Just read the conclusion… well the conclusion of the conclusion. We get hoops in less than 4 weeks! I’ve given up on getting much insight on Vide v. Elijah v. Martin v. Dixon as backup PG and secondary ball handler and removing some PG duties while Chance is still on the court.
We will know more soon…
I expect they will try out most of the options as a trial run in the pre-season. Vide is very likely to take those backup PG minutes, at least early on would be my bet. The questions will be most of those in my closing section. Once we’re playing teams that are scouting us and trying to win those games (rather than try out their own stuff like in a scrimmage), we’ll see how he and we can handle it.
Odom and staff no doubt were aware of his game when signing so they must have an idea on how it will work.
Apparently a guy one skill away from being really, really good. His ability to get by the defender both in the half court and on the break at full speed is really impressive. Hope he gets enough of a lift to his long range game to allow us to see his other skills.
[whispers]
vide … .vide … vide …
[chant growing louder, starts to pound table]
Vide … Vide … Vide
[rest of the bar begins to join in, a deafening crescendo of sound]
VIDE! VIDE! VIDE!
[people flip tables, pounding chests, smashing glasses]
Would you say it has a sturdiness to it… the Vide?
He can be a fun player to watch when he isn’t getting the Ryan Dunn treatment.
I’ll be honest, I didn’t realize Vide was a top-100 guy until recently. He could easily pull a Ugo for us (while acknowlegings its a really high bar to clear)
I read everything up to “offense” and was dejected and pessimistic enough that I just didn’t bother with the rest of it. I’ll just hope and see what happens. Ugh.
Well, thanks for reading some of it!
Oh, let me be clear; I will read it and I always look forward to reading these @Cuts_from_The_Corner. I was just a little disappointed by what I read. I’ll try to adjust my attitude.
Thanks for all of these breakdowns Cuts! Will say Jan is a better athlete than I realized. Probably explains how he was a 4 star recruit and began his career at UCLA. Very intrigued about the defensive possibilities as you mentioned. As you said Jan-Sam-Nolan is huge but really no obvious size mismatches for opponents on anyone who could be in the 2-4 rotation during Jan’s PG minutes. Only real question marks there would be Harmon and Gertrude’s lateral agility. Otherwise we should be able to absolutely smother many opponents with any combo of Lewis, Adekunle, Dixon, TDR, and Anya between Vide and our 7 footers
Thanks for this. How likely do you think it is that he comes out of this off season with a capable confident shot? 25%? Less? Can’t imagine playing top teams four against five on offense while he’s off ball…
I don’t want to put a percentage on it because I have no idea - but I would be really surprised. He kind of shoots everything to different degrees like a push shot and he has a significant hitch at the top of his shot.
Plus, he’s been pretty bad at it for years now and known and… sure, he improved a little from year one to two at LMU but it was still incredibly uncomfortable for him and he tried to only take wide open ones when he had to.
They say he’s really working on it… but he really did have a long way to go.
Thanks, Cuts, for another in-depth and great review of one of our newcomers. I struggle to follow all the transfer/recruiting news on this board, but love to learn what the team is working with once all is settled. Wish you had the recent game film to do an in-depth on Anya as well. Any thoughts on what Anya might bring to the team and whether he can carve out a significant role?
Sounds like Ryan Dunn’s 3 ball. It was important to the team, he worked hard on it, and … no.
I’ll be very surprised if Anya isn’t a key rotational player this year. I expect he’ll play 3-4, primarily as the backup 4. He’ll bring good rebounding and energy, the ability to guard really well 1-5 (but, hopefully, mostly 1-4 because he’s sized more like a strong wing than a Center). Those are the givens - but I think he’s improved his offensive game some as well and we’ll likely get some element of slashing, offensive put backs, and even open shooting.
A best case, to me, is that he backs up De Ridder and then nabs (just a few - still will want a lot of Dixon and Eli if he shows/Harmon if he’s hot) backup SF minutes as well when Adekunle rests, allowing Sam to play SG more often and keeping our collective length crazy.
There’s also a world where Ibe nor Barksdale earn much time and he plays with De Ridder 4-5 quite a bit (De Ridder would likely guard the 5) - but I don’t think that one has nearly as much upside and is probably a bad sign for our overall prospects if that’s where we land (aside from situational matchups).