Adelaide NBL coach Joey Wright says his out of sorts star Nathan Sobey needs to stop playing with a chip on his shoulder.
The Boomers squad guard hasn't produced the numbers or impact of his breakout 2016-17 season, after which he was named the NBL's most improved player and in the All-NBL second team.
Wright hardly used the 27-year-old in the first half of their loss to Melbourne United last week and Sobey finished with only two points in just under 13 minutes.
"Sometimes players play well, sometimes they don't," Wright said.
"You've just got to do what you can to get them out there and get them going, so just trying to do what we can to get him going.
"He's a great player. He needs to get back to doing the little things.
"Get in the passing lines, getting deflections, blocking it out ... a couple of blocked shots; it will start to roll for him.
"Not trying to go straight to the top and score 20.
"He kind of relies on results to give him the confidence instead of the process.
"He's a guy that's always played with a chip on his shoulder and I think he doesn't probably understand that he doesn't need that chip."
Sobey had no major issues with spending so much of last weeks's game on the pine.
"It was understood that I haven't been performing to the ability that I can," he said.
"We've got to hold each other accountable and I've just got to improve and get better on the practice floor and take it into games.
"I've just got to get back to a lot of the stuff that I was doing last year."
Adelaide on Saturday host Illawarra, the team that beat them in last season's semi-finals.
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