Make plans to watch Emmanuel Mudiay or miss out on Nuggets tantalizing rookie

 

Were you one of the announced 9,153 people that saw Emmanuel Mudiay put up a new career high of 18 points in a head-to-head match up with All Star point guard Damian Lillard? Kudos to those who watched Mudiay and the Nuggets live or on TV. The 19-year-old was tantalizing and reveled what’s to come in the Mile-High City.

His 50 percent shooting (6-12 from the field) helped guide the Nuggets to victory, but his six rebounds, five assists and two blocks — both on Lillard layup attempts with the game in doubt — are what makes him a top candidate for Rookie of the Year. Win or lose the award, Mudiay is working towards becoming a complete point guard and shows he’s ahead of the game in many areas.

It’s too early to call anyone “doubters” of Mudiay, but some early criticisms have focused on his turnovers and lack of finishing near the rim. Let’s start with the turnovers.

Mudiay leads the NBA with 5.3 turnovers per game, James Harden and John Wall are tied for second with 5.0, Russell Westbrook lands at 4.9 per game and Lillard rounds out the top five with 4.1 turnovers of his own, according to NBA.com/stats. While we cannot erase Mudiay’s 11 turnovers in his NBA debut against the Rockets, he has shown improvement by averaging 3.83 turnovers in Denver’s last six games.

With creative passers, coaches will have to live with some mistakes because the risk is worth the reward. Check out this pass from Mudiay to find Will Barton for a key 3-pointer:

The thing to watch there is how Mudiay comes around the pick-and-roll with Kenneth Faried, but blindly finds Barton. We say blindly, but there are some things to remember about that pass. First, Mudiay is trusting Michael Malone’s offense in knowing that he’ll have that shooter out on the perimeter. Second, it was just an amazing pass; not only is the vision there but the execution of the pass itself hit Barton right where he needed it and he was able to catch it and go right into his shooting motion.

Those that bark about Mudiay’s turnovers should be careful what they wish for. You don’t want to start putting limits on what a rookie should be trying to do. He will learn a lot this season and failing is a part of growing – he will figure out what he can and cannot get away with.

Malone has said they’ve worked with Mudiay about leaving his feet on his passes, especially when he’s venturing through the lane and under the rim to cut down on unforced errors. His handle should also improve as he gets used to the speed of the game and to those defending him at the NBA level.

As for finishing around the rim? Here are a few shots charts from the rookie seasons of some current NBA guards, let’s see if you can guess who they belong to. Reminder: Green = above league average, Yellow = league average, Red = below league average:

Any guesses?

1.) John Wall

2.) Russell Westbrook

3.) Ty Lawson

Westbrook was below league average around the rim as a rookie, while Wall and Lawson were just at league average. It’s hard to finish around the rim in the NBA, especially when you’re not a 7-footer. So far, Mudiay is shooting below league average near the rim. This is another area where Mudiay should see increased percentages as he learns some tricks of the trade. We saw him break down Mason Plumlee after ditching Lillard on a ball screen for a pretty finish in the paint.

 

Turning weaknesses into strengths 

Dating back to, at least, 2013 there have been questions about Mudiay’s shooting. Take this note from DraftExpress.com in 2013:

“Limited outside shooter.”

Shot selection can play into this and that’s something that Mudiay must learn. Right now he may not know the difference between a good shot and a bad shot, according to Malone – but he’ll learn. This is a bad shot:

Mudiay had a better shot right at the start, but may have felt a little too deep and pulled the ball down to go at Lawson. He started off with a ball fake that got Lawson off-balance to his left, Lawson recovered quickly and Mudiay elected to settle for a step back with the space he created by getting Ty off-balance – instead of just taking the initial shot or driving to the rim. He took the difficult three, but hopefully those types of shots will become learning experiences this season.

Through seven games, Mudiay is shooting 10-27 from 3-point land, good for 37.0 percent. We’ll see those numbers rise and fall, but his work in the gym is tireless. I’ve been lucky enough to watch Mudiay shoot the ball after practice and he’s putting in the work to improve. I’ve watched him shooting around the world with threes, working on his mid-range shots and even doing some post-up work with Nikola Jokic (defending and posting up himself, too).

 

As you can see in the above video, Mudiay has a funny habit of kicking his feet on his shot, but he has been working in practice on not elevating so high on his jumper. We shouldn’t get so caught up on shooting form as there have been plenty of NBA shots that were not totally conventional. The more Mudiay shoots, the better he will get with repetition. For now, defenders are giving him that shot and he’s making teams pay – that bodes well for his confidence.

Big plays in big situations

Mudiay started the season by going right at the Rockets. He called his own number late and hit big shot after big shot. Here is one jumper in Houston in the fourth quarter with the Nuggets looking to put the game away:

Mudiay recognized that center Clint Capela switched onto him and he exposes the mismatch by taking his time and allowing his teammates to clear out for him, he gets Capela moving laterally and hits a pull up fadeaway after going across the lane.

On the next possession, Mudiay went to work on veteran Jason Terry:

Here we see Mudiay again call his own number in a mismatch with the undersized Terry. Mudiay does a great job recognizing that Terry offered no real threat to block his shot, so he just went right at him and shot over him. Two possessions, two similar situations in isolation, but he attacked Capela and Terry differently.

That was Mudiay getting the job done on the offensive end. Against the Blazers he helped seal the win with a couple of big blocks on Damian Lillard – who is averaging 27.5 point this season.

Here we see Mudiay stick with Lillard on the baseline, read the spin move, recover, time the shot and come up with a block at the rim. As they sometimes say in football if Mudiay were a cornerback: he just ran that route better than the receiver.

Mudiay got Lillard again with just :12 seconds to play:

The Blazers were down 108-104 as Lillard drove the lane, but Mudiay’s block stopped any last hope the Blazers had. Again, Mudiay was all over that play and guessed right on where Lillard was going to release the ball. Emmanuel’s size came into play here and the oversized point guard will do things at the position that the Nuggets just haven’t had in years.

Mudiay has shown the good, the bad and the ugly in his rookie campaign, as expected. His flashes of brilliance and knack for making the big play make him a must watch.

The Pepsi Center capacity is listed at 18,007 and those that attend a Nuggets game will have the honor of one day saying they saw Mudiay play live as a rookie.