D.J. Wilson This Year

totally, DJ is now the most important piece of the team. I think 30-35 minutes will be the norm.

What an absolute joy to see his development to this point. As long as he continues to exploit his longer reach and athleticism to focus on rebounds, the rest of his game will benefit. What little I’ve heard from him in post-game interviews suggests that that’s his attitude and focus as well. This season might be more fun than I had anticipated.

I’m with you guys. He showed good film in high school but I think getting hurt fresh year hurt him. Last year was a fluke I think. He often looked lost and trying to force it,

The fact that he has accepted his role changes everything. The ability to play two bigs is huge. Anyone watching can see the difference in the court. Very, very happy for him and us.

Duncan off the bench is very key too. Loved to see him hit his shot.

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Ummm, no. Mo Taylor was a very lazy player for us, brought very little energy or effort and relied purely on talent. Wilson is far less talented and far more active than Mo.

“Getting hurt”, haha. He was “hurt” yeah, but it was really minor. It was mostly a made up injury to get him a medical redshirt after his play made it clear he wasn’t ready (The football team is gonna be doing A LOT of this this year).

Really can’t overstate how amazing of an improvement this has been. He looked like he didn’t know how to play basketball the last two years.

I said this the other day but it really feels like we have 7 starters this year. Donnal doesn’t skip a beat at the 5 when he checks in and we’re capable of surviving foul trouble with any guy in the rotation (see Walton yesterday). Wilson’s breakout makes it so much easier on the other 6 guys in so many ways.

His length also allows him to play further off the ball handler which gives him a split second more to react.

It was still very early. He was the second frosh in the rotation so obviously they saw something in him. I saw him go to the rim aggressively early on too so I was at least happy he had an attack mind frame. I think last year was a true fluke. Very pumped.

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It’s only 3 games into the season. Between matchups and Duncan Robinson’s early season slump (in practice and games), it’s been a favorable stretch for Wilson.

Much like my thoughts on Simpson, let’s see how things stand in late December. At that point maybe 22-25 mpg will look more reasonable than 18-20 mpg … or maybe Robinson wins back the minutes … or maybe Ibi Watson forces his way into regular minutes? Long season; lots of twists and turns still to come.

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Does Duncan shooting 5 for 9 from three in real games register as a slump?

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He was 1-6 on 3’s in the exhibition and first official. His 2-pt % was off as well. That’s what got the slump talk started.

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And Coach Beilein bringing it up in media availability that Robinson’s been struggling with shooting in practice, to match the early game showings.

Yeah I wasn’t a big fan of JB’s comments RE: Duncan whether or not they were true but regardless one bad exhibition game showing isn’t enough for me to buy into the “Duncan lost his shot” talk. He surely wasn’t slumping under the bright lights last night.

Encouraging to see DJ go from motorless to turbo charged. Truly amazing to watch perceptions flip.

As for Mo Taylor, I dunno about lazy; wouldn’t agree with the accusation. One thing I liked about Taylor, which I also see in Wilson is a good face up jump shot. Taylor was very good from 10-15 feet. I would like to see Wilson take more in that range and less from 3, but I’m open to being convinced otherwise.

I see the Maceo Baston comparison too, but Maceo didn’t have the nice looking shot Wilson possesses.

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Taylor was absurdly lazy. One of the very few Michigan players over the years who I just couldn’t stand. He had loads of talent, but had no desire to be great. That carried over to the NBA, too - dude had a 6-9, 250 chiseled frame, and had one of the worst rebounding averages in the league. I remember years where guards like Jason Kidd would average more rebounds than Mo. It was no coincidence our team got a lot better the year after Mo left.

Wilson is definitely a better shooter than Baston, but that comparison does make some sense. Maceo was a better athlete, but Maceo was a better athlete than many guys, so that’s no slam against DJ.

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With respect to Wilson, after rebounds he always looked down the court for longer outlet passes but didn’t force it if they weren’t there. We’ve been missing someone to initiate the break after rebounds since McGary left.

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Fortunately for him he absurdly lazied himself into a 10 year NBA career

Where is Matt D’s interjection?

Is dj michigans best player? He was incredible again. His defense is nba good right now. He closes out like a champ, he alters shots, he blocks shots, he had numerous plays tonight where he went up perfectly without fouling, yet giving them no space to shoot. Absolutely awesome again. Only true die hards could even understand just how great his d was.

I don’t think he’s been around in awhile.

I would imagine he is pleasantly surprised like the rest of us.