If you consider the Celtics and underrated, who springs to thoughts first?
Maybe Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown, the duo the world has continually tried to tear aside regardless of their constant upward trajectory. Maybe Payton Pritchard, the main candidate for Sixth Man of the Yr, or Derrick White, the Michael Jordan of glue guys.
Effectively, science lastly has a solution.
Owen Phillips has crunched some digits at The F5, the numbers-driven e-newsletter written by the R fanatic and former Knicks analyst. He in contrast every participant’s superior metrics (assume EPM, DARKO, and so forth.) vs. the variety of occasions folks have appeared up the participant on Basketball-Reference.com.
Coincidentally, I not too long ago listed Luke Kornet as certainly one of my favourite leaguewide function gamers to observe this season. I’m glad, as a result of apparently, he wants all the eye he can get.
I perceive the problem. Setting inch-perfect screens, making the right learn on the quick roll, and contesting layups with out fouling aren’t often spotlight materials. Kornet doesn’t have a great deal of YouTube highlights or Instagram reels (I assume; I’m not likely a new-age media man, as you’ll be able to inform by the truth that I simply stated new-age media). Kornet has but to crack 20 factors on the season and has solely hit double-digits seven occasions. He’s even had occasions, together with not too long ago, the place he hasn’t been a big a part of the rotation. Conventional massive males will at all times be considerably matchup-dependent.
However that doesn’t imply Kornet isn’t good. Phillips goes into larger element on Kornet as a participant, and it’s all of the issues we’ve celebrated at CelticsBlog. Kornet’s an awesome finisher with buttery fingers; Kornet is sneakily an elite rim protector; Kornet is a top-10 rebounder of missed three-pointers (okay, I didn’t have that actual stat off-hand, however I prefer it).
Frankly, it is a failure for us as Celtics followers. We must be pumping our guys up, and if that features establishing bots to auto-reload Jordan Walsh or Neemias Queta’s Basketball-Reference pages, that is your name to motion.
Phillips’ story is a enjoyable one; go learn it. It does have one obtrusive omission, nevertheless. There’s not a single assertion about Kornet’s world-devouring aura. I’m undecided there’s a participant within the league with the next goof-per-minute ranking:
(Phillips does at the very least acknowledge the Kornet Kontest, which feels just like the least he might do.)
I’ve a sense we’ll see extra of Kornet within the playoffs than we would have anticipated on the 12 months’s begin, however sadly, it may be our final view of him in white and inexperienced. Kornet is an unrestricted free agent at 12 months’s finish, and whereas the general public might not respect how good he’s been for Boston, the opposition is aware of. The league is surprisingly thirsty for stable massive males, and the Celtics won’t be capable of afford him.
Let’s get pleasure from what may be our final 12 months with the league’s most underrated participant earlier than he stops being underpaid.
