Have him come back 3-4 games like he might now? I mean, logical answer is full season because then we would have had the pleasure of watching one of the best for 20+ games.
But after I asked Gabe on what our record would be if he had played the whole season, I thought...what is best for this team.
Right now, this team has learned how to play without MPJ and they are a tournament team that could go deep or their weakness could show them the door the first weekend. They didn't have to rely on one player to win. Players have stepped up and they've learned to be clutch recently (high school senior shooting two FT to make it a 4pt game wow). Now if you add in MPJ and he gets to play 3-4 regular season game and hopefully 3+ games in SEC tourney, you get a player who can keep teams at bay with a 10pt+ lead under 8 minutes when the team is on a dry spell, someone else to handle the ball, someone who's not afraid to take the last second shot and can create his own shot, and a team that can play and win if MPJ is having a bad night in March.
Else, we get the pleasure of watching MPJ play every game and probably be top 10 team right now but would this team be like OU? Where MPJ has to shoot 29ppg and carry this team on his back the entire time. No one has learned to step up after MPJ. Example, the last two games for OU, Trae Young has been shooting under .400 and is 1-17 from beyond the arc. You shut down him down in the tourney and they are done. Its not like they had a great cast from last year either (11-20).
Yeah, maybe this team would learn how to play with MPJ on cold nights and in real life scenario, Robertson would have stepped up still and Jontay could have stepped out of his brother's shadow. I dont know, just trying to find the silver lining of not being able to watch MPJ play this whole season but hopefully seeing him right when it matters.
But after I asked Gabe on what our record would be if he had played the whole season, I thought...what is best for this team.
Right now, this team has learned how to play without MPJ and they are a tournament team that could go deep or their weakness could show them the door the first weekend. They didn't have to rely on one player to win. Players have stepped up and they've learned to be clutch recently (high school senior shooting two FT to make it a 4pt game wow). Now if you add in MPJ and he gets to play 3-4 regular season game and hopefully 3+ games in SEC tourney, you get a player who can keep teams at bay with a 10pt+ lead under 8 minutes when the team is on a dry spell, someone else to handle the ball, someone who's not afraid to take the last second shot and can create his own shot, and a team that can play and win if MPJ is having a bad night in March.
Else, we get the pleasure of watching MPJ play every game and probably be top 10 team right now but would this team be like OU? Where MPJ has to shoot 29ppg and carry this team on his back the entire time. No one has learned to step up after MPJ. Example, the last two games for OU, Trae Young has been shooting under .400 and is 1-17 from beyond the arc. You shut down him down in the tourney and they are done. Its not like they had a great cast from last year either (11-20).
Yeah, maybe this team would learn how to play with MPJ on cold nights and in real life scenario, Robertson would have stepped up still and Jontay could have stepped out of his brother's shadow. I dont know, just trying to find the silver lining of not being able to watch MPJ play this whole season but hopefully seeing him right when it matters.
