When the going gets tough, CTB always reverts to M/B. If it didn’t happen after SF, it would have happened in another game. We’ll be jamming this personnel square peg into the system round hole all season, I’m afraid.
6 Likes
Fair. I kind of was using it to identify guys who are actual NBA contributors or have managed to stay on the rosters for a while without being mostly in the G league. Devon hung around for a tiny bit but then was off to Europe, Kyle has been mostly G league, and Jay played for like 6 minutes in a blowout when the Lakers roster was depleted. But definitely fair - they could get it, as could Mamadi if that’s where we draw the line.
And yeah, I could have added more detail on guys who contributed before transferring. Didn’t want to make it too crowded, but that would be better.
2 Likes
It’s a great and really helpful list/assessment.
And I agree those guys are fringe NBA (so far)
1 Like
Their entire plan was to shut down Gardner because they knew no one else could do anything. Sampson took this game personally holy hell lol.
9 Likes
I appreciate notion of using 10 scholarships and trying to develop those guys. But it just doesn’t account for misses. I’d rather we use those extra 3 schollies on guys -especially in the 6’5” to 6’ 9” range - who have good athleticism but perhaps unrefined skill and hope that 1 or 2 of them pan out well, maybe get a growth spurt. The guys who are already big, athletic, and skilled are hard to come by. Getting skilled guys who aren’t athletic enough just puts a ceiling on their productivity. That list above really highlights that our best teams had missed too, and they transferred out. But we mostly kept growing from within. Gill was an exception, but he played for 3 years here and was in the program for 4 years.
2 Likes
Blueprint for everyone else playing us
1 Like
I mean it’s not rocket science lol. Close out on Armaan and disrupt Gardner. We’re under 60 even if you just do one of those well like Navy
2 Likes
5 Likes
I’m not on board with the “we used to wear em down” stuff. I mean, kinda. But those teams had multiple NBA guards. Guarding multiple NBA guards (Joe, Malc, Justin) has a way of wearing teams down.
We could have played a finesse-y style with multiple NBA guards and also beaten most teams we played.
That’s the major difference: we don’t have multiple NBA guards anymore. Hopefully they’re coming in 2022…
1 Like
It doesn’t solve the central problem for next year: the Kihei-Reece lineup
1 Like
My concern is that what we are doing this year not only has no potential to be good this year, but that we are hobbling ourselves to struggle next year as well. This is now three straight years of putrid guard/wing play limiting our team.
I’m excited for McKneely and Bond coming in (like I was for Morsell, JAR, Beekman, McCorkle, Murray) but if history is any indicator, they likely will not be major contributors next year and even if they do get minutes, it’s more in survival mode to learn the college game. That means, for next year, we still need to rely on older guys to be the backcourt/wings to be the main producers on the team.
I don’t see any situation in which Clark-Beekman-Franklin can be a 1-2-3 trio of a successful offense, especially in our half-court, methodical, mover-blocker offense. Next year, we are still going to need a bridge to McKneely/Bond, and so when we need shooters next year, I wouldn’t be surprised if Tony leans into McCorkle and Murray. But if they don’t get enough minutes to take their lumps and develop this year, then they are just going to be doing that next season and it’ll be another season of futility on offense.
6 Likes
I pulled some data from HoopMath on our perimeter shooting from the starters and it’s not pretty:
- Kihei: 6-20 (30%) overall on jump shots, 1-4 from midrange (25%) and 5-16 (31%) from 3
- Reece: 2-13 (15%) overall on jump shots, 1-7 from midrange (14%) and 1-6 (18%) from 3
- Armaan: 10-25 (40%) overall on jump shots, 4-6 from midrange (67%) and 6-19 (32%) from 3
- Jayden: 4-9 (44%) overall on jump shots, 4-8 from midrange (50%) and 0-1 (0%) from 3
- Kadin: 2-6 (33%) overall on jump shots, 2-5 from midrange (40%) and 0-1 (0%) from 3
(I think the data counts post hooks, post fades, etc. as jump shots, which explains some of the numbers for Jayden and Kadin)
As a team through 3 games, we’re 17-54 from three (31%). All 17 threes we’ve made have come off assists — in other words, no self-creation from beyond the arc.
8 Likes
To be honest, most 3 point shots are assisted… very rare do you see college kids creating 3s. Most of the time, an unassisted 3 happens at the end of shot clocks. Houston made a few of those last night, they weren’t good shot, but they went in.
1 Like
Sassers specialty from footage I have seen
3 Likes
He already has 6 unassisted 3s this year… definitely a few of em last night. Would be willing to bet that he hits more of them than our entire team does this year.
3 Likes
Honestly the only guy I’ve seen this year who might be able to do that is Igor, mainly due to his height and willingness to shoot.
1 Like
I thought Franklin could do so off the dribble at Indiana
2 Likes
Just because he hits them, doesn’t means it’s a great shot.
I think Franklin’s had like two or three 3s blocked so far, which isn’t ideal. Although maybe I’m misremembering
Those are interesting stats. Armaan’s results aren’t great but aren’t terrible. They’re just below the bottom threshold of “doing fine”. Jayden is basically the same. Hitting 50% of his mid-range 2s isn’t great but certainly isn’t awful. And Kadin’s results are around what I’d expect. I’d heard he could hit jumpers, but I hadn’t seen any evidence of it and didn’t really think he could. And there aren’t a lot, so its fine. All three of them fall into the “a little worse than hoped, but more or less in the right range”.
But Reece and Kihei… man, that’s a problem. You can see Kihei trying to be the 2. He’s put in a ton of work improving his shot and it is a little better, and he’s trying to complement Armaan as another perimeter scoring option. But those results, on significant volume, are not pretty.
And Reece… wow. The results match the eye test which say he is not a shooter. His volume is lower than Kihei’s so the maybe the overall results aren’t as bad, but having a sub-Morsell FG% is a rough place to be.
4 Likes