Possible to replace underlying data of datatable instead of using 'destroy'?

Hi Allan. I have a user list (non-datatable) on the left rail of my web app. When someone selects a user, that users' information is populated on the right.

In one user section I have a DataTable of a user's certifications. Upon first load everything is fine. But when subsequent users users are selected I get the expected 'Cannot reinitialize' error (http://datatables.net/tn/3).

I can get this to work using destroy, but I do notice a performance hit. I don't want to change the features, just replace the list with new content. Is there a way around this?

This may be not how DataTables is supposed to be used, but thought I'd ask just in case.

Aside from different columns, the code I'm working with is exactly like this reorder example:
https://editor.datatables.net/examples/extensions/rowReorder.html

Thanks,
-Jibran