Still hoping we can add at least one of Elijah or iMac to the secondary ball handler list. Feels like that’s best case.
4 Likes
Think this is questionable based off Tony’s history pre-Kihei. We went without a second PG for most of London’s career and had Malcolm + Hall/DT fill in when London rested. In 16/17 Ty played 13 mpg while Hall played 27 and Thompson played 21. In 17/18 Nigel played 16.5.
Point is TB’s second PG usage has fluctuated based upon personnel. With Harris + 3 combo guards we have way more options to play both with and behind our primary PG than we’ve had since the national title. Reece, Isaac, and whoever is the 3rd best guard will play the majority of minutes. The 4th best will play 15-20. 5th best might not play much at all. Imo not much of a reason to bet on Harris winning and holding one of those spots all year. He’s more experienced but it’s clear Rohde offers size he doesn’t and Elijah is more talented. Harris is going to have to produce to win that 3rd or 4th spot
3 Likes
Rohde is starting day 1. He would be the 2nd PG on the floor with Reece in essence. Harris gonna have to come off the bench if Reece comes back IMO.
8 Likes
Eh, that’s an awfully high bar. Sure, they weren’t nearly as good as Ty and Guy, but its one they’re still in the ballpark of getting over. IMO, they were as good or better than the backcourts of Final Four aspiring teams driven by a guy playing out of his mind (Creighton, Kalkbrenner was insane, but they were as good as Nembhard and Scheierman), with really efficient front court offense (Arizona, they were as good as Kriisa and Ramey), or a defense-first team (Duke, they were better than Roach and Proctor).
They weren’t good enough to be the driving force of a Final Four aspiring team, but like 6-8 teams the entire country have backcourts that good. Almost the whole team was good enough to be the solid supporting cast for an elite team, but no one (especially in the second half) played well enough to be one of the stars on such a team, nor did the defense.
Yeah, but if you want to be a top 10-ish team, having a top 10-ish backcourt is a good place to start. AZ and Creighton (w/ Trey Alexander, not Baylor S.) were both significantly better statistical backcourts than ours. The best team for your case is probably SDSU, who somehow made the final despite having a fairly mediocre bunch of offensive guards.
He called Malcolm a lead guard, and would put the ball in his hands in the last 10 seconds of a shot clock — which is what he’s had Clark and Beekman do the past three years.
The kid is going to get serious PT (20+ minutes) as the only other pure PG. without Beekman, he’s probably 25-28.
Even Teven Jones as a true first year player was getting 14 minutes a game when Jontel was getting 30 and Barnette was getting 10. And Jones is no where near as talented or experienced as Harris.
2 Likes
He has a chance. He also has a chance to get beat out by Rohde + Gertrude and not be in the rotation at all. He’s only guaranteed a significant role if Reece doesn’t return
3 Likes