Just FYI, I'm saying year 3 as in not counting his torn ACL year. If you want you can think in terms of year 4 though. but I think it's much ado about nothing.
Last year, when someone asked me a question about Exum, the first thing I'd often say would be something along these lines: "Dante... Dante, hmmm. that kid has the tools but is there anything he's actually good at offensively?"
I don't think anyone in their right mind would disagree with me. I mean, It doesn't take a genius to figure out the limitations. Just a quarter of causal spectating might suffice. Maybe even less time than that. But obviously he contains intrigue. Every time he went hard to the basket last season, I held my breath with anticipation. But a lot of those forays to the rim ended with turnovers, missed layups, and head scratching frustration. Often times I thought I saw rust sprinkle down from his palms. His face would sag. I didn't think he believed and I didn't either. But then I'd circle back around "Gotta be the ACL", I'd tell myself. But Dante was never good offensively anyway, and maybe it wasn't fair to expect him to be.
The majority of guys who come into the league as unskilled offensive players don't ever really figure it out. I could probably name around 50 gifted athletes with star-stutted potential whose careers withered away as time and the promise of their potential were replaced with game film and a formidable sample size. Their ghosts wander the necropolis of NBA busts. We pay them homage not as basketball players (or even as people), but as an unfulfilled vision of promise anchored to a realm composed strictly of vagabonds. As I write this, the immortal words of Coach Riley to Gordon Bombay in Mighty Ducks unfurl in my head "You're not even a has been; You're a never was."
So as each game passed, I started to prepare myself for the possibility Dante's career as well as our belief in his future was set to start fading. That it might be just a matter of time. It isn't always easy to stave off recency bias, especially when you consider the nature of fandom is to lose perspective and indulge in irrationality. Even as I heard the numbers geeks spout of stats illustrating Dante was improving, the eye test never seemed to reflect as much for me. yet even so, by Spring his true shooting % and efficiency had climbed to above average and with that followed in my head this inkling to believe.
It wasn't the playoffs that got me thinking Dante could be a star, (though game 4 vs the Warriors yielded promise enough). I use to always say I'm not sure Ive ever seen Dante shoot off the dribble (let along make a shot off the dribble), or dribble all the way to the basket with his left hand. Summer league gave us a relatively nice sample size of both. It's a cheap metaphor, but history tells us the event is its self fools gold, MOST OF THE TIME. But after Haywood's departure, latching onto the quixotic was its self a temptation hard pressed to out right deny.
That said, I suppose it's easier to drink the Mitchell Koolaid since he hasn't had many opportunities to disappoint, but Exum's performance in summer league felt like more a renaissance than it did a cheap thrill. Because, the truth is I saw Exum do things I had never seen him do-- for the first time, I swear I saw the intrigue of not just gifted athleticism, but gifted athleticism with a dose of budding skill sprinkled in, bubbling at the brim, and rolling down the sides.
So, I guess what I'm trying to say is, If I were a betting man, I'd stand to wager Dante makes the kind of leap that will get us excited about his future again.
What do you think?
