Bond also played tonight. Wauwatosa East lost after trailing the whole game, although they got it close at the half and again at the end of the game. Had a chance at a buzzer beater, but had to advance the ball full court with just over 2 seconds left (could have had more of a chance but high school basketball in too many places is dumb and has no shot clock).
Bond was, by my count, 11-20 overall, 0-2 from three, and 1-2 from the line. His jumper was off by an inch or so all game, but he got a lot of dunks and finishes at the rim. I think he’ll be frustrated though - a few too many turnovers (maybe 4 or 5 officially) and maybe two finishes at the rim he’d like to have back. One thing that was noticeable was that while his handle is solid, it’s something he’s going to want to work on more for the next level to avoid losing the ball when trying to take dudes on and splitting double teams.
I get slight Justin Anderson vibes from Bond. Will be a plus plus athlete even at the ACC level. Good wingspan. But also plays a bit loose. Loose handle, Clunky shot (until…). Bond seems raw a similar way to how Justin seemed raw that 12-13 (NIT) year.
Dunn seems to be a different kind of raw. It’s harder to read Dunn from his high school highlights compared to our other three guys because he has played more on prep school teams with better talent (he played behind Curbelo at LuHi, for example). But watching a few minutes of games, some highlights, and reading between the lines of what people say about him, he seems to be the type of raw where he has shown flashes of all the skills he will need (high level defense, can score at all three levels, penchant for big plays), but he doesn’t seem to be putting it all together yet.
McKneely impresses me more every time I see him. He seems like he has lead guard potential. If he has NBA hopes, that’s where he probably needs to focus. Though I think he’d be a good “co-lead guard” which is what we tend to do anyway, next to either Reece or Kihei (next year only) or a player to be named later (who I am avoiding discussing b/c I have some superstitions).
Traudt looks great, but it hurts my head trying to figure out how we are going to use him next year (if indeed, we are going to do that). Can he guard 5s and play next to Gardner? Or is next year just spot duty, so he can learn to play the 4 in the packline?
Here’s the Wauwatosa highlights, from hudl:
And the highlights from hudl on McKneely are better than what I’ve seen on Twitter:
Finally found video of Grand Island’s loss against Lincoln East on December 17. By my count Traudt was 9-13 overall, 4-7 from three, and 12-13 from the line for 34 points.
They really struggled to get him the ball in the post at all, and all but one of his attempts from three were relatively high degree of difficulty. But the real issue with Grand Island right now is that that zone defense isn’t stopping anyone. They’re just getting cut up.
I am still working on organizing my thoughts on Bond and Dunn in particular. I think the Anderson comparison for Bond is a good one, but I think Bond’s jumper looks more natural than what Anderson came in with, at least in the mid-range. You can tell he’s gradually trying to move out further to the three point line, and some of those threes still look a little clunky. But he already has a turnaround mid-range jumper that is more reminiscent of something Hunter would put up, and his high release and follow through remind me of Hunter. All of that is to say, I broadly agree with you, but think his mold is more somewhere between Anderson and Hunter (not saying he’ll be as good as those two NBA first round draftees, just referring to player type).
Dunn is pretty much just like you said from what I’ve watched. There will be a few minutes here and there where you’re like “Oh I see it - this guy has the full package”. Then he’ll just do nothing of note for the next 8 minutes. Feels like his ceiling is incredibly high, but there’s no guarantee it all comes together. Watching his career at UVA relative to Bond’s is going to be super interesting.
With McKneely, if I have concerns, it’s that I worry folks will expect a little too much from him too quickly and then end up disappointed when maybe he isn’t nailing 40% of this three pointers right off the bat. Also, while his shot obviously looks very good, I think he can still work on reducing the number of moving parts in it in games. Right now, his legs still fly all over the place quite a bit, which I think makes it harder to repeat the same shot motion every time. Honestly, it reminds me of young Kyle Guy. But part of what I think Guy really improved on over the years was squaring up and going closer to straight up and down with his feet, even when flying off screens. Something I’m sure McKneely can work on too.
And lastly with Traudt, kid looks great, but I agree with you - it’s an interesting conundrum how he fits with Gardner. My guess is he’ll be slower to see the court than a lot of folk might expect because his defense will really need to come up to speed. Playing in the center of a zone defense right now isn’t doing him any favors on that front. But once he does, maybe we play more small ball, with Gardner at the 5 and Traudt at the 4 when Shedrick isn’t on the floor? I don’t know. Will be fascinating.
*** Remember, the caveat to all this is I don’t really know what I’m talking about.
Lacking actual knowledge of the subject at hand has never stopped sports fans from voicing their opinions before, and by god, we’re not going to let it stop us now!
Last night I was actually thinking back to when I played basketball in high school and whether I learned anything from it. First school I played at we did actually run some plays, but I was a freshman and my job was just to sit in the corner and shoot the open three if all other options failed. Second school I was at, we were so small the team was whoever showed up to try outs. We didn’t even have a home court and only played away games. I think maybe we had a play or two? It was basically just get the ball to our only good player and pray. So sadly my insights from my playing days are extremely limited.
Regarding playing time for the incoming 1st years next season, a lot is going to depend on who’s playing well by the end of this season and who’s coming back. It’s not necessarily a good thing if McNeely and Traudt start next season because that probably means Franklin, Taine, Igor, etc aren’t working out and/or several current players have left, unless one or both of McNeely and Traudt are much better than their ranking. So I’m going to wait until April I think before offering my own wildly inaccurate predictions about those two.
As for Dunn and Bond— like their high potential, not sure if/when they’ll approach it next year. Though I feel a little better about Bond maybe because he’s got such a high motor.
I don’t recall Kyle improving at that. I recall him being able to do that since he was a sophomore in high school. I think that kind of balancing in air is an innate ability and not something that can be learned once a kid is past 12 or so. Part of the reason you don’t usually see people picking up gymnastics or acrobatics as teenagers. Only person on the planet who can square up like Kyle is JJ Reddick. If it was an area you could reasonably improve I think you’d see guys in the NBA become more JJ like off screens over time.
Totally fair - I may be remembering it wrong. Guy was always able to knock down crazy off balance shots. I just felt like he got things more fine tuned as the years went by, but maybe he was just picking his spots better.
The one who absolutely nailed down his form to be consistent every time was more Joe Harris. He’s seemingly the perfect example for “make your shot repeatable and efficient and don’t waste movement”.
My view on Guy that might square the circle: he was always good at shooting when not squared up. What he improved at was learning to square up when he could and should square up. When he was younger, I remember him going for the acrobatic shot when he didn’t have to.
