https://youtu.be/e_YY4fThf7c
Sekou Doumbouya had a couple decent games last season, games where I obviously made highlight videos for him, and that whole experience colored my perception of him. I try to be stoic and unaffected by hype at all times, but I think I got a little too drawn in by Doumbouya’s flashes of skill, and by the end of the season I considered him to be a better player than he actually was. Who could forget that run of eight games where he scored in double-digits seven times and even had a 24-point game? That was in early January, and then he scored in double-digits just once over what remained of the season. I actually did forget about that part. I remembered the good, but not the bad, and therein lies the problem.
Now, despite the Pistons having clearly given up on being competitive, Doumbouya’s role is smaller than it was last season, and he’s performing significantly worse from an efficiency perspective. And this is causing me undue disappointment because I had this unrealistic vision of Doumbouya in my head and the real-life Doumbouya is not matching that vision. Even worse, the vision I had of myself as some kind of player-analytics GOD whose appraisals of players are known far and wide as being 100% correct is now crumbling around me. I can literally feel bits of my ego splintering off my psyche and falling into the roiling, expanding pit of lava that is my self-doubt. It’s not a pleasant feeling. And as much as I wish I could blame Doumbouya, or even Coach Casey, I can’t. It’s all my fault.
The Pistons are resting a bunch of players now, so maybe Doumbouya can finish the season strong. Is it too late for the Pistons to sign Bruno Caboclo to be Doumbouya’s mentor? Caboclo has tons of experience being the skinny, rangy, quasi-skilled end-of-bench foreign dude for a bunch of teams. It’s a match made in mentoring heaven.