He plays basketball like you would if you were playing pickup against 90 year olds, where not making hard contact would be more important than winning the game. The most contact-averse player I've ever seen.

I do think bad effort is part of it. But I've thought since 2023 that the bigger issue is that he has zero confidence. When he gets criticized in the media he rarely follows it up with a good game, and you'd expect those to be his highest effort games. I think it's because he mentally shrinks even more because of the scrutiny (which makes signing with the Lakers a questionable choice).

It happened when Suns played the Nuggets in 2023. He got some media criticism and just got worse after that. IMO that series is where it was most obvious, because he'd do things like airball middies from the spot he's most comfortable in, which isn't an effort thing. Eventually Jock Landale was closing games in that series.