It's probably true that people expect too much too early. But he or his dad went with the hype angle, so they set that expectation.
Checking a few guys who had pretty big expectations,
Points Through 8 games
Ball 9.1
Bird 18.875
Jordan 25.125
Shaq 25.625
Lebron 17
Magic 19.375 - didn't play 3 games, so that's through his first 8
Bryant 3.75 - didn't play game 1 of the season and was a bench player with under 10 min/game. 3.75 is for his first 8 games he played. Extending to a normal number of minutes puts him probably in the upper teens for points.
I only did points, because the stats weren't there on basketball reference for assists and rebounds.
And I did these manually, so I stopped with just a few stars. If I knew how to search for stats through 8 games I'd have done more.
Considering the hype, I don't think he's living up to it. He may eventually, and if he does, good for him.
Now how much of that slow performance has been that he's being treated as an overhyped kid and not as a more typical rookie? I can't even guess.
On a side note, Shaq was billed by some as the next Jordan, and I didn't figure him as being that good, good but not Jordan. I was surprised to see his first 8 games were slightly better.
Steve B
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