Jacari, no doubt. And Sam is better for what we want to do than what McKneely could offer. I don’t think anyone would pick Isaac over those two.
So to pivot the discussion to something that will make people think: would you rather have Isaac McKneely or Malik Thomas as the starting two guard? That’s maybe a spot where McKneely could’ve fit.
Evan Miya has McKneely and Jacari about even, a bit ahead of Thomas. Hoop Explorer has McKneely ahead of both.
Oddly HE has McKneely as the best guard on the team defensively and EM has him as the worst. My eye test from last year and a few UL games this year would say Miya is probably closer to the truth but
While Isaac is technically a better player than Malik this season, I think I’d rather have Malik for our team. He’s been hit or miss, but he can create a shot for himself much better than Isaac ever could.
I think it’s kinda close within the team context. I was a little surprised to see that McKneely is better in the no-Brown Jr minutes vs with him, would have expected the opposite: Louisville without Brown Jr
He’s still fairly low usage even without Brown Jr, but he’s a pretty luxe version of that archetype.
The analogous situation for us is what do guys look like in the TDR bench minutes: UVa with no De Ridder
Thomas gets even more of the workload as one might expect. But Jacari and Sam have been really good in the De Ridder bench minutes, they’ve propped up the offense.
I love our team as is, including Jacari and Malik. Both are good shooters who can become great shooters when they are feeling it. I also think both are better defenders than McKneely.
But when I watch Louisville play, it seems like they waste Isaac’s talents. Mostly he just sits in the corner on offensive sets and waits to get open. Very little ball or player movement. He should be moving around and looking for screens followed by quick shots. Louisville has great individual talents but I’m not sure they fit together all that well.
Yes in my head they still have the second highest ceiling in the conference behind Duke, but after watching last night I think we could beat them again even with Brown playing. Very feast or famine.
That’s what I’m saying. Kelsey’s a good coach, but there’s a lot more he could be doing with his current roster. Felt similarly about his team last year, injuries notwithstanding.
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