The Inbetweeners

The NBA G League is bananas. Previously the D League, it is the home for all of the NBA’s players who are not quite good enough to make a roster. I didn’t pay much attention to the G League until this season, when one of my favorite players, Jawun Evans, was assigned to the Phoenix Suns G League affiliate, the Northern Arizona Suns.

Jawun is my guy. A great dude. He was the first high profile guest I had on my podcast back in the day, and I still communicate with his agent Bryan pretty regularly. Jawun was originally drafted by the Clippers where early in the season he got injured and was sidelined for the year. In the offseason he got cut, and the suns picked him up. This is when Jawun’s G League career began. He went on an absolutely tirade of putting up out of this world numbers.

In his first game Jawun dropped 18 points, he was averaging around 3 in the NBA. He then went on to have a three game streak where he set a new career high for himself in each game. Game one he dropped 23 points, game two 29 points and in the third game he scored 33 points. I was texting his agent Bryan asking the big questions like, “Jawun for G League MVP?” Bryan would always respond saying something along the lines of “it’s too early to tell” or “let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”

This lead to me doing a little more research into the G League. While it is absolutely nutty what Jawun has been doing this season, he won’t be considered for G League MVP because he is playing so well that he keeps getting called up to the real Phoenix Suns, missing games at the G League level. I also discovered that guys dropping crazy stat lines is kind of a regular occurance, because they fall into a group I call “The Inbetweeners.”

Jordan Mcrae

The leading scorer in the G League is named Jordan Mcrae. He is averaging 30 points a game. Is that not mind blowing? At the level right below the NBA he is consistently dropping 30 points, but in the NBA he is averaging 4.5 points.

Christian Wood

The Wisconsin Herd, the Milwaukee Bucks G League affiliate, has a guy named Christian Wood. A little under a week ago, he had a game where he put up 45 points and 20 rebounds. FORTY FIVE POINTS AND TWENTY REBOUNDS. After recently being picked up by the Bucks, he is now averaging 2.9 points per game. I know that he is not getting a ton of playing time, but the disparity between the two leagues is huge.

I think what sums it up the best is the story of Renaldo Major. You have probably never heard of him, but he is the G League’s all-time leading scorer. He is the Kareem of the G League and no one has ever heard of him. This is because in the weird and confusing way that the G League works, it is a bad thing to be the all-time leading scorer. If you have scored the most points ever in the G League, it means you never got your shot, and rarely got picked up by NBA teams.

Ronaldo Major

The inbetweener is what every G League player is striving to be. Very rarely does anyone turn into Kris Middleton or Hassan Whiteside. That is why agent Bryan wasn’t on board with Jawun being G League MVP. Players would rather be making good money playing 3 minutes a game than making average money and dropping 30 points a game. The G League is an evolving league, and continues to be one of the most intriguing.