Really don’t want to see Bond at the 4. Would much prefer that he spent/is spending lots of time learning how to dribble the ball well enough to be a 3.
Bond as a perimeter player is good size + very good length + very good athleticism. Bond, Dunn, Minor at the 3,4,5 is what small ball defensive dreams are made of
Bond as a post player is minus size with ok length and ok athleticism
If someone can confirm Bond is 6’7” or actually has a 30 foot wingspan I will reconsider. But all I can go on is his 6’4” with “average length” (for a wing! Not a big!) as described on 247
I don’t think there are publicly available measurements. Perhaps we need a Bond thread that we can merge some of these posts into? Paging thread maestro @jazznutUVA
I agree but he held his own on the interior. I’m with you on wanting Bond on the wing but nice to know he can give us small ball 4 minutes. We have a lot of mouths to feed in the backcourt even without Cain potentially joining
I agree but have a hard time seeing Bond guard players like Justyn Mutts, Filipowski, Nance, just to make a few of the 4’s we saw this year. He could do it but how effectively?
That being said I do share the overall size concern of ending up McKneely-Gertrude-Bond 2-4 when we halve the personnel to play bigger. Especially when Harris is at the 1. Hopefully Rohde removed the temptation to go ultra small 1-3 even if Leon is at the 4 for most of this minutes
He wouldn’t unless we lack other options lol which I guess one could argue slotting Leon at the 4 vs 3 has roster management trickle on impact for future recruiting. But I think the Rohde-Dunn combo solves any potential issues for next year
I introduced this mishigas, so let me add this spin – when we play Bacot or Burns (he’s back, right?) or PJ Hall or some other true big, I assume Minor will get the assignment. Minor said something like he’s a small ball 5, but I’m basically ignoring that as a meaningful signifier unless Blake is good enough to start, or we get another true big.
Then, let’s assume Minor picks up 2 quick fouls on Bacot. Who comes in to cover Bacot? I think if Bond or Dunn are frontcourt pieces, then one of them would be the answer (again unless Blake is ready for serious rotation minutes). I think their ability to do that and not have us chew our fingernails off kinda depends on how much size and strength they can add in the offseason. And if you can’t even see them covering Bacot (or Hall, et al) in your mind’s eye, then they’re probably not true frontcourt pieces.
Yes, I realize modern hoops scrambles all of this, and on many occasions, Armaan was our best PF. Heck, I wish we would’ve considered Armaan a PF for the whole of Furman 2H, and I suspect we’d have gotten out of there with the W.
We should revisit once rosters are close to final, but there aren’t actually a lot of giant 4s projected to be in the ACC next season. Running down the list of ACC teams (I am missing anyone who Torvik hasn’t added to the 2024 projections for each team):
Duke: Is Flip playing 5 next season? I don’t know anything about Sean Stewart, but I guess he’s got some size?
UNC: Withers should be their 4; he doesn’t actually take a lot of shots at the rim, more of a perimeter guy.
Miami: I would guess this is TBD, but they are often playing a guard at the 4.
Clemson: Jack Clark is another perimeter 4, takes most of his shots from 3 and draws no fouls.
VT: Mekhi Long. Good foul drawer at the SB and CUSA level, but listed at 6-7.
Wake: Carr? Big, but another perimeter-oriented big, not much of a foul-drawer.
Pitt: Hinson. Takes most of his shots from 3.
FSU: Baba? Is giant. Not trying to read into his stats too much because of circumstances, but he did take half of his shots from 3.
GT: No idea. They don’t have a lot of size returning.
NCSU: Dunno? I assume they aren’t going to play Ross and Middlebrooks at the same time, but maybe.
BC: shrug
Louisville: Lol. They will be big to their detriment probably.
Cuse: Maliq Brown, Benny Williams. Solid.
ND: Revisit when they have a team.
They are front court players but not bigs lol most teams only play one big at a time. Less minutes where ACC teams have a big at the 4 every year
Also, in these hypotheticals, when is Bacot playing the 4? Hall might’ve played some but couldn’t have been close to his minutes at the 5.Should we also spend time questioning how well Minor is going to cover PGs? If Bond is guarding those guys it’s because he got switched on to them and that can happen regardless of what ‘number’ the guys he’s primarily defending is
I really don’t think Bond should be considered as part of “plan A” for next season, so I wouldn’t get too hung up on what position he plays. “4” or “frontcourt” is really just where the minutes seem likely to be available based on how the roster looks right now.
Since Bond very probably won’t be walking out on the floor for the opening tip and needing to match up with somebody out there, his ability to carve out minutes will be based on who he can guard. I see him as battling w/ Taine for the tail end of the rotation, and his chances of carving out a meaningful role will depend on him being able to impact games by being disruptive on D. If he can be the kind of guy that can shut down shooters of the 6’4-6’7 variety, then maybe he can be an important piece next year.
Edit: I’ll add that I agree I’d love to see him develop a tight handle and become a knock down 3 point shooter, because at his size that would seem the only way he becomes a star for us, but if things were trending that way I’m not sure Rohde would have been such a priority for us.
I’m not really sure what we are disagreeing about. This is all about who can cover who – I agree. To tie it back the recruiting question – are we content with the answer to “who guards Bacot and Hall type players?” being, Minor and then probably Blake if he’s ready (which is itself still a frontcourt-sized question), and if not, then probably Dunn and I guess Bond, in an emergency?
If yes, then you feel more comfortable staying put. If not, then maybe add a space eater, I don’t know.
(I think that means I strongly agree)