Stone finished 42, 62, 67, 35, 30 in scoring the last 5 years from current season to 5 years ago
In terms of ppg, he finished 47, 14, 46, 33, 37.
You have a big vocabulary. I think you can find a more accurate term than exploded to describe his recent scoring.
You are of course entitled to your opinion, but in the context of the discussion, the perception of the player around the league, I think exploded is accurate, particularly when people were watching him closest.
His pts per game went from .76-.81 in 2014-15 to 2016-17 to .95-1.07 in 2017-18 to 2018-19. That’s a big jump even if this year in particular was part of a broader jump league wide. Point per game production is a bit of a milestone as well that gets people paying more attention, regardless of where it ranks league wide. Breaking that threshold is likely more relevant to perception than league ranking,
At the deadline when he was traded and everyone’s eyes were on him, his pts per game was at 1.05 on a brutal team. A drop in performance after the trade probably would have had more of an impact on league wide perception, except that he followed it up in the playoffs where players make their reputations by leading all players in pts per game at 1.71 pts per game. He then went on to lead Canada in scoring and top 5 in the tournament at the World Championship.
So, I disagree with you, Stone’s production absolutely did explode, and while there was some context surrounding that explosion that may frame it in a different light, I think when sticking to the overall topic of why perception of him changed recently, it is still the increase in production that got people paying attention, and that exposure that changed old views into current ones, not the tired narrative that now that he’s gone people are overhyping him because he’s not a Sen.