My reasonable projection is that we start Bliss, IMac, Warley, Saunders, BB.
Ames then could sub for Bliss or potentially Warley. Taine can play the spot backup mins for IMac.
In that world, I think (hope) that Ames would be a very high quality backup guard — even if he would not be a world-beating starting guard.
I don’t think he’s a true PG though so see him more in the backup 2/3 role as a secondary ballhandler. A non-shooting lead guard like Warley compounds issues in that scenario.
Anyway I don’t think he’s a guy that sticks around another year if he doesn’t get PT. The problem is if we play him 20-25 mpg and offensive results are not there but I guess we will see.
Welcome to UVa, Dai Dai.
I’d like to introduce you to your biggest fan, Hoohoohoo.
Dai Dai will either be unbelievable or absolutely awful. I like that gamble by TB
No in between here
100% agree with that statement! I think we will know earlier in the season rather than later of which it will be.
Just getting in to the news. Everyone seem to like Dai Dai. Ive been trying to talk myself into it. He’s quick and he’s a dawg… Might be fun watching him harass the other team’s point guard or ball handler. Maybe the reason i wasn’t too excited was because i wanted another sure fire shooter. I was slightly surprised but hopefully it will work out. Go Go Dai Dai!
Only if you weren’t paying attention. His efficiency stats were excellent all year. He just got more run late.
Jeff White: Tony, what will Dai Dai bring to the program?
Tony Bennett: He’s a mother fucker, and that’s what we were looking for. Hopefully he can be a continuous mother fucker and earn a spot in the rotation.
I kinda regret saying “punch line”, b/c I know what I meant but didn’t convey it.
But also his efficiency stats are pretty hollow when read along with his usage. Our offense was balls when Taine barely played and it was balls when he came in and mostly didn’t shoot. Him passing the ball around the perimeter mostly just repeated the same patterns our offense had without him.
I wish we had a theoretical Taine who would come in and attack the hoop and get some shots up. But we didn’t, so I don’t care about his “good” efficiency stats because to me it mostly meant he only shot when he knew he had a very good shot, which is not a good attribute even though someone will most likely wrongly say that is.
Also, as with most of this stuff, I’m not really criticizing Taine, I’m criticizing Tony. What attributes Tony chose to reward in both Taine and Rohde lead in a pretty straight line to why our offense was so awful.
Him and Lucille Bluth both like their Milford Men.
It does seem like basketball analytics needs a new measure in an analogous way that OPS (on base percentage plus slugging) was created for baseball.
We did the last five games, and it’s the Taine I’m expecting in 24-25. Tony being Tony I’m expecting Taine to start game 1. And I think he’ll seize it and stay in the main rotation all season.
Not necessarily strongly disgreeing, but who is Taine starting over in that scenario? Saunders and Power? Warley? I like Taine just fine, but struggle to see how he’s beating out those dudes with much higher ceilings (except maybe Warley if Warley just can’t do anything on the offensive end). Taine barely beat out Rohde for minutes at the end of the season and Rohde was terrible.
Depends on if Saunders and power can play together or if not whether sanders or powers wins out at the four
Did we? Look at those last 5 games. Goose egg in points in 2 of them. Below 10% usage (20% is par) in 2 games (incl. one non-overlap).
You’re really looking at a sample size of 1 — the GT game — where Taine was heavily involved. Which doesn’t mean it won’t happen this coming season. It just means there wasn’t much of an indicator in last year’s stats.
The data seem to suggest that Taine is an excellent 5th option on offense. So it’s not necessarily a simple matter of who he replaces on the court, but also how strong are options 1 through 4?
If we can agree that Warley probably starts given his experience and Tony’s predilections, and that Warley is a better PG than SF, then Taine at the 3 comes primarily at the expense of Rohde, and also takes minutes from Bliss (because Warley takes Bliss’s minutes), Power (assuming he could play SF), and Saunders (because if Power can’t play SF then when he does play PF Saunders is on the bench).
I just struggle a little to see how Taine is going to play a major role with our talent level theoretically rising so much. The coaching staff saw Taine every day and refused to give him a significant role for most of the season despite Rohde putting up absolutely awful performances. Doesn’t feel to me like the coaching staff sees what a lot of folks on this board see in Taine, but maybe their opinions changed over the course of the year.
I think the starting line up will probably be some combination of Bliss, Warley, Ames, McKneely, and Buchanan, with Power having an outside shot if he comes on strong in practice. Taine still feel like more of a sixth or seventh option to me, but who knows. Everything is definitely up for grabs.
Here’s what the data suggests to me: in the very very few opportunities that Taine took, he was very efficient. I can’t really agree with “excellent 5th option” because he mostly sat around and didn’t contribute on a bad offense. If he was an excellent fifth option, why did we never get to option 5, when 1-4 were often bad options?
What the eye test told me is that he was our only three level scorer but for reasons that we only can guess, he was mostly afraid to show off his skills.**
Like, can you even be an “excellent” 5th option on such a bad offense?
** maybe, just maybe, he knew his coach well enough to know what he’d be punished for and what he’d be rewarded for.
Btw, this is why I was mostly Switzerland on all the Taine-Rohde debates last year.
I don’t find “which guy that doesn’t want the ball in his hands, do we want to have the ball in their hands” to be a terribly compelling question.
I do find “why does our coach want guys who don’t want the ball in their hands, to play so many minutes” to be a compelling question…