What Happened to Tyreke Evans?
He went from ROY to a journeyman.
Back in 2009, I joined a Fantasy NBA league out of boredom.
I didn’t do the draft and just let the system auto-pick for me. I know drafting is one of the most fun parts of Fantasy, but I don’t remember why I didn’t do it.
Anyway, the system auto-drafted some player named Tyreke Evans to my team.
I didn’t know who he was but did know he was a rookie.
I had a feeling he wasn’t going to do much in his first NBA season, so I dropped him for a more seasoned player.
Huge mistake.
A few weeks into the season, I came across a highlight of his first 30-plus point game and I was not pleased with my decision.
”Shit,” I thought to myself (or that’s what I think I said. It’s been years since this day).
I logged onto my Yahoo Fantasy Sports account and scrambled to add Evans back onto my team but someone had already gotten him.
I was disappointed. However, I continued to keep my eyes on him to see how he would do throughout the season.
I must admit, though, that I was waiting for him to start playing poorly (I know, I’m petty). But he never did.
He continued to do well, putting up big numbers on a nightly basis and I became a fan of Evans.
I followed his career and got him on pretty much every team I used in 2K early in his career. I also tried to get him on my Fantasy teams.
He was such a fun player to use. He was a big, quick slasher who could pass the ball. And he could defend, too.
But as the seasons went by, his numbers started to drop and he didn’t progress like I thought he would.
Evans was still putting up good numbers, but I expected him to average All-Star numbers.
His former Sacramento Kings’ teammate, DeMarcus Cousins, believes part of the reason Evans went from Rookie of the Year to role player is because he played during a time when the game was turning its tides.
Cousins, who was on the Forgotten Seasons podcast, said that Evans, a combo guard, played during a time when the NBA was changing, when the NBA was evolving into essentially, the Steph Curry Era.
“[Evans kind of got caught up in that era,” Cousins said. “The game was starting to transition and with you being a combo guard -when Tyreke came in he was considered a combo guard, like a combo playmaking guard. He wasn’t a point guard but he wasn’t a shooting guard either because he could drive, he could play make, all of those things. So, he was a point guard with a shooting guard's body; damn near a small forward’s body. Super talented. He just got caught up in the game to where if you had the ball in your hands as a guard, you had to really be able to shoot it because guys like Steph [Curry] were changing the game. Damian Lillard were changing the game. Like, the game was just starting to switch then.”
Cousins added that injuries also played a role in Evan’s lack of progression.
After he got injured, he didn’t come back as athletic and his game relied on his athleticism. He also bounced around the league (played for 4 different teams in 10 years) and Cousins believes this affected his confidence.
Evans, then a 29-year-old, played his final game in 2018-19 with the Indiana Pacers.
If a team had given him a chance, do you think he could’ve helped them out? For reference, he holds averages of 15.7 points, 4.8 assists and 4.6 rebounds for his career.