Bucks fans are all busy apologizing SUPER HARD to D.J. Wilson for completely writing him off last year and calling him all sorts of mean names in the process. I guess they were having Joe Alexander flashbacks and overreacted to his lack of playing time in his rookie season, because the fanbase was unanimous in its declaration of his bustiness. Almost literally unanimous, this wasn’t just a few disgruntled old-timers. I don’t think there was a Bucks fan out there who still believed in him. If they did think that, they kept quiet, lest the incur the wrath of the “Deej is a bust” hordes.
For my part, I did write these words at the end of last season: “D.J. “Deej” Wilson sucked even in the G-League (seriously go look at his plus-minus stats it’s SO BAD) but I think he can have a role going forward. DISCLAIMER: I thought, and still do think, the same about Rashad Vaughn.”
So let the record show that I still had hope for him, that I didn’t think he was necessarily a total bust. I am vindicated by his sudden and surprising string of extremely solid play, but I’m not going to brag too much. Even I didn’t expect what he’s doing right now.
And what that is, is playing large chunks of meaningful playing time and being a positive on the court. He’s playing with far more intensity than he did in the (admittedly garbage-timey and super limited) minutes he got last year. In his first major minutes game against the Pistons, I couldn’t believe what he was doing, how active he was on defense. Like, my eyes were bugging out and my mouth was hanging wide open like I was some sort of mouth-breather.
His stretch of decent games has culminted with this INSANE (SICK!!!!) 13-point outing, where he made the Grizzlies into his bitch during the third quarter. That step-back three was Lopez-esque, his dunk was Thon-esque (it wasn’t a great dunk), and his no-look spinning pass was Giannis-esque. Wilson is playing a big role for the best team in the league right now, and I can’t believe either part of the sentence, much less the whole thing combined.