Hawk is gaslighting on the Mag issue. Whether it's the injury or something else he is much worse across the board this year. This version of Mag is not really valuable but last year he WAS a starter on a top-20, easy tournament caliber team.
Hawk's point was not "I expect Mag to get worse" his argument was "the 2022-23 version of Mag has no value" which was what everyone took issue with.
I'm sorry you feel this way....you have to look at the players fairly.
What version of last year is different this year?? Is he a better perimeter player/shooter??
If fans want to cling to hope or a false narrative that Mag derailed last year, you get ZERO excuse now that the player is back and playing.
When the player scored 2, 0 and 0 points, no one wanted to say anything.....then he scores 15, 15 or 13 in 3 other games and suddenly the chirps got louder that he is this and that.
I have the entire year and career to evaluate the player. It is not personal....what I am not bending or changing my mind on, is what happened last year was all because of his injury.....it's a lazy take or narrative and doesn't hold anyone else accountable for what they did or didn't do the rest of last season.
Sooo.....are we now plugging in the layered excuse of he's off an ACL and he jumps next year to a 37% 3 point shooter and then becomes this playmaker that is 13 to 14PPG??? How does that exactly supposed to happen??
We play very good teams, with very good coaching staffs....teams know what Mag can or cannot do. How does he help next year, when Ace is swarmed or trapped to force him to give up the basketball?? Is he going to capitalize on that and drive, dunk or find spots for open 3s?? I don't see that happening, we need a better option.