Sure, but I’m not sure he’s not doing anything Nick Anderson or Deron Williams couldn’t do. Their stats weren’t inflated because they didn’t need to be. TSJ is an outstanding player, and certainly having one of the best seasons in Illini history.
The truth is, this team needs TSJ to produce at a higher level because the talent is not as good/deep as our better teams.
You're making my argument for me. Teams couldn't just ball down on Nick or Deron because they had to deal with Gill, Battle, Brown, and Head. TSJ can slice through a double, get fouled, and the basket.
Nick Anderson was a 60% free throw shooter. Both TSJ and Nick were 36% from three - but he shot 1.7 per game. TSJ shoots 6.8 per game. He's getting the same percentage over more shots, and because he's taking more shots, more of them are contested, but he's getting the same percentage. That's huge. Could Nick have shot more threes per game at the same percentage, but wasn't because that was Gill's job? Maybe. Really, he mostly took wide open ones (barring the winner vs. Indiana, of course).
Deron was a sharpshooter, and an assist machine. If I had one pick, I'm taking Deron over Nick. But TSJ is breaking guys ankles and he is just flat out a LOT faster than either of those two guys. If he steals the ball, it's over - there's no chance some dude is going to track it down and block his dunk. Terrance has longer arms and can really create space for his arms to get the ball up and in while drawing a lot of fouls. Nick more so just ran dudes over because he was so strong, but he didn't have the speed to just weave through three guys from the top of the key.
And if I say someone is better than Nick or Deron, that's saying a hell of a lot because those two guys were monsters.