【Highlights】Eagles 118-134 Lakers James led the team to 4 consecutive wins 32+8+9+4+3
At 10 minutes and 14 seconds in the third quarter, the Lakers completed the defense and Russell Westbrook threw the ball into the front. Stanley Johnson received the ball and failed to complete the counterattack to the layup, seeing that the counterattack was going to be fruitless, Malik Munch arrived in time, he received the pass and shot three points at Capela's long arm, the ball fell like a stone falling into the calm water to stir up a beautiful splash, hollow into the basket to drive the net to flip.
It was Munch's second three-pointer in 38 seconds and his seventh on the field, and his hot hand stopped the Hawks. During the timeout, an excited LeBron James rushed up to celebrate with Munch in a set of combo gestures. You know, James rarely gives his teammates such treatment during the game, which shows that Munch's performance has conquered him.
It is no wonder that with Munch's current performance and cost performance, which team and teammate will not love him? Against the Hawks, Munch shot 11-of-20 in 35 minutes, including 7-of-12 three-pointers, 29 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals. The Lakers were able to build a big lead in the first half and several times in the third quarter, and Munch was the biggest contributor.
In his last seven games, Munch has scored 20+ in five of his last seven games, averaging more than 20 points per game and not shooting less than 40 percent from three-point range in any of his games. Anthony Davis wasn't there, and Munch became the Lakers' third big man.
But such a good player, in the offseason, was swept out by the Hornets, and after entering the free market, he was not popular, and finally could only sign the Lakers with a basic salary contract of $1.8 million.
Munch's upbringing story is also a bit of a mess, he became famous at a young age, averaging 22.8 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game in his first year of high school. In his final year of high school, Munch averaged 28.6 points plus 7.6 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game. Munch competed in the McDonald's All-Star Game in 2016 and also lifted the MVP trophy with the top-paid guard de Aaron Fox, who now plays for the Kings, in another important event, the Jordan Classic.
Munch is the undisputed five-star high school student, ranking 9th in the Nation and No. 1 among scoring guards on the Class of 2016 admissions list. In the end, Munch chose to go to the famous Kentucky University. In his freshman season, Munch averaged 19.8 points per game, shooting 45% from the field and nearly 40% from three-point range, attracting the attention of a large number of NBA teams. In 2017, Munch, a freshman, announced his draft and was selected by the Hornets with the 11th pick in the first round.
Many young players will care about the level of the draft pick, but in fact, many times, a suitable environment that is conducive to their own development is more important than the pick. For Munch, the Hornets were not a team that suited him. In his first two seasons with the Hornets, the Hornets started point guard Kemba Walker, which meant that Munch, who was only 1.91 meters tall and played the second position, could not start. Because Walker and Munch have similar characteristics, and neither is known for their defense.
In the 2019-20 season, Walker left the team, but the Hornets formed a new backcourt combination of Derwent Graham and Rozier. In the 2020-21 season, the Hornets were able to put together a table of mahjong in the backcourt, which was already overcrowded, and Lamelo Ball joined through the draft.
For 4 years, Munch never played a stable role in a stable environment. The Hornets also lack patience in developing Munch, who discussed a trade with the Bucks during his rookie season. A year later, when Bradley Bill was embroiled in trade rumors, the Hornets talked to the Wizards about a deal, and Munch was among the chips. Including the Hornets talking to the Grizzlies about the Mark Gasol deal, the Hornets talking to the Knicks about the Randall deal, Munch has been involved in rumors as a trading chip.
In fact, although Munch performed poorly in the first two years of his career, he continued to improve in the next two seasons. Last season, Munch averaged 11.7 points per game, a career-high 40.1 percent from three-point range. However, the Hornets did not give him an important role, but often abandoned him, and refused to give him a qualification offer at the end of the season, allowing him to become a full free agent.
After Munch became a free agent, except for the Lakers, there was no team to contact Munch. Munch said: "It hit me a lot because there was no team other than the Lakers who wanted me, it was so hard, and some days I didn't know how to feel about it." ”
Of course, the Lakers know that Munch is not defending well, but they also know that Munch can shoot and block. Lakers coach Vogel and team core James strongly recommend management to sign Munch. Vogel already knew Munch, and before the 2017 draft, Vogel, who was still the magic coach at the time, interviewed Munch, saying: "I have always been a fan of him personally, so when we have the opportunity to get him, I just strongly recommend that the team must work hard to sign him." ”
The same is true of James, who revealed that he wanted the Lakers to exchange Munch last season. "I talked to Kidd, who was an assistant coach on the team last season, and last season we wanted to get Munch, but the Hornets sometimes let him play and sometimes they didn't let him play. You can see that he scored eight or nine three-pointers in the game against the Heat, but he sat on the bench and didn't have time to play in the next game. I asked Kidd if we could get this guy, and we finally got our wish in the offseason. ”
Munch signed to the Lakers on a basic salary contract, but at the beginning, Munch did not have an advantage in the position competition, even when the team was full of injuries, Vogel also trusted Bazemore, Jordan Jr., Ellington and so on. It wasn't until Vogel failed a series of experiments that he began reusing Munch. Munch also lived up to expectations, averaging 11.6 points, 2.2 assists per game and shooting 47.7 percent from the field and 38.4 percent from three-point range.
Munch is the Lakers' golden oil, and when he starts, he averages 18.6 points per game. When he was on the bench, he averaged 9.9 points per game. While Munch played significantly better as a starter, he was also moderately efficient as a substitute, shooting more than 58 percent of his true shooting above the league average, giving Vogel plenty of options.
The combination between Munch and James is particularly obvious, since James joined the Lakers, he has been plagued by the team's defenders who do not have three threats (breaking through with the ball, shooting, passing) and playing with him, whether it is Westbrook or Caruso, they lack a certain ability, resulting in them and James to block and dismantle opponents can shrink. But Munch is different, he can score 1.019 points per game this season, more than 88% of the league's players, and he and James can create all kinds of dislocations.
The data shows that when Munch set cover for James, the Lakers scored 1.27 points per game. Of the 499-game combination that has played at least 40 blocks, the Lakers' offensive efficiency ranks third. And when James set cover for Munch, the Lakers scored 1.22 points per game, a figure that ranks 16th out of 499 pairs. Whether Munch or James holds the ball, the blocking between the two can evolve into a variety of playing styles, James's misplaced back-and-forth, strong shots against small ones, blocking and dismantling down, and Munch's open three-point catch are very sharp.
The blocking between Munch and James has become a big kill for the Lakers, but today's battle with the Eagles, the Lakers did not even use this set of killing moves, Munch only used to counterattack three points, fixed point three points to shoot the Eagles. Munch's every shot is full of confidence, and he is already the most reliable outside scorer for this Lakers team.
"He's a solid three-point shooter, he's very confident, but not overconfident, he knows he can contribute and play at a high level," Vogel said.
Let's look at these rounds, Munch is basically catching the ball and shooting. This season, Munch scored 1.267 points per game on catches, ranking 12th among players in the league who made at least 90 catches, and his efficiency is even higher than nets goalscorer Patty Mills, and above top scorers such as Pope and Hield.
With Munch's current performance, even if Kendrick Nine and Anthony Davis return from injury, Munch can still sit in the starting position. Crucially, with this season's performance, Munch has a chance to get a fat contract this offseason. After all, Munch is less than 24 years old, and he still has room to improve.
However, what Munch is thinking about now is not the future, but how to help the Lakers compete for the championship now, and he believes in going with the flow and rewarding the way.
"You have to gamble for yourself, I'm the one who demands the most from myself, so I know if I set my mind right and play the way I play, everything will be fine. Whether I play for 10 minutes or 40 minutes, as long as I continue to play in the right way, there will always be someone who can see my performance and there will always be a team that will reward me. ”