Ryan and Matt discuss how Cade doing so much with less help than other Rookies should help his case for ROY
Matt Bassin: And look, there are things about Cade’s game that you can look at and say, he’s 61 out of 62 players in true shooting percentage for players, you have taken at least 800 shots this year. So he is second worst. He’s a rookie on a bad team. And you put up what he’s doing against the other two big names that we’ve heard all year rookie of the year in Scottie Barnes and Evan Mobley.
They both have all-star teams. Literally, multiple all-stars and Scottie Barnes was on a team of guys that won the championship. He’s got championship-caliber teammates, as well as all-stars and Evan Mobley has got a couple of stars on the team and champions as well. Cade’s got neither, Cade’s got young cats, just like him who are scrapping and clawing and trying to find their way in this league.
And he’s putting up numbers that are equal to the MVP. And one of the hot young stars in the game and Trae Young. It’s amazing what he has done as a rookie. And I don’t know how many different ways we can say it. I guess we’re going to keep finding out, but it is just absolutely amazing what he has done in the NBA already with all the hype that we threw at him coming in, he has literally lived up to it and surpassed.
Ryan Griffin: Yeah. And then you look at the other guys in both Mobley in Barnes are great players. So I don’t want to turn this into Oh, they suck. But those, Cade’s teammates looked at him and really have all season looked at him to be the guy in those clutch moments, which is why he’s, third and MBA in clutch scoring where with Barnes, you have Fred VanVleet, or you have Pascal Siakam, you have guys like that to take the load off and who is going to be looked at as more of a leader on the team and they should be right. You just said it. These are guys who have championship pedigree. They’ve done things in the NBA before. With Evan Mobley, right? He had Jarrett Allen. He had Darius Garland. I know he doesn’t have those guys now. And now the Cav’s are in like a free for all, or, a free slot because they lost, they’re two important players. So now you’re starting to see the Cav’s play like the Pistons, or a lot of the Evan Mobley hype is because of the team’s success, where the Cav’s were in the playoff race in the east, and they still are.
Since Jared Allen went down, they’ve been a really bad team, right. So now you’re starting to see what happens when it’s the Evan Mobley show if you will. And he’s just not having the same impact on the game that Cade Cunningham is. I would say Barnes doesn’t, although I think Barnes is in a really good spot where he is really valuable to the Raptors.
But he is Insulated because he has these other teammates able to feed him. And then when he’s not doing so well able to take over, and that’s just not a luxury that, Cade Cunningham has when he did have it, I guess it was Jerami Grant, but now Jerami done for the season. So you’re going to see, both mobile.
And Cade have to finish off the season without their, other best players on their team or I’d argue Jeremy was he, even one B to Cade’s one A, and Mobley were, a little bit lower on that pecking order, but it’s going to be interesting to see how those two guys finished the season.
Now. I hope team success doesn’t really come into it.
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