The Freshman Effect: Three Blatant Overreactions to Preseason Rookies

Sniperless Sheppard, the Risacher Rebuttal, and the Dunngeon Master

Ah, NBA preseason. For most players, it’s a time to ease their way back into the regular season post-training camp, put up some shots, and get comfortable around their new teammates. Want to test out a new one-legged three for no apparent reason? Heck yeah. Ready to shoot 4 airballs in one half? Sure, doesn’t really matter for the regular season. Want to wear a Pikachu headband? Guess what…

Heck. Yeah.

For rookies, however, this is an indisputable dream and nightmare, all at the same time. For every clanked jumper, Stephen A. Smith will question their future. For every poster, Kendrick Perkins will deem them the next Blake Griffin. As a rookie, everything you do matters and is 100% indicative of every single shot you will ever take in the rest of your career — or something like that.

In the spirit of media overreactions, I want to take a look at three rookies who have had various levels of success during the preseason thus far and rave (or, uh, not rave) about them. If we’re overreacting, I think we can say there could be quite a few surprise high-end stars from this class, which, to be fair, is often true of every class (including the abysmal Y2K draft class).

First up, tell me if you’ve heard this one before: A collegiate three-point sniper walks onto an NBA court and forgets why his team drafted him…