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.
