde: The Curious Charm of Mudiay
Can't wait till Jestor turns on Mudiay. It's always fascinating watching the rise and fall of players. Sometimes they don't fall, but only players that are seriously dependable don't fall in Jestor's eyes
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Re: Jackson Ayorinde: The Curious Charm of Mudiay
Yeah, I'm afraid this project might not end up the way Tim hopes. But. . . he'll be able to do a good job putting up enough numbers with him that he should get a good haul once he throws in the towel. Again, hope I'm wrong.
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