With Iman Shumpert being traded to the Cavs, it officially closes the book on; lets face it, an unfulfilling Knick career. Like JR, Shump was one of the few popular Knicks and just like JR that popularity was often polarizing to Knick fans.
As Shump begins a new chapter of his career many may feel disappointed his one with the Knicks ended so abruptly. Well, don’t be. This is good for both the Knicks, and Shump himself.
Firstly, I think fans unfairly overrated Shump to begin with as we always do with all of our young players. The typical narrative surrounding him was that he was a terrific defensive player with terrific athleticism. I think much of that stemmed from his rookie year where he totaled his highest average of steals (1.7) and probably looked like the second coming of Gary Payton on Mike D’Antoni’s defenseless Knicks. It was years since the Knicks had a young affable guard with a contagious smile and a marketable hairstyle, so fans were quickly drawn to his energy. Who can forget how devastated Knick fans were when he was injured in the playoffs against Miami as the Knicks quickly folded afterwards?
That injury would leave him out until the middle of the following season, and when he returned to produce subpar numbers of 6.8 pts (down from 9.5pts), 2.7 assists (down from 3.5), 1 steal (down from 1.7), and a defensive win share of just 1 (which was down from an impressive 2.5 as a rookie), fans gave him a pass since he wasn’t able to go through a full training camp. His decrease in production didn’t matter to fans though because while he was out, the Shump Marketing Machine kicked off with his own website, a trademarked logo (Shump Shump Enterprises), and actually pretty decent rap videos. Whoever Shump brought on as staff knew their demographic well because for a player that only played half a season, he seemed to be always on fans’ mind through MSG video packages and a massive footprint on social media channels.
Unfortunately when the season was over and Shump was able to join the rest of the developing Knicks in the summer league, he made the poor choice not to join them due to personal promotional commitments, which certainly irked Dolan and might have been a fatal blow to a promising Knick career. Then coach Mike Woodson, didn’t seemed to be too high on Shump either as he seemed to get lost in the lineup and continued to produce paltry season numbers. This was a blow to Knick fans after seeing him preform really well during the preseason but ultimately did nothing for rest of year.
So now we come to this year. Again Shumpert had an impressive preseason and seemed to have a renewed focus by cutting off his flattop, labeling it an unnecessary distraction, and showing interest in Phil’s triangle system. And yet again, now 24 games into season, Shump is still struggling to reach whatever potential Knick fans constantly see in him. Though, now in his fourth year, he has eclipsed his performance from the previous two seasons, he is just barley producing better stats than his rookie season numbers with 12.9 pts (up from 11.9) 4.5 assists (up from 3.5), and shooting 41% from field (up from 40% FG).
Forget his stats you may say; his defense is where his real value is you may say. Well when looking closer at his defense its really not all that impressive statistically. His defensive net rating (the amount of points per 100 possessions an opponent scores while said player is on the court) is 108, as in the same 108 as Tim Hardaway Jr who is typically cited as one of worst defenders on Knicks behind Calderon. This isn’t better than Amare’s (107), Pablo’s (105), or even Travis friggin Wear’s (101)!
Advanced stats don’t help Shump’s case either as his Defensive Real Plus Minus figure is -0.21. This is important because Real Plus Minus statistics isolate a players actual impact on the court versus the collective impact of five players on the court. Shump’s -0.21 is ranked 29 out of 100 of the NBA shooting guards. Shooting guards that have more of a defensive than Shump, just to name a suprising few are Manu Ginobili (-0.01), Kyle Korver (0.30), Klay Thompson (1.02), and even James Harden (0.11)!
A Victim of Knicks Fan Hype
Don’t get me wrong, despite all this I still do like Shump as a player, but after seeing Knick fans overate as many players as I have in my years, part of me thinks Shump leaving the Knicks may see him go more of the way as the floundering Nate Robinson than as the impactful Trevor Ariza; who were also both athletic young guards with that were popular with Knick fans. But here’s the thing about Shump going to the Cavs, he’s never played with someone like LeBron before and that’s important because for as long as Shump has been in the league he’s never had the proper support system in the locker room or in the front office. Perhaps the same way Ariza’s career took off after playing with Kobe, so will Shump’s when playing with LeBron. Nate never had that kind of opportunity, so when he left the Knicks so did about 90% of the hype that surrounded him as he became just another league journeyman that took years of an apathetic fan following to humble him.
Either way, lets be honest with ourselves. There was no way on earth Phil was going to bring back Shump this summer, so in a way trading him the Cavs works out better for him. No longer will he be in a spotlight too bright for him. No more will a large portion of team’s fan base be showering him attention. With those distractions aside and under the tutelage of a proven champion like LeBron (yes we can say that now), Shumpert may be able to solely focus on his game instead of all the other off the court frivolities and finally develop into the player he was meant to be.
That never was going to happen with the Knicks.
Follow Richard Bertin on Twitter @RichardBertin and check out his Knicks’ blog “Starks Raving Mad” or email him at richbertin@gmail.com