With all the talk this summer about DJO being ready to bust out, it is frustrating to see him struggle, and that has nothing to do with the last play. He clearly is fighting his confidence and appears to want to hide at times rather than be the command the ball leader I thought we'd see. He's too good of a player not to come around, and I think it will make a huge difference for this team.
I watched him play in the pro-am a lot this summer, and he seemed to have a lot of confidence. That is until his team play DB's team. Buycks outplayed him on both sides of the court and DJO was extremely frustrated. He swore after nearly every shot and his anger made him make stupid plays. He still ended up scoring 20+ pts, but he did not seem right.
I understand this was a much different environment and it wouldn't be fair to compare his play in the ProAm to his performance in D1 ball. However, I think it is fair to mention his demeanor. He seems to lose confidence in himself very easily and does not handle struggling very well. I feel the same sort of thing is going on this season. He needs to realize that just because his shots aren't falling that is no reason to lose faith in his shot. He has driven into traffic and made silly plays on numerous occasions this year when he would have knocked down a jumper last season. I have no idea what it would take to get his confidence back, I thought UWM would do that, then I thought last game would be the trick. I feel like he is coming around, but I think it would help if we get a big win in which he can say that he had a key roll in. If he hadn't tripped tonight and won the game for us I feel he would be on the road to recovery. He needs a big win for himself to play well as badly as the team needs him to play well to get a big win IMO.
Meant hide at times...darn phone.