Could solve it today with a lineup of Reece, Franklin, Murray, Milicic and Sheds
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I think you’re oversimplifying it. I’m guessing Taine and Igor would get put in bad matchups and get beat one on one. I would like to see how it would work out though.
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I don’t know how to break this lightly, but that lineup includes two guys who would get torched in switches, and one who would foul out in the first half if we switched everything
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Not today, but with a full season in the system (I.e., from game 1), that might’ve been a decent switching lineup by March or so. It certainly could’ve been better than the defense we actually have (but that’s not a high bar).
I know everyone wants to pwn Dave here, but we need to grapple with the fact that this defense we are actually playing is not a good defense.
The error cost on this team is low, and we’ve changed nothing…
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I’m actually not - we are terrible defensively … and bad offensively. This ain’t football. The same guys play on both ends. Igor and Taine would also be hard to guard on the other end which can hurt opponents mentally on their own offensive end.
In my years of playing - the best way to destroy a guy that was scoring a lot was to go at him on offense and make him defend - it took his legs out. Seek him on every screen and roll and go at him. Is there a 4 in the ACC that could guard Igor or Taine consistently on the perimeter? Iowa’s all American couldn’t.
Exactly Haney… It’s almost like folks think we are still good on D.
Overall efficiency data for combined offense and defense places us 10th in the ACC - only ahead of teams with losing records.
We are 198th in the nation in raw defensive rating. We were supposedly bad last year when we were 135th.
2020 we were 1st and 2019 we were 6th.
No pwnage intended. I just think Milicic in particular does not have the lateral movement yet, Shed fouls (and gets lost on box outs), and Murray I will say is super tough, but has gotten smoked in some 1 on 1’s. Give each of them time, sure, but I don’t think we would last long with that lineup out there.
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You changed the subject in that response. Your initial post claimed we could solve our defensive issues by switching everything with your suggested lineup. Then your response to me was about improving our defense by attacking on offense.
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I haven’t seen anyone claiming we are good on defense. I know I’m not saying that.
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Not trying to change the subject. That group could switch everything at least until switch backs could happen. And yes - playing better offense causes opponents to play worse offense. And if they had played 10-12 minutes a game minimum every game from day 1 they would be very very good right now.
And Milicic when playing at the 3, 4, 5 is better at those spots defensively than both Franklin and Gardner. And better than Gardner and Papi vs. Stretch 4’s. Today. His length and recoverability mostly offset his being out of position some. And his rebounding is better than every non big on the team - only Sheds, Caffaro, and Gardner are better rebounders than Milicic and Murray.
And Murray is the best offensive rebounder on the team by sheer off. rebounding %. Milicic is 3rd.
That also reflects their strength, length and athleticism which makes up for lack of experience.
But just one dude’s humble opinion. 
Also if you’re so inclined - go back and look at the sparse minutes when Igor is on the floor - we don’t get outrebounded.
I don’t know how you’re so confident of Milicic and Murray’s offensive and defensive skills at the ACC level since we’ve never actually seen them perform at that level. It’s almost as if you prefer unproven guys because they haven’t had the chance to demonstrate failure (and you’re projecting success) over veterans who have shown proven strengths and weaknesses.
It’s like Duke picking Scheyer over an alum sitting head coach. The other guys have shown coaching weaknesses that Scheyer hasn’t had the opportunity to show yet, so he must be better.
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Why has the topic here become Dave’s confidence level? Dave’s just a guy on the internet like the rest of us. IMO, the topic is why we’ve never seen them perform at that level and whether they’d be better or worse. As I said somewhere else today, I prefer to look at is a skillset, rather than individuals. This team needs perimeter shooting to be effective and we’ve never seen it. Why not?
I hope he’s a great rebounder and overall player. I’m guessing a good chunk of his minutes are garbage time or against inferior opponents, so it’s hard to reach any definitive conclusions from them.
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In 293 possessions with Igor on the floor (149 offensive, 144 defensive):
- Virginia grabs offensive rebounds on 19.1% of possessions (would rank 354th in NCAA)
- Virginia allows offensive rebounds on 31.1% of possessions (would rank 275th in NCAA)
In 2,310 possessions with Igor off the floor (1,154 offensive, 1,156 defensive):
- Virginia grabs offensive rebounds on 30.2% of possessions (would rank 126th in NCAA)
- Virginia allows offensive rebounds on 29.2% of possessions (would rank 212th in NCAA)
(on/off data from Hoop-Explorer; team ranking data from KenPom)
IMO the case for playing Igor is pretty simple: the team benefits more from the offensive value he adds as a big with shooting ability than it suffers from any defense/rebounding deficiencies he might have due to lack of experience. Same goes for Taine, and frankly any of the Ms — their shooting ability is worth any defensive dropoff, especially because this team is already middling on D.There’s no need to overcomplicate that argument.
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Truly curious - are you able to run his numbers with both Reece and Sheds on the floor?
In other words not garbage time when Igor is at the 5.
Hey now!! My confidence level is the most important item on this page!!! 
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to multiple points above … My biggest issue is this. I stated before the season that our ceiling is low if the M’s don’t play. It was always higher this season by now - if they had played a combined 40 min a game the whole year. And it DEFINTELY makes next year’s ceiling and floor higher. Imagine next year’s team with the 3 M’s all coming in with at least 300 minutes played???
We’ve discussed why we haven’t seen much of them ad nauseam. I think we’d all love to see more of them for a variety of reasons. Their development, hedge against them transferring, rather see new guys over guys who won’t be around much longer. I don’t think that’s any objection to any of that.
For me, I guess I prefer some realism in expectations and dreams and maybe less current fatalism and grass for sure is greener on the other side even absent any evidence of what the other side is like. So I ask questions. Maybe I missed something or maybe they know something I don’t. I’m always willing to change my mind about something if I can see I’m wrong or some other way of thinking is right. Knowledge is power, right?
That’s just me though. And not directed specifically at you or Dave or anyone else. Always looking for more info.
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