Given better coaching and more disciplined systems (and maybe more talented / effective teammates) do you think he can be as good as at least Kihei was?
Do you think that Kihei would’ve been better if surrounded by more offensively talented / effective teammates?
What I’ve talked myself into is a “yes” on both counts. Dante’s makeup is very similar to Kihei’s in terms of size and skillset; hoping he can be a 30%+ 3-point shooter in a better system and cut down on his turnovers accordingly.
Dante had a Top 10 assist rate in the Big East as a true sophomore, which is pretty good. His TO numbers were high but not unfixable (2.6 TOs a game vs 4.1 apg). His scoring in the lane was no better or worse than Kihei’s career averages as a fast undersized attacker. Good pressure defender with respectable steal numbers.
It’s the 3-point shooting that admittedly is scariest, 28%. But if he can afford to be more selective with his shooting, something akin to what we saw out of Kihei and Reece where they took set 3P jumpers off kickouts and flares rather than creating them off the dribble or curls, we’ll have to see if Dante can get than 28% up to the low-to-mid 30’s which would be “fine” in a way we’ve won games with with Kihei and Reece running the show.
We’d all love some combination of Jerome’s size, Jerome/Perrantes’ shooting, and Kihei/Reece’s speed and defense along with the A/TO dominance we saw out of all of them. We’re not going to get them all right now. Harris gives us speed and defense in a way that hopefully is no worse than we’ve had the last four seasons.
At that point, you have to move forward with getting the size and shooting at other spots. And since, if Reece doesn’t come back, we can actually play appropriately sized scorers at the 2-spot along with the 3, maybe we’ll have good shooting/scoring/size out of the 2- and 3-spots in a way we haven’t since the title.
iMac. Rohde. Gertrude. Murray. Bond. These five guys are going to battle and if we can get just three of those five to be capable and complementary to Dante Harris (especially if Dunn can expand his offensive game at the 4), then having a downhill guard like Harris at the 1 will work. Obviously, that’s a lot of “ifs” asking those six relatively unproven guys at the 2-4 to step up, and we won’t know the answer to that until the fall.
If we couldn’t get an incoming freshman part time ball handler to sign on because of uncertainty about getting enough minutes in his first year, there was nothing doing in the portal
Agree, and that’s why I’m skeptical of the Kihei comparison. Kihei varied between a good enough and a good 3 point shooter. Harris has just been “not that good.”
I “aspire” to have future NBA all-stars at all five starting positions and at least two key bench spots.
But I’m not going to be a spoiled child and get pissy if we don’t get that with every player at every position. We won a title with Kihei Clark and Jack Salt playing rotational minutes at the 1 and 5 respectively. In college basketball, especially at a program like UVA where academic and other locker-room non-negotiables limit who we can get in competition with both the Blue Bloods and the Empty Promises Slingers, sometimes we get role player type guys. Thinking we’re above that, even at this stage in Bennett’s tenure, is just unrealistic.
Yeah. If we surround him with the right complementary pieces, per his second point. (And the “right complementary pieces” is a lens you should use for almost every player. For example, Kyle Guy needed good rim protectors and on ball defenders around him to minimize his liability on D and let the team maximize benefit from his shooting)
It seemed like with Kihei he only took 3’s when he was wide open. Was Harris doing the same or were his 3’s forced because of the lack of talent around him. I don’t know but I don’t think it would be a stretch to think he could go from 28% to 32 33% with just better shot selection.
I don’t think anybody thinks we’re above that (although I can’t speak for others of course). I just don’t totally get what it has to do with the Harris convo. In spite of all those recruiting factors, we landed London, Brogdon, Ty, Devon - PGs who fit perfectly in our system, had size, and were good shooters. It’s not like there’s only two choices in life - Kihei/Harris role player PGs who we can land and blue blood 5 stars who we can’t. There’s tons of dudes out there!
I’m similarly hesitant about Harris and have been since we picked him up, but I also understand why we did so. We literally needed another body at the PG position and he wanted to come here mid season and develop. But hopefully, like you said, he can blossom in a new system and be surrounded by other shooters who take some pressure off. But until I see otherwise, I personally don’t think he’s the PG of the future, so to speak, and ideally I think he’d be backing up Reece off the bench or starting in the interim if Reece leaves while the heir apparent (‘23 or ‘24 recruit to be named) develops.
Yeah, I def think Harris could be a solid 2019 Kihei/Salt level role player (again, assuming a better perimeter shot), but Dante is obviously walking into a group of guys with a much different dynamic than that group.
Yeah but let’s also be real about that. The other six guys were at least all in their third year in college and all have seen time in the NBA. That will never ever happen again at Virginia.
Those six guys covered up a lot of warts the other two guys had
This has been said about a lot of Virginia players and with only a handful of exceptions, it has not come true. Not knocking Dunn because I think he’ll be a fantastic player for us, but what do you think his NBA comp is? Right now he’s a very athletic, but undersized 6’8”ish power forward without a proven outside shot, playmaking ability or post moves. He’s got defensive versatility and can probably switch 2-4. I’m drawing a blank on a current NBA with that profile.