Big Dave

Anybody else feel like that “chit chat” HCBS had w David on the sidelines unleashed David’s inner beast? He seems like such a fine, articulate young man……i soooooooo want him to succeed on the court.

Agreed. It looks to me, from my couch, that his biggest problem is trying too hard which gets him sped up and a bit out of control. That is as much a good thing for him as a person as it is a bad thing on the court. I hope he overcomes it on the court without losing that willingness to put forth great effort for what he wants.

I hate to look a gift horse in the mouth, but just like last season, when Mac is "on" it usually means he shoots EVERY time he touches the ball - no matter where he is on the court. He had only one assist last night, and he usually only passed if he got completely shut down.

He can absolutely have a game like he did last night, but look at the rest of the team. Last year Ochai and Braun were passive and soft on offense, as Mac started to dominate games. Last night Ochai disappeared, Braun didn't have a super strong outing (though he hit a couple threes and got some nice garbage points), and we struggled as a team offensively until the latter part of the second half.

One game is not a trend, but we'll see if Mac having a dominant game or games leads to others having poor outings.

Agreed that Self's chat with him flipped a switch. I will say, however, that he still had some problems afterward.

To me, he has 2 big problems that even plague him in good games:

1.) He can't keep a grip on the ball. It seems that he loses a lot of balls from little guys slapping at it. Part of that can be fixed by not bringing the ball down, and protecting it more with your body. Part of that can be fixed by better entry passes. Braun tried to get him with a bounce pass in the lane at one point and it came in about thigh-high on Dave. Anytime you have a big holding the ball below his waist, it's a problem. But other times, it just seems like he isn't grabbing the ball very hard. Just my observation.

2.) Missing bunnies. Even when he got rolling, he missed a few that just blew my mind. There was on layup (off an inbounds I think) where he literally put the ball on the board right where it meets the rim and (quite predictably) the ball rolled off. Sorry, but when you're at that level, if you're not interfered with, fouled, or hit by a bus, a layup from 2' (when the ball leaves his hands about 9" from the rim) should be 99.99999%. He's like 85%.

All that said, I hope that he's mentally in a better place now because even with these sometimes infuriating flaws, "good Dave" is handy to have around.