The resurgence of Tyreke Evans has been one of the most interesting storylines in the NBA this year, and one of the few bright spots on the free-falling Memphis Grizzlies. Currently, Evans is averaging 19 points and 5 assists per game and was a hot commodity at the trade deadline due to these stats.
Evans career has been pretty disappointing ever since he won rookie of the year in 2009 when he was averaging 20 points per game, leading many to believe he would be a future all-star and face of the NBA. Ever since then his stats continued to decrease until his surge in Memphis this season, but are they a fluke? The reason I have nicknamed Tyreke “the garbage man” is because he is putting up his stats on teams that have been terrible and have had no other great scorers on their roster. For example, in his rookie of the year season, the Kings went 25 and 57 and finished last in their division.
His teammate included players such as Kevin Martin, Spencer Hawes, and Carl Landry, who aren’t exactly great players. With free reign to do whatever he pleased, Evans was able to put up great numbers that didn’t matter. If we look at this season, the Grizzlies are currently 18 and 48 and are one of the teams whose goal is to win the tank race, much less a championship.
Although both Marc Gasol and Mike Conley are on this team, they have regressed significantly from their old self. As with his rookie year, Evans has a pass to take a lot more shots and be more involved in a struggling offense. The best comparison for this is Michael Carter-Williams, who won the rookie of the year in the 2013 season averaging 17 points per game with the Sixers, who has now regressed to averaging only 5 points.
This just goes to show that one year of greatness doesn’t mean a whole lot in the NBA and that it is more about where you finish than where you start.
