Thanks. Yeah, I glanced over at that thread, hilariously made by the notorious Mr Luck, trying to backpedal his way into having always been right even though the premise of the thread was completely wrong, when Dejounte's now a very skilled player - just not in the skills he should be (IMO). I'm perfectly aware that the Spurs are likely not trading DJ for the next 3-4 years and maybe even more, this is more of a theoretical discussion than some "let's throw Trade Machine scenarios around" kinda thing. But these deficiencies in his game have become really hard to ignore... And I've come to have higher standards for him, for better or worse. I keep thinking about these things I wrote about (which I've been going back-and-forth on with my guy
Dejounte for a little while now (where's my essay-length answer, huh?!
)), and it really is an interesting conversation.
It's not just the midrange shots that bother me - it's the context to how and when he's taking them. Great players always need the ability to hit these shots that DJ takes, because opposite defenses are game-planning for them and will want to take away the "easier" scoring options from them (in today's league, that'd usually be perimeter 3-balls and layups/rim shots). But Dejounte not only relishes in taking those hard 2's... He's based his entire scoring arsenal around them, to the point that he can't do much else if those shots aren't falling. Any team that scouts the Spurs even superficially can see DJ absolutely refusing to take any sort of 3 that isn't given to him as a C&S, making things hard for himself by needlesly penetrating into defenders. If the defense takes away his rim shots by packing the paint, he becomes pretty much a DeRozan-lite, unable to generate 3's for himself, and only having these tough 2's (that he doesn't convert at a nearly enough efficiency to be worth it
now, with zero scouting from other teams in regular season games, nevermind a playoff series) to score. Simply unreliable.
I don't know the "answer" for this, other than hoping he makes some sort of magic jump and becomes a 3pt shooting force. But as I've said elsewhere, the kinds of shots he has to take for that, are ones you grow up practicing, or learn really early into your career then polish over years... He's in his what, fifth season, and there's still no improvement there (his % may increase, but the type of shots hasn't varied much beyond the arc). At this point, I'm far from hopeful in that regard, tbqh.
E: I can't believe you literally answered my post as I was writing this, D
how do we keep cross-posting each other like that? It's looking more and more like witchcraft or something, lol. I'll get to you in a bit.