Larsson seemingly has supplanted 2024 Heat first-round pick Jaime Jaquez Jr. as the wing of choice when Andrew Wiggins is sidelined by injury. ...
There's the rub with one-trick pony 3J. In December 2023 he was the Association's young star. He did a commercial with JBIII, had a big game on national television on Christmas Day that had the cognos swooning, and other GM's fuming at genius Pat Riley's draft steal. I swooned. I saw 3J in a Summer League game at my pizza joint and thought there never was such a "Heat" Culture guy. He played with endless energy. 601 Biscayne trumpeted his four years in college and maturity as producing a ready now guy. But he is 24, ancient for a second-year player, he has not diversified his offensive game, and has not shown the growth in the NBA's leap year. He still plays very hard.
With Larsson, the Heat can always expect hustle plays, defensive grit and ability to blend in on offense. But what he produced on Saturday was far more, ...across-the-board production...
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“Pelle is just an ignitable player. He makes things happen – the steals, the deflections, the hard plays. Those are momentum shifting plays that he has a knack for."-Head Coach Erik Spoelstra....
...for No. 44 pick Larsson, only one player drafted after him has been significantly better: Golden State center Quinten Post, the 52nd overall selection who is averaging 8.7 points and shooting 42.9 percent on threes.
I do see Pelle as different in those very important areas from 3J. I don't know why 3J's hyper-energy didn't translate like that. When you don't have tangibles, apparently Pelle doesn't have even one trick, you have to survive on intangibles. At least with no tricks teams can't take anything away. You can't take away a player's "hustle" the way you an a spin move in the paint. So, maybe Pelle succeeds where 3J didn't. But here's the thing. Guess how old Pelle is? 24.
