Here’s my in depth review of Sam Lewis and what he brings to the table:
Agree with much of this. Think Sam pairs really nicely with Jacari and even Malik as those guys are more creators off the bounce, so he could be a beneficiary as a catch & shoot guy (even if they’re not the ones directly passing to him).
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It feels like Sam pairs well with a ball-dominant creator like Malik. But the upside you mention is hopefully something we can tap into on nights where Jacari or Malik are cold from outside etc
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I’m intrigued to see if White/Thomas/Lewis is ever a thing 1-3 or if they’ll always want one of Hall/Mallory on the floor.
But, yeah, Lewis will benefit from having people get him open looks (if he starts to see himself more in that way) but I don’t think he’s just going to be a stationary shooter - we’re going to see the benefits of him in the open floor and taking advantage when the focus is on others.
I do worry about the defense, though. He’s capable and can really have some high impact moments - but the effort/mental element really was quite often bad.
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The main question on his defense for me is whether this is an intrinsic weakness of his or whether it was more about his coaches lack of emphasis and care about defense. The fact that Toledo was so bad, plus Lewis’s specific weaknesses on D, make me lean toward the latter.
If Lewis isn’t paying any price for his lack of awareness and effort off-ball on defense, he probably isn’t going to do much to correct it, especially given he was so important to Toledo on the other end of the court.
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Hmm…good question. Maybe situationally? Last year VCU tried to play zero possessions without one of Shulga or Russell on the floor, even when they had Jackson as another guy with a good assist rate historically. Thomas had an improved assist rate last season but before then had subterranean assist numbers and White is kinda similar. I don’t really see PG as a distinct position assigned to 1 guy on the floor for Odom, but he does like having guys who can pass out there.
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I agree - but it’s so hard to know for sure the root causes. Certainly coaching is one - but is that the only thing that would need to change?
That’s the part that’s hard to say.
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I tend to be institutionalist in more orientation rather than individualist, so I’ll say coaching for now, but will be really interesting to see.
On a semi related note, really seems like Lewis minutes are probably hurt most by the Malik Thomas addition. Guessing our starting 1-2-3 will be Hall, White, Thomas with Mallory, Gertrude, and Lewis as the first reserves at each spot.
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You call all this out in your piece, but the hope for an improved defensive effort is that he will change due to: team culture, contingent PT (play D or don’t play), and shorter minutes (more energy while on the court). Hopefully that leads to better habits; currently he obviously has bad ones. But habit formation takes time.
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I agree. I think under CTB the answer would have been almost never - under Odom I’m not sure
Have read the offense section. Great stuff as always @Cuts_from_The_Corner ! Thanks for doing these.
I think you summed up the half court stuff very succinctly with this:
He’s more valuable for his spot up ability and, in NFL terms, is more of a one-cut back.
Exactly. The stuff that he was best at and is most likely to translate easily is spot up and one-cut moves. He’s not that good of a finisher, IMO, at least last year, in the half court.
This play in crunch time v Ohio was very ick:
And in transition, well, no disrespect to any previous UVa coach, but watching Lewis operate in transition is why a coach might try to increase the number of transition opportunities. The best hoops players will be able to translate their athleticism to the half-court, but there are many more guys who can translate it to the open court situation.
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I just watched a few of the (terrible) defensive clips and I’m kinda having the same reaction. Toledo is soooo sooo bad on defense. It’s like the coach just didn’t care. He was 356th in defense, and his talent isn’t 356th. You have to try hard to be that bad.
It’s hard to divorce Lewis from the context. That said, he will obviously have some bad habits to break.
Just watching a couple more here, and I’ll refer to UVa’s best defender ever, for refernce. Not that I need to name him. but it’s RD. RD was the golden child because he could quickly do everything he was supposed to do in the defense, but what made him special is that he could also selectively do those things he wasn’t supposed to do to impact the game. On a couple plays, Lewis is so focused on what his role is that he’s forgetting that the job of the defense is, generally speaking, to try to stop the other team from scoring.
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I mean, you can see the moment here where he’s thinking “we are getting boatraced by a natty contender for a check but I can’t look totally disinterested if I want to get my own check.”
Or maybe that head bob is him thinking, “Damn, I’m probably gonna have to cover him (Arceneaux) next year, too except this time it might matter if I stop him.”
And his on-ball defense? I think you summed it up here:
I think that clip probably best summarizes Lewis’s on ball defense. It’s pretty good in most cases, but not great.
Last thought: glad we have him for two years. You cite a lot of potential growth areas, but I’d be happy if this coming year, we just get effective spot-up shooting, some nice moments in transition, and a competent+ on-ball defender. Will be more optimistic about the growth stuff in his senior year (which will hopefully be here).
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I think our potential transition offense is going to be a very under rated and overlooked fasciate of this team. Hall is tailor made to run this, as it’s really just what he did at BYU. Push the ball and look for shooters (White, Lewis, Thomas) or guys cutting to the basket (Thomas, Lewis) or bigs that can beat their man down the floor (think both Grünloh and de Ridder will be very good at this). Having multiple guards that can all grab and rebound and make a good decision, fan and shoot the 3, or go straight to the basket, is going to give us a lot of looks in transition. Hall, Thomas, Lewis and White will all have the ability and I assume the green light to do this. Not to mention X (if he’s in full health) and Mallory.
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I don’t think it’ll be overlooked when fans start seeing it in action - I think it will be intentional and obvious.
Some fans may be overlooking it now because we’re so used to the opposite and all talk about transition for the past 15 years has been empty promises.
It won’t be under Odom - it’s a core part of the strategy.
Edit: For Odom, pushing the ball after steals and misses (and even some makes) is as core to what he does as Sides or Pack Line were for CTB. It’s not just an idea it is an integral part of the system.
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Yes that’s a great call out… but even that’s not consistent.
He tunnel visions on stopping his man from getting the ball and loses sight of other things… until he doesn’t - and falls asleep on his man back door cutting him.
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