Azzi will be fine. But the fans complaining that Dallas isn’t using her correctly or that she’s just standing in the corner need to acknowledge that’s she consistently passing up wayyyy too many open shots.
I’m not saying she needs to play like Arike and force everything, but there’s a middle ground. What she’s doing right now is not going to cut it. The UConn mindset of making the extra pass is great, but at some point she has to find a balance between making the right basketball play and getting her own.
She can’t solely depend on Paige or Jess to pass to her, especially when Jess picks and chooses when she wants to share the ball. As much as we would love Paige to only pass to Azzi (at least I would), that’s not realistic. Paige’s job is to get everyone involved. Geno even said before that Paige doesn’t play favorites. If you’re open, she’ll find you. This is really her first full season in a minute playing point guard, and she’s still finding that balance herself.
We know Azzi has the green light. The Connecticut game is a prime example. When she passed up that open three for a middy every single person on that bench looked annoyed. Which tells me that not only do they want her taking that shot but her passing it up has been a topic of discussion. We’ve literally heard Jose say she needs to shoot the damn ball when she’s open. There’s no question of if they believe in her. My question is if she believes in herself. Even with her layups and floaters it’s like she’s second guessing herself mid way which has resulted in her missing a bunch of those.
Could Jose run more actions for her? Absolutely. I don’t think he’s done a great job of running actions for anyone this season. But why would you keep drawing up plays if she’s going to pass up quality looks anyway?
She has to trust herself. She has the ability to be the best three point shooters this league has ever seen, but that won’t happen if she keeps hesitating. She HAS to let it fly.
I love the effort she gives on defense, and I know guarding the other team’s best player every night takes a ton of energy. But her offense matters just as much. And I don’t love that it seems like her offense is being sacrificed for her defense. That truly isn’t on her but Jose needs to make sure everyone else is doing their job defensively so she isn’t having to overcompensate (I’m not talking about P, Awak, Sug or Lan). All that to say it’s time for her to be more selfish, hunt her shot, and trust that she’s earned every one of those attempts.