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Meet Troy Daniels. He’s a 22-year-old undrafted rookie who played just five games for the Rockets this year.
He spent nearly all of his time with the mad science experiment that is the D-League’s Rio Grande Valley Vipers.
The Vipers gained minor fame in some online circles for their belief in almost exclusively taking layups or threes. As they tore up the league, the Vipers’ leading man was Troy Daniels.
The dude took an absurd 13.1 threes per game, made 5.3 of them (41.9 per cent) and in one game particularly outrageous game, he put up 21 three-point attempts.
Today, all those reps appeared to pay off.
When Daniels entered the game, Jeff Van Gundy voiced his surprise and mild concern for Kevin McHale putting the highly inexperience Daniels out there at such a crucial moment, while also admiring McHalefor showing so much confidence in the rookie.
McHale’s gamble paid off almost immediately. All tied at 116-116 with 14 seconds remaining in overtime, Jeremy Lin recovered a lost ball, drove into traffic during a frantic, truly chaotic play. Lin, surrounded by bodies, kicked the ball out to Daniels, who not only iced the game, but saved Houston’s season.
If Houston went down 3-0, the series was lost, and likely in embracing fashion. Imagine what might’ve followed.
McHale would likely lose his job.
People would’ve started tearing Harden apart like they did after the 2012 finals, and doubting that his mantra of ‘when in doubt shoot’ makes for a championship-winning formula.
While LaMarcus activated ‘beast mode’ in the second round, Dwight would likely have activated ‘bitch mode’ and chewed out and complained about his teammates publicly.
Instead, an unknown, undrafted, young man by the name of Troy Daniels, stepped up and stopped it all from happening.
For now, at least. Well done, young gun.
We’ll give your D-League coach a call, and tell him you’re busy.
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