Okay, at the end of the last article, I wrote that I’d run the Statistical Doppelganger Machine on Bilal Coulibaly, completely forgetting I’d already done it. Senior moment, I guess.
At this point, there are maybe three more players I’m interested in running through The Machine. Today, let’s talk Justin Champagnie.
For reasons that were never quite clear to me, Champagnie was not drafted. He’d been a reasonably productive player at Pitt, and I had him rated as a late first or early second rounder in YODA. Not getting drafted put him into an early career fight for opportunities, and he may have found a home with the Wizards.
He started last season on a two-way contract, made the most of chances to play, got a nice payday when the team signed him to a multi-year deal, and then continued to play well in an expanded role when they traded Kyle Kuzma. This may sound like a hot take, but Champagnie was better than Kuzma last season.
At the risk of converting that “hot take” into a scorcher, Champagnie’s 2024-24 was better than any season of Kuzma’s career.
That said, while Champagnie was pretty good last season (PPA: 114), the sample was still small enough (1,340 minutes) to still keep him in “wait and see” mode.
For those new to the series, the Statistical Doppelganger Machine takes a reference season (in this case, Champagnie last year) and compares it to every other player season since 1977-78. The Machine uses 14 box score and data categories, including age, but does not include position or height.
Here are Champagnie’s comps:
Next through the Statistical Doppelganger Machine: CJ McCollum or Kris Middleton.