Its called a sophmore slump, plenty of players have them. This is far from an unprecendented event. DJ still has a lot of time to correct the many flaws he has in his game.
Did Larry Brown ruin him? Did Stephen Jackson force him to do his laundry for the season? Did Crash take all of his protein shakes? Did Boris Diaw take him under his wing (and into the abyss)? Did he lose his contacts?
I don't think I've ever seen a player fall off this hard after a successful rookie season. Last year, one could easily say that he was the best pure point guard out of his draft and was going to take Felton's job this year with ease. Now he looks as if he's caught whatever Adam Morrison had.
Why DJ?
You were the chosen one!
Its called a sophmore slump, plenty of players have them. This is far from an unprecendented event. DJ still has a lot of time to correct the many flaws he has in his game.
I don't think he was considered a pure point guard at the end of the season. He only had 3.5 assists in 26 minutes of play. It was his three point shooting and free throws, his scoring, that made him appealing.
I think DJ's decline was a combination of typical sophomore slump combined with Brown getting in his head about being a point guard rather than a pass-occasionally shooting guard.
SOMEONE will pay for THIS!
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This is no typical sophomore slump. He doesn't even resemble the same player that he was last year. He can't shoot, all the fluidity in his game is gone, his confidence is shot, and he's become twice as selfish somehow.
Assist numbers aren't everything, they're hardly the measure of a solid point guard. Tony Parker may never come close to averaging ten assists per game but I don't think anyone is going to say he's a poor point guard. No one is going to average a lot of assists in this system, but I don't think that anyone would argue that the offense looked better with Raymond Felton at point instead of DJ last year. And even if you want to call it a sophomore slump, could you even point out one basketball player (that didn't get injured) who's seen his game nose dive quite like DJs?
I'm not allowed to say exactly, but all I need to say is DJ's work ethic SUCKS. While he may not have been hanging out with Boris, he's the next Boris Diaw, unless he shapes up. Obviously he never listened to Ray.
I got word from an outside source that DJ was taking summer classes at Texas instead of practicing and conditioning. Bad in basketball terms but I applaud him getting an education. Hopefully he'll be finished with classes and will be focused on getting better and back to his rookie form.
While that's all well and good, he'd still be able to work out. He's a professional athlete, thus he should focus on that, and if he wants to finish his degree, he needs to spread it out so he can still earn his paycheck. Otherwise, he'll be needing that degree quickly.
I agree completely. To me, this comes from the classic 'spoiled child syndrome'. LB pampered DJ his rookie year. Shit was just given to him. This year he had to work for it, and it took him a long time to get used to working the way LB wanted him to. I hope this season has taught DJ how to work.
I have no idea on the DJ situation. I'm just hoping he shapes up and puts in hard work over the off-season to come back better.
DJ in college could score and pass. I don't think he's a pure point guard, but he's not a passer either.
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