@justanotherfan
Bet on the concussion.
It also appears Self is massaging his role into a the guy who drives it late in games and sits as much as Self can afford the rest of the game. It seems like Malik is becoming this teams 6th man even when he plays starter sized minutes. He is supposed to come in when we aren't running the offense anymore and go get baskets. This sort of role would make his average fall also. His shots are created, instead of the offense shaking him loose for some looks.
Its pretty apparent that Self decided to let Malik be Malik and stop trying to bang him into the team player role. He did something similar with Andrew Wiggins. Wigs and Malik share something similar. They are not ball hogs so much as great athletes that really can go get baskets against almost any D1 defender. And when Self tries to get them to let the offense come to them they get tentative, because it is literally not clear to such players when to pass and when to impact. Unlike other players, they see a floor where they could impact every touch. So then they just start passing the ball and not getting involved enough in the offense. Self obviously struggles with coming up with a workable shooting heuristic that allows them to blend AND impact. After mid season, in both players' cases, Self finally just crafted roles where they could more or less go get baskets anytime they felt like it. Wiggins had the green light full time and played full time because he was a fine defender and did just did so many things well even at only 2/3 speed. Malik is not quite as overwhelmingly talented, but he's pretty darned good in go get a basket mode. So: Self is literally putting him in games when he wants Malik to go get baskets, and he sits Malik for Garrett when ever Self wants more offensive flow; i.e., when he wants to ball to keep moving. I was pretty confused about what Self was doing until the KSU game sunk in. But it happened again vs.WVU. It appears the last 5-8 minutes of games our offense defaults largely to either create and impact, or catch and shoot. It actually makes quite a bit of sense, considering the abilities of Devonte, LaCobra, Malik and Svi. They are kind of a scary bunch when they are impacting or in catch and shoot modes. Mix in an occasional cut or back door to our bigs and you've got a late game stew to serve for all opponents.
But I believe the concussion is lurking as an issue. Malik is still not quite as freewheeling as he was; that's a signal to me that those landings after creating shake the brain meat in its hammock still and it doesn't always feel good.
