No Groves or Robinson…Until Dunn or Minor get in foul trouble and then we are down to just Buchanan.
How can you say that you will be rooting hard for someone but also wish you hadn’t gotten them?
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I’m glad we’re starting slowly this year so that we can align all of our moving pieces in time for ACC play.
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I remember as well and was thinking about that when I was reading another post. I remain steadfast in the belief that he’s not a point guard and will never be a point guard. I think he could be a dynamic off guard.
I would not be unhappy to be wrong.
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Said another way. Was Jordan a PG in college?
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No, but I am speaking specifically about college. The NBA is a different game.
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We agree!
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Three basically-known roles: Reece at PG for 35 mpg, iMac on the wing for 30+ mpg, and Dunn at the 4 for 25-30 mpg. They’re the three rotation guys returning from last year, trusted by Bennett, chemistry with each other.
Five guys battling for a starting spot and maybe two regular bench spots on the perimeter (1 through small-4):
- Dante - former 30+ mpg Big East starter, but is he too similar to Reece while also being our smallest scholarship player without a proven 3-point shot?
- Gertrude: Top 50 recruit but coming off a lower body injury that cost him his senior HS year, questionable if he can back up the 1, and general “new to college” adjustment questions
- Rohde: Elite in the Summit (KenPom 24th out of 36 in conference strength), but big leap to take to the ACC. Can play the 1-3 on offense, but may have defensive lapses, may need to be paired with better defenders.
- Murray: Has shown flashes and started to earn Tony’s trust down the stretch. Interesting breakout candidate; two years in the systems and international guys tend to turn a corner their 3rd year.
- Bond: Athletic freak but very unproven. How’s his shot? Is he going to struggle in the systems or pick them up quickly? Similar profile to Shayok and Morsell, neither of whom ever fully clicked.
Rohde I suspect carves out a role, either as the starting 3 or as the swiss-army-knife reserve.
Harris I think, by virtue of his Big East experience and semester in practices, muscles out Gertrude for that rotational 1/2 small/fast-guard spot (Harris would push Reece to the 2, but semantics), meaning Gertrude is in line for spot minutes and maybe even a redshirt. I see Gertrude as most affected (just behind Harris) by Reece’s return.
Bond and Murray are in direct competition for 3/4 minutes, they play such a similar role for Tony. Murray may get the edge by virtue of his experience, but Bond may be the better complement to iMac and Rohde if he can get the defense down.
Agree with HGN that Groves’ impact is being underrated. 34 career Big 12 starts, though admittedly never on a winning team. 38% from 3 last season on solid volume, and 6’9" makes him a really nasty cover on the perimeter, similar to Trey Murphy. But we need to be honest that he’s a mediocre rebounder, pretty skinny (220# on a good day), and doesn’t block shots, so he’s an offense-for-defense kind of substitution. Minor is shorter and lacks the P5 experience (KenPom had the NEC as the worst overall conference last year!), but is way more of an enthusiastic 2-way player, so I’m fairly confident he beats out Groves for the starting 5 spot.
Blake isn’t going to redshirt, but he’s also going to be brought along slowly. Remember, Mike Tobey in 2012-13 was the last true freshman 5 to play for Tony, so getting even 5-10 mpg, even with some DNPs, is still progress.
Starters:
Beekman - 33mpg at the 1 and sometimes 2
iMac - 30 mpg at the 2 and 3
Rohde - 25 mpg
Dunn - 25 mpg
Minor - 26 mpg
Bench:
Harris - 18 mpg at the 1 (pushes Reece to the 2 for the ~10-11 mpg they play together)
Gertrude - 4 mpg at the 2(like I said, the big loser of Reece’s return)
Murray and Bond - 7 mpg between the 3 and 4 spots each unless one can beat the other cleanly.
Groves - 17 mpg at the 4 and 5
Buchanan - 8 mpg at the 5
So to answer HGN’s question: Top 7 is going to be Guards: Reece/iMac/Harris/Rohde and Forwards: Dunn/Groves/Minor with maybe one of Gertrude/Bond/Murray crashing the party as a breakout.
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Another way to think of minutes next year could be PGs, shooters, and athletes/defenders. In this era of more and more positions-less basketball it seems we will mostly want to have 1 PG, 2 shooters, and 2 athletes/defenders on the floor. Looking at the roster:
PGs: Reece, Harris
Shooters: McKneely, Rohde, Groves
Athletes/Defenders: Minor, Dunn, Bond, Buchanan
Question Marks:
-Murray: Certainly not going to become a plus athlete. But could he become a plus positional defender in the packline? Or could he find his shooting stroke and challenge Rohde and Groves for some minutes?
-Gertrude: Obviously was a plus athlete before his injury. Will that high end explosiveness be back this year? Or will it take until 24/24 for him to be fully back? And with all the down time he’s had with his injury, where are his shot and his handle? Could he be ready as a shooter even if he comes along slowly with the rest of his game?
So I basically think most of the time you’ll see either Reece or Dante paired with two from the shooter bucket and two from the athlete/defender bucket. Versatile players means you can switch which position 2-5 is filling which role plus try to matchup up with opponents. Could see something like this:
Beekman/McKneely/Rohde/Dunn/Minor
Beekman/McKneely/Bond/Dunn/Groves
Harris/Rohde/Bond/Groves/Buchanan
Can have the shooting at the 2&3, 2&5, or 2&4
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I like the classifications of PG’s, Shooters and Defenders/Athletes as I’ve added comparisons of 2019 to this upcoming season 2023. The bolded players were studs, so we *need to get back to that type of distribution in the near future:
2019:
PG’s -Ty, Kihei
Shooters- Kyle, Dre
Defenders/Athletes- Dre, Braxton, Mamadi, Salt
(Work In Progress)- Huff
2023:
PGs: Reece, Harris
Shooters: McKneely, Rohde, Groves
Athletes/Defenders: Minor, Dunn, Bond, Buchanan
(Work In Progress)- Lots of tbd.
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Heat are just a dirty team … injured Brogdon, Brown and Tatum in one series… Lowry one of the dirtiest players in the league
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If this happens I will lose my mind.
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Ha. You will? Right there with you
Edit: to talk about Virginia Basketball for next season and not put Elijah in the mix is foolish
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Boston sucks. Overrated. Heat team is all about culture and have a bunch of guys bought in.
I get where you’re coming from. There’s just a lot of depth for him to battle with. Reece better be getting 35 mpg as the team’s star, captain, system veteran, and floor general. McKneely is a Top 50 guard going into his 2nd year under Bennett and that’s usually when guys step into 30+ mpg roles. After that, it’s about rack-and-stacking Gertrude against Harris, Rohde, Murray, and Bond. All four of those guys have a leg up in some fashion or another over Gertrude, to say nothing of the fact that none of them have Gertrude’s potential injury rust.
Bennett has 120 mpg at the 1,2, and 3 to break up. Reece and iMac bring that down to at most 55 mpg. I’m really curious how others see those 55 mpg getting divvy’ed between the Big East Tourney MOP, the 2023 Summit ROY, and a trio of 4-star recruits entering their 3rd, 2nd, and 1st seasons (respectively) in college at UVA.
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I do think Gertrude does some things that Tony really values, namely his energy and defensive intensity. Kinda like how Dunn forced himself into minutes this year in a crowded front court
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I get it, he’s talented and has a great ceiling. So I say again, with Reece back, whose minutes does he take? Before Reece’s announcement I had Gertrude getting probably 15+ mpg as the top guard backup, but now Harris looks to me to be the top guard backup, and Gertrude having to wait.
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Guess we will all find out when these guys go head to head starting this summer.
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Man he is just Jamal Murray-like talented. Meaning that he just so happens to play basketball but could do many other sports vs. a Devin Booker-like player who was made to *just play basketball.
Edit: An example is his shot and Jamal Murray’s shots. They’re not picture perfect but they go in because they’re so well rounded. Devin Booker has a pretty shot because he focused on it so that it’s nice and repeatable.
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Yep. I’ve got five guys battling for maybe 1 starting spot and 2 regular reserve guard/wing spots.
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