Fundamentally, we need more playmakers. Isaac isnāt one but to unlock his strengths he needs more around him. More than just Warley, we need other guys to initiate and create. HGN flagged this in his mailbag. Itās the most crucial thing for our offense this year imo.
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Counter point: Isaiah WIlkins was the leading scorer in his final blue/white scrimmage.
McKneely didnāt do much because he was guarded by Rohde and Warley (at least for a lot of the 2nd and 3rd periods)
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Thanks for that belly laughā¦ needed that
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McKneely not being able to drive isnāt laughable for me 
(McKneely canāt put the ball on the floor vs anyone over 6ā5. But thrives off the creation of others)
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I think youāre over indexing shooting in your player evals. iMac would have been sought after in the portal because heās an elite role player. The problem is that this team has plenty of role players and we need him to step up his playmaking ability to become more than a role player, which he has shown no evidence of doing.
Weād be a lot higher on iMac if Ty was the PG or if this team still had an elite playmaker.
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I believe the parts of Imacās game we would like him to have will keep improving over time. I think we sometimes are too hard on himā¦Where would we have been last year without him. Iām expecting to see more of a complete game now that he has plenty of helpā¦ Last year he was the focus of every teamās defense. It will be different this year and I expect him to take advantage of it
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Iāve always thought the opposite. Heās a good kid, a good rep for the program, and a piece any college program would take in a second.
Heās also on the very short list of 30+ mpg guys that everyone agreed on last year. I think thatās more a reflection of the rest of the roster than McKneely himself. Now that the roster has more shooters, folks are turning to the areas of his game that went overlooked (or at least under-commented upon) when we we bereft of shooters.
Eh this reads like hockey and soccer fans who donāt appreciate goal scorers. Itās hard to over index the hardest and most important skill in the game. Much more common that people donāt place enough emphasis on it
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Iām curious to know what folks think Joshua Jefferson would have been like for us vis-Ć -vis Elijah Saunders. Was Jefferson less of a perimeter shooting threat, but more dangerous on the interior (either finishing, driving, or posting up)?
I am excited about Saunders but still wondering whether missing on Jefferson will hurt us. I have a sneaking suspicion weāre going to feel like Saunders is a little 1 or 2 dimensional as the year goes on.
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I am incredibly high on Jefferson, especially as a fit with this yearās team and the rest of the transfer haul. Perfect complement to Power. He can shoot the 3 but probably nowhere close to same volume as Elijah. More of an interior player. A fantastic rebounder and can match up on other 5s (especially useful for situations where Blake is outmatched). Great court vision, too. Definitely more of a traditional 4.
Iām very happy with Saunders. Looking back Saunders would be my second choice to Jefferson for that bruiser 4 position.
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Addressing one of your questions about whether we could have pivoted to this offensive attack last yearā¦
Agreed that our personnel last year wouldnāt have fit this offensive attack
However, I do think we would benefitted if we had based our offense more around Reece making plays out of pick and roll. Not saying he should have come down and immediately had a screen set for him every time, but would have loved to see us run an initial action before bringing it back to him, look for mismatches, etc. We were not badly suited for Sides and 3 man last year, but we were badly suited to run it as much as we did, in my opinion
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Iām also super high on IMACulate. Heās clearly our best player this year.
Paradoxically I think heād be more appreciated if there were two other players his caliber at the 1 and 3/4 a la Jerome, Guy, and Hunter. Then weād be a natty contender, and heād be a huge part of it. Instead heās slightly awkwardly cast as a non-creator who is our clear-cut best player on a team that is somewhere between a 6 seed and missing the tourney.
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I just caught up this thread and what an adventure
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