We were wrong about these 5 NBA players…

We were wrong about these 5 NBA players…

Remember when Mel Bridges joined the Brooklyn Nets in the trade that sent Kevin Durant to Phoenix immediately after the trade he was popping off the dude was putting up so many 30 plus point games including three 40o games he even averaged more points post trade deadline than Kevin Durant himself it

Made people wonder were the Suns holding him back why didn’t they let him unleash his full potential earlier for a while we thought the Nets found their new franchise player however fast forward to 2024 and his Spotlight has dimmed Bridges is still good but he doesn’t give off that

Same Vibe as before it’s quite clear now that he’s not a franchise caliber player he’s not that guy how’s it going folks my name’s Andy and today let’s take a look at five NBA players who we were wrong about Mel Bridges continuing with Bridges what exact exactly changed with his game that

Make us think he doesn’t have the ability to be the star of a franchise anymore if you look at his numbers they aren’t that different of course he’s scoring fewer points but the Nets have other scoring options who are taking more shots now is bridges that much

Worse than before well it’s actually his consistency that’s been a major issue you can see this by taking a glance at his box score numbers he’d have some fantastic games where he goes off then that’s followed by a luster performance or two where he’s almost non-existent 25 30o games followed by

Sub 15-point games on poor shooting the inconsistent scoring comes from the type of shots he takes while bridges used to take a decent number of shots at the basket roughly 31% of his field goals came at the basket when he used to play in Phoenix now that has dropped to 18%

With the Nets Bridges takes the bulk of his shots outside the restricted area or in the mid-range but both areas where he’s been kind of struggling 44% and 41% respectively compared to other players who take a similar volume of shots his efficiency is below average from those areas it’s not just his percentages

Either just by watching him he’s a good player he’s a good versatile scorer he’s above average in many aspects of the game but there’s no aspect where he’s extraordinary there’s nothing that makes him Stand Out Among his peers and that’s why when you watch him play he doesn’t

Scream star actually he looks more like a role player who’s been forced into a bigger role because the Nets don’t have many options over the summer Sports Illustrated graded every team’s offseason moves and they gave the Brooklyn Nets a B+ they cited it was a great idea to

Resign Cameron Johnson for 4 years 94 million which is basically the only move the Nets made besides the fact that cam Johnson is not worth that much the reason the NS didn’t make any big splashes was because they hoped a combination of Mel Bridges and cam Johnson could lead them to a successful

Season perhaps even a playoff run bridges made such a strong statement right after he joined the Nets to the point where it fooled the organization into believing he can be the main guy this is what Nets GM Shawn Marx said about his expectations of bridges I think he’s proven to a lot of

People that his role can continue to get better better and better and bigger and bigger but now that when the balls in his hands can he Step Up can he be that guy that we can rely on it turns out now they’re having second thoughts the 2023 to 24 season

Was essentially a test to see if Mel truly is the guy who can lead them to a new era of Nets basketball unfortunately the only place he’s leading them is back to the lottery Mel is not a bad player by any means but he gives off the aura

That he’s more like a really really good role player as opposed to an actual franchise star Colin Sexton I will admit I was wrong about Colin Saxton after suffering a season-ending knee injury Plus getting traded to Utah and getting buried on the bench I didn’t think he’d ever become as

Good as before remember this was a guy who averaged 24 points a game at the age of 21 but there were some holes in his game and it’s been so long since he’s been able to reach a higher level it made us think perhaps that was his

Healing maybe he’s not the budding star we thought he was I even made a video talking about sexon hitting a wall as the Cavs gave up on him when he arrived to Utah though it was kind of surprising it took so long for him to become a

Full-time starter I feel like the Jazz tried so many different lineups and for some reason they were hellbent on not starting sexon for whatever reason it’s not like he all of a sudden forgot to play even coming off the bench in limited minutes he would occasionally

Take over games heck even his own coach realized he might have made a mistake in not starting seon sooner coach will hardy stated when seon was first traded here he was seen as somebody who scored a lot in Cleveland but wasn’t on winning teams and only thought about scoring

Blah blah blah and I think that probably seeped into my head a little bit last year that’s well that’s kind of a strange thing for a coach to admit that the perception of Sexton is the reason got scared of starting him it took Hardy almost an entire year to realize that

This guy is not selfish he’s not somebody who only cares about scoring he wants to win and their relationship improved over time Sexton is extremely coachable he’s never complained about his role or his minutes since Hardy inserted him into the starting lineup sexon has shut up all the critics he

Immediately put up incredible numbers similar to what he used to record back in Cleveland except now he’s more efficient than than he’s ever been one of his biggest knocks back then was oh this guy can get Buckets but he takes a lot of bad shots and he forces the issue

Way too much and his decision- making was kind of poor which led to bad turnovers every weakness he’s had he’s made a remarkable Improvement especially when it comes to finishing at The Rim sexon is averaging a career high 76% at the basket compared to just 61% back on

The Cavs this is driven by his insane determination and will I know it sounds cliche but I’ve never seen a player play with this kind of energy in a long time the dude goes out and balls hard every night and constantly plays like his NBA

Life depends on it one time I heard a jazz fan say he plays with crackhead energy which I mean I don’t know if that’s offensive or not but his effort is contagious most importantly you can tell sexon is a dedicated motivated player who plays with a chip on his

Shoulder like he has something to prove which he does and he’s proven he deserves his spot as the team’s starting point guard a year ago when sexon came off the bench he was seen as a great Sixth Man now in the starting lineup him and marinin are a legitimate 1 a 1B Duo

It’s unfortunate that the rest of this Jazz roster is either lacking in Talent OR too young right now to produce RJ Barrett I can speak for most Nicks fans that we all want to see RJ Barrett do well we’ve spent years waiting for him to develop while he made progress over

The years it just wasn’t fast enough and the Knicks front office was tired of waiting especially when the Knicks are trying to contend I also don’t think this was the ideal situation for him either at his core Barrett is a high usage player but he was surrounded by

Other high usage stars who were better than him both at scoring and playmaking the Knicks also had spacing issues for many years with which didn’t really get solved until he got traded away plus as the Knicks got better the expectations of RJ became Higher and Higher and he

Could not meet them it just wasn’t a good place for him to be now on the Toronto Raptors a team that’s recently started over and rebuilding from scratch there are no expectations it hasn’t been that long and we don’t know if Barrett can continue this kind of play he does look

A lot better and a lot more comfortable in Toronto than he’s ever been in New York for the first time of his career he’s scoring at an above average efficiency which I didn’t think he’d ever be able to do considering his shot selection has always been poor now he’s

Getting to the basket more than he’s ever had nearly half his shots come at The Rim which has been the driving factor for his efficiency for example this is what his shot chart looks like in Toronto those are some highquality shots within the restricted area however the main difference is how Barrett is

Initiating his scoring opportunities back in New York they relied on him to score in isolation and as a pick and roll ball handler he was expected to create offense out of nothing but he wasn’t good at that it always led to him getting stuck or forcing up a bad shot

In Toronto way more of his shots are assisted now 66% of his shots are compared to 41% on the Knicks this means the Raptor aren’t relying on him to create offense out of thin air cuz now he’s playing off the ball a lot more to add on the Raptors

Play at a much higher Pace than the Knicks who are 29th in the league in Pace the NBA’s second slowest team Barrett being young with fresh legs filled with energy the uptempo style in Toronto fits him better of course it’s hard to say we were completely wrong

About RJ I mean he’s had stretches in New York where he looked like an absolute stud an absolute Beast and then he regresses back to his usual self who’s to say that that won’t happen again in Toronto but this time his play style experienced a big change and he’s

Back in his hometown where he’s more comfortable this change of scenery could be all he needs to reinvigorate his NBA career and turn it around can he truly be the sidekick for Scotty Barnes as the Raptors build for the future deante Murray in the 2021 22 season Murray’s

Last season in San Antonio he averaged nearly a triple double and he made his first ever All-Star appearance it seemed like he was following a similar path as Kawhi Leonard a guy who came in as a defensive stud but over time expanded and evolved his offensive game so when

The Hawks acquired Deonte Murray they expected him to be the perfect back cour partner for Trey young Murray had a reputation for being a phenomenal perimeter Defender and a good passer to take some of the playmaking burden from Trey allowing him to play off the ball more similar to how the Warriors use

Step that was the Hawk’s goal when Murray arrived it makes sense right in theory this Duo should work sadly as you’ve seen from all the trade rumors the Hawks were shopping Murray it’s clear that they realize he’s not working out the numbers speak for themselves the Hawks are literally better with him off

The court defensively Murray was expected to Shore up their perimeter D perhaps take on the task to defend the opposing team’s best perimeter players he holds opponents to 50.7% field goal percentage which is the exact same percentage as Trey Young on a similar number of attempts to make matters worse the Hawks

Have gotten worse defensively since acquiring deante in 2024 they literally have the worst defensive rating in the entire NBA I know the Hawks were never a good defensive team since Trey got drafted but they were never the worst either until this year not all the blame should go to

Deante the Hawks interior defense is horrendous they give up 56 points a game in the paint the third most in the league surprisingly offensively they’re also not any better either by the onoff numbers dejonte does not improve their offense the hawk struggles are further exacerbated by deon’s $120 million

Extension that he signed in the summer of 2023 it’s a huge commitment to their salary cap and it severely limits the Hawks options to improve this roster the fact that they were trying to trade him months after giving him this deal oh they knew they messed up as Trey enters

His prime they’ve bottlenecked this roster and might be stuck with deante unless they find a suitable trade for him this is why Superstars leave their teams the failure to build a successful roster around them especially one that’s not even close to to being in contention

For the title I know a lot of folks don’t believe Trey young could ever be the number one option on a championship team but we don’t know that cuz he’s never been surrounded by a competent roster there’s still time but the deante experiment turned out to be a big

Mistake cuz he’s not the player the Hawks thought he could be Rudy goar after leaving Utah goar’s image was tarnished he had the reputation for being soft he got criticized a lot not just his game but his Persona he called out his teammates in public and it rubb

Some folks the wrong way when he arrived to Minnesota the fan base felt like they got robbed the Wolves gave up a colossal package to acquire him for future first round picks in the deal there’s no way the Wolves could become a championship Contender just from getting goar right I

Mean they were barely a fringe playoff team before that just for from this trade alone there were extreme expectations for goar to perform in Minnesota now he has answered the call anchored in the paint by goar the Wolves firmly hold the NBA’s number one ranked defense playing alongside towns for an

Entire season has done wonders for both of their games it allows cat to not carry the burden of Defense anymore something that he’s never been good at before and at the same time it relieves goar on offense remember all those years where we would Blast gobear for his lack

Of fundamentals his poor footwork and his overall incompetency at putting the ball in the basket of course his offense is still subpar but this team already has offensive threats so he doesn’t need to worry about that as much anymore that has allowed him to play the game to his

Strengths and focus on what he’s good at which is setting screens catching lobs getting offensive boards I know this part is supposed to be about Rudy goar but this is the best thing to ever happen to towns as well for a long time people debated was he really capable of

Carrying a franchise now with Anthony Edwards stepping up as the main guy offensively and goar coming in to cover for his defensive lapses towns is more comfortable than he’s ever been having a veteran point guard like Conley also works wonders especially alongside a rambunctious young scorer like Edwards

Because you need a leader who can control the pace and make sure everyone is following the game plan it’s safe to say the goar trade is looking more and more like a win-win situation the wolves are now among the NBA’s most elite teams and all those

Critics of goar have been quiet at least for now thank you all so much for watching let me know your thoughts in the comment section if you can think of any other players who we were wrong about I hope yall enjoyed this video and of course as always I’ll see you next time

Peace

These 5 NBA players are NOT who we thought they were, for one reason or another.

I make all kinds of NBA videos which include analysis, player stories, countdowns, and mysteries. Make sure to leave a like and subscribe if you enjoyed this video!

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► Sources:
Stats and box-scores from Basketball-Reference.com, NBA.com, Statmuse.com, PBPstats.com
https://www.si.com/nba/nets/off-the-court/the-brooklyn-nets-obtain-a-b-grade-in-the-2023-offseason-moves

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