Aloha,
Anyone that has been watching summer league action knows that Max Christie has looked very good. Yes it is summer league but it is easy to see that Max has grown quite a bit. not just in his game but he put on 15 pounds of muscle. And he is only 20. He is younger than some of the 1st round picks he has out played. He is actually younger than Brandon Miller, the overall number 2 pick. While he has a long ways to go, he looks ready to really contribute this year. Here is what he has done.
In Las Vegas, he pumped in a team-leading 19 points with a wildly efficient 45.7/50/100 shooting slash. He also tallied 6.3 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 2.3 blocks in his 32.2 minutes, most of which were spent defending opponents’ top perimeter scorers.
One of the big take sways is how calm and under control he is. Actually that was something I noticed last year when he would get in a game. SG depth was our biggest weakness on paper after free agency. I’m hoping he fills that back up slot.
Aloha, Michael. Good stuff, man.
We’re in 100% agreement on Max Christie. Our two biggest unknowns for this season were how Christie would perform as backup to Reaves and how Hayes would perform as backup to Davis. I think we have gotten as good an answer as possible to the Max Christie situation.
You touched on what I think is one of the biggest positives about Christie at 20 is he plays the same regardless of number of touches or opportunities. Always ready to shoot and showed more consistency than almost anyone but Reaves on the team, even though his minutes were very erratic. I think he will be great as Reaves backup.
There is a world, however unlikely that we discover it, that Reaves and Christie end up starting by the end of the year for this team. NBA politics, $$$ and mainly Max showing he can play like this consistently and defend real NBA players.
But it is there…somewhere…
I’m rooting for Max but he and Jax are still huge question marks for primary backups. That’s why it’s good that we have a deep roster with some talented players like Reddish, Vincent, or Prince who could be big difference makers if Max or Jax struggle, which is likely to happen at some point.