Lol
For those wondering…
Bond’s production at a 28 minutes per game pace?
20 points, 15 rebounds, 3.3 steals, 0 turnovers
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Off the wall comp here for Bond III.
Fletch with more athleticism. I stand by my comp despite the fact that the two grew up in very different environments.
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Fletch wishes he had Bond’s hair game.
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Where do you want to see Leon play tomorrow night?
- 3
- 4
- Both
- 3 on D and 4 on O
0
voters
on the floor
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I think you’ll get your wish. The question is how many minutes and where do they come from?
Not above the rim?
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Now that you mention it - nah… I already know he can do that stuff …wanna see his floor game a bit more.
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Want to see Bond over 20+ minutes. He had 17 against Tarleton State and Taine had 11. Hate to say it but would rather see those Taine minutes go to Bond. Hard to do though in a blowout and with what Taine has put into the program but it’s clear he won’t be a part of the rotation and I’d like Bond to get as many reps as possible.
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Watching Bond right now feels like watching Dunn early last season.
I imagine he cements himself firmly in the big game rotation by ACC play. Not even really worried about it tbh.
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Well Bond is definitely starting like Dunn did last year, with some game’s playing a lot and some not much if at all. Bond will have to use his early playing time to show he brings a big positive that outweighs his negatives. For Dunn that was defense and rim protection last year even though he was not a good offensive player. For Bond, its probably going to be frenetic intensity, perimeter defense, and midrange offense that has to outweigh his height disadvantage regarding rebounding against big front lines and interior defense against the same.
I was just wondering what Bond wasn’t doing (if anything), or was it that our perimeter players are already so deep and are all playing well? In addition Dunn and Groves at the 4 are playing well too so he just may get *tentatively phased out until some of these upcoming games.
I’m just glad that most of our team is either playing *above expectations (Groves, Buchanan), or are beginning to elevate their games (Rohde, Dunn). And it’s so early in the season and we are so deep.
One thing that I hope for is more play by Minor and a little bit more offense from Dunn.
I wrote a short section on Bond in my piece (just posted on the main chat), outlining why I think it was apparent to CTB that he couldn’t play Bond much in the Florida game.
I do think it was mostly matchup-specific, but also speaks to him not being a great option at the 3 offensively yet, and how his being undersized is going to limit him in some games at his current development.
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I assume people keep calling Bond a wing because of his height. For now he’s a post player - his instincts and movement are those of a post player. (Edit: by post, I mean working in the paint and around the basket with movement and length, not so much a back-to-the-basket guy). He’s just very undersized. Perhaps he expands his skill set over time to suit a wing, and I expect that will come defensively well before it does offensively. He’s really good working near the basket, though, and I don’t really care what his height is if he’s grabbing rebounds, scoring, and being effective. Dennis Rodman led the NBA in rebounds 7 times in a row at 6’7” or 6’8” in an era when all those teams had true centers.
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Absolutely re: his mentality being a frontcourt player and his defense probably coming along at wing before his offense… but I don’t think it’s in our best interest (or his as a player long term) if that’s where he stays.
If he can play the 3 role comfortably (sometimes 4 in certain matchups), then I think that will be a boon for all parties. He’s such a plus athlete there our defense and rebounding would be smothering and really he just needs to be able to knock down an outside shot and slash to the hoop on occasion.
If not, I think we’re going to find ourselves regularly lamenting why he (correctly) can’t get on the floor more and/or running into size issues when he does against certain teams.
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Curious to see what we can do offensively with Bond during the upcoming cupcake buffet. I’d like to see some Dunn+Bond magic (think there’s some good chemistry there) on offense. Have mentioned it before, but UConn went through a bad stretch with Andre Jackson where teams weren’t defending him. Duke is having that problem with Mitchell. Feels like a solveable problem with a big payoff. Haven’t read Cuts on Bond yet. Lunchtime goal.
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I agree completely that Bond’s personal development and prospects for the NBA are tied to him developing wing skills. I’m not sure that’s imperative for him to be a really good college player. If his usage as a “wing” or “3” or whatever we want to call it (someone else said “perimeter player”), is as a slasher, I am hopeful, because moving to the basket in tight space is natural to him. But our “3” has tended to be a shooter, and if his PT is tied to his success as a shooter, I think we will have misused him or not taken advantage of his skills around the basket. I also get that his size could be an issue in the paint against a team as big as Florida. I see him more as Isaiah Wilkins or Travis Watson (or Draymond Green to give a recent NBA comp), guys in the paint who were very effective despite giving up size.
Note: I say this with all the confidence of a guy who has seen him play only twice in college and a bunch of old AAU footage.
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I don’t want to harp too much on this, and think that his one-game performance against length/height/size will be predictive of all future performances, but it seems there are two choices here:
- develop wing skills so he can stay on the court against teams like that, and use more traditionally sized 4s against those teams
- get taller (doubt it), longer (nope), more athletic (possible, but unlikely more than marginal), bigger (I hope so, if he’s a college 4, he needs to be bigger, I think), stronger (same as bigger), savvier (most likely growth area) so that he can minimize those issues against teams that play big (which aren’t as dominant as they used to be, but are not that uncommon yet, either).
The problem with #2 is that, at least to a certain extent, some of that stuff is working at cross purposes with #1. Maybe I’m wrong (no, no, can’t be…)
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