If anyone’s biggest takeaway from the last two years wasn’t that we need guards who can both shoot and dribble then I don’t know what y’all watched lol was everything else perfect? No. But that’s a pretty damn hard thing to cover unless your 3-5 is De’Andre Hunter, Zion, and Marvin Bagley.
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This offense can be as bad as that 2019/2020 offense
What I really want is last years team, minus Casey and Justin, plus Armaan and Jayden, with a healthy Kadin. PG + Armaan + Sam + Jayden + Jay, with Trey and Kadin getting heavy minutes off the bench. Is that too much to ask? (I’m hearing from the judges that is indeed too much to ask).
19-20 was dragged down by the albatross of Brax’s post wrist injury shooting. Also, I don’t know how good we can expect him to be but I’d be shocked if Armaan were not better than what we got from that 2/3 spot in 19-20. Then we are left with our vague hopes and dreams about Igor, Taine, and Reece’s shot.
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Don’t think that’s a realistic outcome unless Armaan gets hurt. That offense was one of the worst the ACC has seen in the KenPom era. It could be pretty bad and still be way better than 19/20.
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It’s the same roster setup though. One shooter surrounded by four non-shooters. I don’t think it will be as bad, but it certainly can be
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Only if Tony has completely lost his abilities as an evaluator. Even the worst power conference team usually has a better offense than we did that year. Something is very wrong with Tony’s evaluations of guards if the offense is that bad again.
Even getting into the player by player I just don’t see it as long as Armaan is in the lineup. We could seriously struggle but struggling would be more like 150th on offense rather 230th or whatever we ended up that year.
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Right, and no one on that squad was a bucket-getter like Gardner. I’m not saying he’ll be Gill (people forget how underrated Gill was at scoring efficiency. KenPom regularly had him as a top 20 overall player), but when nothing else is working, Gardner is a guy you can tell to go get a bucket and he’ll do it and we haven’t had someone like that in a few years.
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Actually I wouldn’t even *complain about those 3 not fitting well together- however if *one of Trey or Sam could dribble a bit more then that would have been ideal. The “problem” was at the 1-2 spot in which those positions were duplicative and could have been better as floor spaces/creators…
However- Again I’m not really complaining because the entire team played hard through a Covid season and we still won the ACC 
…Plus last year is already in the rear view in my eyes.
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Yeah. The pain wasn’t that they were a bad offensive team by any stretch, they were excellent. The pain is that the potential was there for it to be an elite offensive squad, like top 5 in all of college basketball, and the pieces didn’t come together for that to happen. The lost opportunity is disappointing.
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I think that’s a solid and fair argument too. 1-5 could have used some tweaking/adjustments. The As you said Sam, Trey Jay worked as they were if 1 or 2 were a dribble drive facilitator/creator. Last year’s team was/is a head scratcher to me, in that they were all talented and if placed in the right spot all could excel and make a good UVa team, but not as a team. One of the few times the sum wasn’t more than the parts.
You could also argue if Casey developed as he should have, then you have that dribble drive guy and its’ a whole new look outfit. A lot of what if’s all around.
But like you said at the end of the day I give that group credit for overcoming the most extreme circumstances a team could face, and probably the most uncertainty a team has faced entering a season and they thrived. That team got the most out of their abilities so tip of the hat to that.
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Some more smoke around a Brogdon-for-Simmons trade seems to be brewing…
(Keith Pompey is a bit of a lightning rod for Sixers fans but his reporting is usually sound)
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Awesome game for Brogdon tonight. 27 points on 12-14 (!) shooting, 2-3 from three, led both teams in scoring, and added 5 rebounds + 3 assists.
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Saw his stat line on the bottom line. Great game for him.
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Yep, good to see him showing out. Joey Buckets is 5-6 from three at the moment, too (we can just ignore Trey’s game tonight tho).
edit: aaand I jinxed myself! Trey ended up as the leading scorer for New Orleans.
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Mamadi revenge game opportunity tonight: Thunder vs. Bucks at 7:30
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NO THAT ANNOUNCER DID NOT JUST SAY “TOUGH REVERSE LAY UP. 9pts THIS HALF OUT OF VIRGINIA TECH” for Trey Murphy. NO SIR (also the box scores online are messed up, showing Murphy with 0pts on 0-1 shooting. the disrespect)
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Happens way, WAY too often. Makes me no less nauseous each time.
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Being a typical Virginia fan, it is so disrespectful that I can only accept that it’s part of a national conspiracy of pace-biased media elitists who want to cancel our success. No other rational explanation. Kentucky fans may be involved as well. And Dookies. And Swofford. Maybe Tina Thompson too. Bilas Is definitely orchestrating the whole thing. Wait, this isn’t the beer lovers thread? Never mind.
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Apparently Harden and Durant had input on this decision as well. If Kyrie does retire in “retaliation” maybe it provides an opportunity for someone like Justin Anderson? Im sure they will use the $33 million in salary space to get some depth and role players since there isn’t a big available target.
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