masondixonlax wrote: ↑Sun May 19, 2024 2:37 pm
LaxPundit07 wrote: ↑Sun May 19, 2024 2:37 pm
Wheels wrote: ↑Sun May 19, 2024 2:33 pm
pcowlax wrote: ↑Sun May 19, 2024 2:31 pm
Might be time to initiate a new tradition and strip the #22 for services not rendered.
From what I have heard about him, he's a very good teammate and all about being a good teammate. Honestly, it'd be a real baller move for him to say. "I'm giving it up, and if I earn it back, I earn it back."
I am sure he is a great kid. I think most of us are mocking the hype around him, more than we are the person. When you are the chosen one (inside lacrosse was writing full articles about his recruitment process in high school with interviews, etc.) the expectation is you will be “the guy” in big moments. Two years in, he has yet to do that.
Isn’t some of the hype and publicity his dads fault tho?
He had an absolutely unbelievable high school career, so I'm not sure it's fair to call the hype purely manufactured. But I think there's a little bit of revisionist history being applied by people that want to get their digs in. He was a hyped #1 recruit, but recruiters did not treat Spallina like he was Brennan O'Neill. There were questions even back then about whether his dodging would translate at the next level; he was the #1 recruit based on production and from the fact that he was so skilled and so smart that he was basically a guarantee to be a high level player in one role or another even if he never developed into an elite dodger.
I think so far his career has played out at his absolute floor, and I think that his current level being the floor for his projections vindicates why he was ranked so highly, because he is still a very good player. I wonder if he would flourish more if he was playing on a team with an elite qb to play off of as a #2 or an off-ball player -- he spent many years thriving as an off-ball player when he was playing two grades up during the summer club circuit, so we know he's not a player who demands to have the ball in his stick to be effective. Think he'd look elite playing off of someone like Shellenberger or PKav.