...is Boban Marjanovic. This season will bear me out. But pre-season and the first game have already provided evidence.
I see your Boban Marjanovic and raise you one Brad Wanamaker in the race for Small Sample Size Superstardom: Even more impressive are Julius Randle and Nikola Mirotic, both putting up Boban like stats in heavier minutes. BNM
Meyers battling it out with Kyle O'Quinn for the early season, small sample size, Magic Johnson award: And Zach tied with former Blazer Mason Plumlee for the early season Memorial Manute Bol award: Nice to see Moe also on the list. BNM
But Meyer did it in twice time! (so it is much more statistically relevant) But Zach did it in twice time!
Small sample sizes are fun: The all time record is 10.81 by Manute Bol (twice). Bol is the only player in NBA history to record a BLK% => 10. He did it three times. The all time record is 133.42 by Tyson Chandler. The all time record is 10.88, by some asshole named Westbrook who averaged a triple-double and won MVP that year. Take that @HCP. The next time you ask me what I think of Russell Westbrook, I can honestly and truthfully answer, "He's ok, but he's no Nik Stauskas". BNM
Ed is doing Ed things. Shooting layups and dunks. That is is strength so more power to him but only 7 FG attempts in 2 games making 6 of those shots.
As I recall the Blazers went right at him last year over and over until they were forced to take him out of the game.
Pull him out from under the basket and put him in the pick and roll and he's useless. What he does, he does well, what he does poorly is what keeps him from starting and/or playing significant minutes. Still, he seems like a good dude and it's kind of fun to see something different than small ball 24/7 once in a while. He's the NBA's best current novelty act. It kind of seems weird that a big man that blocks shoots, rebounds and dunks is now considered a novelty act, but that's today's NBA. Kind of reminds me of Manute Bol back in the day. As a rookie, he blocked 397 shots. To put that in perspective, last season Anthony Davis lead the league, by far, in BLKs at 193. Clint Capela was 2nd with 137. As a rookie, Bol blocked more shots than the two of them put together. In fact, Bol's 397 BLKs were exactly the same as Capella, Dwight Howard and Rudy Gobert (the 2nd, 3rd and 4th best shot blockers in the league last season) combined last season. During his second season, players figured out the best way to avoid having your shot swatted by Bol was to go at him hard and try to dunk over him. The result was every time Bol was on the floor everyone on the other team was going to the basket hard, trying to dunk. He still blocked a lot of shots, but it also lead to a lot of spectacular dunks by guys over a foot shorter than Bol. And then there's this: Let's see Boban do that! His form reminds me of Chief (yikes!). Bol was the ultimate NBA novelty act (and one hell of a great human being). You just knew fun things were going to happen when he was on the floor. Don Nelson had the best Manute quote. He said Manute should win defensive player of the year every year because he completely disrupts the offense at both ends of the floor. BNM
