https://youtu.be/PsbwChdH6vs
I waited three whole seasons (and part of a fourth) for D.J. Wilson to do something like this, and I never got it. “This” and “It” being the fabled “Actually Good Game” (AGG), a title assigned to a performance where the player in question actually had a good game. Not just an “okay game” or a “middling game” or a “game where he didn’t suck total rod for the entire time he was on the court”. No. We’re talking a “good game”. Actually good. Not fake good. Lots of players never acquire an AGG during their entire career.
The Bucks haven’t had great luck getting AGGs from their recent first-round selections. I think Rashad Vaughn had one, but only one, early in his second season. Thon Maker, likewise, only had one. And Wilson never managed one at all with the Bucks. He came close, with an 18/17/4 performance in the 2018-19 season finale, but that was a joke of a game where Tim Frazier played all 48 minutes, Wilson played 47, and Bonzie Colson played 45. Anyone can put up stats in that sort of a scenario.
This game was kind of similar to that one in that Wilson was forced to play tons of minutes due to circumstances outside his direct control (I’m assuming here, it’s possible that some or all of the Rockets injuries were caused by a furiously jealous Wilson bashing his teammate’s joints/ligaments/faces with a billy club). He’s been getting minutes, but even with the Rockets’ weird roster situation, not a ton of them. He only played 5 minutes last game, but here he was gifted 40, a result of the Rockets having only 7 available players.
And it happened. The Actually Good Game. Performed by one DeVante Jaylen Wilson. 25 points. 8 rebounds. 4 assists. 3 steals. Wilson joins the likes of Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Luke Babbitt in the list of NBA players who, at least once in their career, had a game that could unequivocally be termed “actually good”. And I am so hyped.
Is this sustainable at all? Of course not. The thing with Deej is that buckets don’t come to him very naturally. Everything looks forced. His jumper is HARSH. That’s not a soft jumper. It’s flat, it’s fast, and he doesn’t give it much of a chance to go in. Layups are tough; he seems prone to getting blocked more than he should, and he really had to contort to get some of these ones to go in. For a guy with a nice vertical, he lacks explosiveness. He’s at risk of getting stuffed by the rim even on open dunks. He can score in a lot of ways from most areas of the court (past the half-court line is off-limits, though), but he can’t score WELL from any of them, in any way.
I don’t mean to be hard on him. I’ve always enjoyed him, even if the enjoyment turned from “earnest” to “ironic” once I realized that he was never going to be an impact player for the Bucks. It’s not really coming through in these words, but I’m so hyped, and so happy for him. There’s still a great chance that he’s not going to get picked up by a team next year, but now, at least, there’s a chance that some random GM will stumble on this video, watch it, and think “we need this dude”. Thanks to Houston for giving him this chance; it’s unlikely he’ll thrive there to any great degree, but he was never, EVER, going to thrive for the Bucks.