Lol, yeah, Dusty was just an average player before he won THREE NORM SMITH MEDALS.
Who cares how good he was before he won THREE NORM SMITH MEDALS.
Why? Because HE WON THREE NORM SMITH MEDALS!
It's like saying Einstein was still in school before he revolutionized physics. Who the stuff cares?
(It's also definitionally true: before someone is exceptional they are, by definition, unexceptional, which is itself a rather unexceptional thing to say.)