Older guys will remember Lee Raker (probably 6’4" and never to be confused with Michael Jordan when it comes to athleticism) as often guarding 6’9" guys during his career at UVA and doing it very well. The Sampson era’s best lineups had him at the 4. There are other names that showed a smaller guy with a lot of dawg can do a very respectable job defensively against bigger players even when they didn’t have Ralph behind them.
I don’t know what Tillis is going to be able to do offensively at this level, but whether he can adequately defend is really dependent on how much “want to” is in him to do so.
Disregarding the weird back-and-forth between a few of you, I think the concerns surrounding Devin Tillis are legitimate. It’s been brought up by analysts and casual fans alike. If Onyenso and Grünloh are absolute dominant at the 5, I think Tillis may be able to carve out a decent role. But I question whether Tillis can be anything more than a limited role player against small ball lineups.
The good news is that Tillis likely won’t have to carve out a big role for us, assuming De Ridder comes on board. Carrere will find minutes at the 4 as a backup as well. We don’t know yet about Barksdale but that’s another body, if needed. And there will be games and times in those games when we play 4-guard lineups with one big. So, in my mind, having a guy like Tillis who has 3 years of experience as a big contributor for a winning team is a nice luxury.
9 & 7 against Oregon State
14 & 7 against Utah
8 & 10 against USC
10 & 11 against Oregon
7 & 8 against San Diego State
6 & 2 against Oregon
4 & 4 against San Diego State
AVG – 8.3 points and 7.0 rebounds
These are his games against high-major competition over the course of the last three seasons, most recent to least recent. I think Devin Tillis will be just fine.
I think a lot of the angst about Tillis is delayed from when he was our only big man/only 4 option. De Ridder would obviously take a bunch of pressure off him, but I also believe Grünloh and Onyenso can play next to each other with Grünloh at the 4.
I don’t think the plan is to start Tillis. Which is why they are so active with de Ridder who hopefully the NCAA clears this week
Another harsh reality (kinda alluded to in the Malik Thomas thread): UC Irvine would have kicked our ass this year by like 20-30 points. Again that’s a low bar and clearly not what we are striving for. But I think he will be a solid impact guy off the bench
I actually like Tillis’ game. Not that I think he’d be great in the ACC in isolation, but I think he fits the roster well. He’s a good passer and can shoot well from deep. I think he’ll do a nice job of keeping the ball moving and getting it to the guard shooters and Grünloh down low while also being a headache for opposing defenses because they have to account for him on the perimeter as well.
Agree with concerns about how he’ll guard more physical ACC players potentially, but I think he might be type of offensive catalyst that helps the whole operation run better, so maybe we give up an additional 5 points cause he’s out there but we score an additional 10. Who knows, but I like having that skill set for this squad.
I guess I should say, I don’t know enough about his one on one defending to worry about him guarding any particular player - maybe he’ll be great, maybe he won’t. But in terms of being a little shorter, not an explosive athlete, and not a shot blocker, the team defense might suffer somewhat from him slotting in at the 4 relative to some types of 4s. Maybe that won’t be the case, but that’d be more the nature of my concern.
But he also had a good defensive rebounding rate at Irvine, so that’s a somewhat encouraging. Now the collective height and physicality of the teams he played over the entire season probably isn’t quite what he’ll see here on a nightly basis but we’ll see.
What are we even arguing about here? Whether our backup 4 man may or may not get physically overwhelmed? This is the weak mid-2020s ACC, not the NBA. What team has a 3rd or 4th post guy who could dominate Tillis defensively that Tillis, in turn, couldn’t beat offensively.
We were a mid-tier ACC team last season and our post guys were Buchanan, Cofie, Robinson and Saunders (and ahem…Power). Whoever was the 4th best of those guys, would Tillis struggle against them? Doubt it.
Tillis is a career 38% 3 pt shooter, 79% FT shooter, plus passer in the post, and averaged about 23% defensive rebounding rate in 23 games against kenpom tier A+B opponents the past 3 seasons. He probably wont be a great offensive rebounder, won’t get many stocks, and I suspect he wont continue shooting 60%+ from 2, but he’s got a really good skillset that will fit well with this roster (especially if de Ridder joins).
