Here’s my Tracking a Transfer piece on TJ Power:
Thanks! Just finished the offense portion (btw, I think you may have omitted the “putting it all together” clip). There was more to analyze than I would’ve guessed (or at least you could analyze the lack of things, in certain clips).
- The shot is obviously legit. He’s tall and gets his shot off quickly and with confidence. We’ll have to see how he does when used slightly differently, in our offense (whatever that may be). E.g., off screens, as a pick and pop threat.
- Handle feels “meh”. Not really confident, but maybe it could improve.
- He’s just not athletic or explosive enough at this level to be much of a threat around the rim. Best hope is he matures a bit physically, and gets a bit savvier on what he can do.
- The real question mark is passing / whether he can be a solid connector. Duke didn’t really ask him to do any of that. There was one play in there (one of his drives) that looked pretty promising.
- Some of the ORB stuff seemed nice, and reflects one good thing (1) he’s a pretty savvy player – and one irrelevant thing: (2) Duke had enough weapons that his man was oftne a mismatch for him size-wise.
Basically, he’s not yet a plus-ACC athlete but he should be a very good or great shooter. He can’t really yet attack a closeout, but maybe there are some growth opportunities.
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One observation is that I think some of this should account for what coaches are asking the players to do. A player doesn’t only take 9 shots on a season from 2 and 30+ from 3 by chance. Same with Warley from 3.
I think we are good at identifying what TB asks of players and factoring that into our assessment of their talent. It’s more of a blind spot with transfers. In other words lack of evidence shouldn’t be taken as an indictment of their talent in that area. It’s just lack of evidence maybe from factors outside players control
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I hear ya, but just to be clear, none of what I’m saying above is analyzing things I didn’t see, it’s watching him pass up opportunities (if that makes sense).
Hope you’re enjoying BK. Funnily enough my buddy has a place right on the park, by the Museum, and we are going over there on Sunday, but I don’t know that hood at all.
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Kicks me off site after a minute or so.
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Oh I meant more about the cuts piece haha. Not your analysis.
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I’m not sure what traits you’re specifically referencing but there was enough opportunity for him to have done more if he was comfortable.
Duke could have played him more and funneled him more shots but I didn’t get the sense that he was capable of much more offensively at this level yet. He was reluctant and passed up opportunity and when he did test the waters it didn’t often go well or look threatening.
Agreed and thanks for the thoughts. I did think he looked like a capable but not yet impactful passer.
That was the main area where I think he could be better than he was able to show.
Also, thanks for the catch! Updated the piece with that clip that was missing - had an empty short code in there. Definitely need an editor but… yeah.
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Same for me @Cuts_from_The_Corner
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Are you guys on pc or mobile? These pieces are really rough on phones but if you’re having issues on pc that’s new.
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I think the best case scenario is that he’s a wing-forward Hunter Sallis, who also didn’t show signs of being a go-to guy at Gonzaga and had a very limited offensive role, but stepped into a scaled-up role really nicely. But that’s hard to predict.
I think he’ll be able to step things up with his shooting because he’s going to get a lot more opportunities and will need to take more. Rhythm and all of that.
It will be quite surprising if he makes many plays off the bounce or in the post this coming season. I’ll be happy to be surprised, though!
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Relpying to no one in particular but Power is the guy I am least interested in as an transfer in. Had he commited, like he wanted to do outta HS, I woulda been all in for him.
We shall see
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Yeah. It was the notes on it being discouraged him not looking comfortable off the bounce or passing. I guess my interpretation is that Scheyer probably told him to only do one thing so he looked bad or unwilling when he was in positions to do more, especially around a lot of talent who was better positioned to do those things. That seems really reflected in the balance of shots taken.
Rather than taking it as a sign he wasn’t ready, my sense is that it’s just TBD. We just don’t know. So I guess I’m less discouraged and more “we’ll see.” With some optimism that we will see sooner than later bc of what he showed in high school.
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Correct! Our best teams had studs in the paint defensively because they could clean up the boards and cause havok defensively in the paint.
TB’s goal of always having a floor spacing 4 man only works if it’s DeAndre Hunter…
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He was a 5th year senior in HS and old for his grade. He will be 21 before his 2nd college season even begins.
What he did in HS is just not representative of what he can do in college. I was slow on that train in recruitment - will admit.
He’s got to learn to play differently at this level. I don’t think he’s a quick twitch guy like Hunter Tyson or Grady Dick. In high school there was a lot of dribbling around, non-decisive play, but he was physically two years more mature (and still a deadeye shooter).
KenPom ranked us 36th defensively that year. Not up to the level of some of our previous years, maybe, but not what I’d call “mediocre.”
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Tony’s only had two true stretch bigs work for us: Jay Huff and Sam Hauser. In Jay’s case (a) it took 3 developmental years before he was playable to Tony’s standards and (b) he complemented his shooting with both great rim finishing and shot blocking instincts. Sam was an all-timer level shooter as evidenced by his NBA success.
All the rest either never had their shot translate to college or couldn’t get their defense up to Tony’s standards (though at times they had to play by default, the team’s defense suffered noticeably when they were on the floor). Nolte, Stattmann, BVP, Igor, Traudt, Groves.
Give me a swiss army knife athlete at the 4: Akil, Mamadi, Wilkins, Hunter, Key. If they aren’t 40% shooters, it’s still better than a shooter who can’t/won’t defend or rebound. That’s why I’m much more excited about Saunders than Power.
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Defense was fine. But was sort of the start of roster imbalance.
Hauser improved defensively as the year went on. Offensive value was huge for that team. Still we just asked him to be serviceable.
TMIII in my mind probably had good metrics, but wasn’t really that “clean up” type role that bails us in the past. Most of that was because he was out on perimeter guarding - lotta times he got caught cheating inside to give up an open 3. Although we did have Huff.
We also played Hauser and McKoy at the 5 at times. Which is crazy.
Our best teams have had both great offensive and defensive bigs. That’s my official stance in this debate.
My extremist Haney stance in this debate is that if you really want to understand why our offense has been mostly ass since the natty, you have to go back and remember that Tony never played Gill and Tobey together. And also that he never let them shoot threes. Why, you ask?
Well how you dare ask “why?”. He’s a HOF hoops coach, and you’re just a dumbass posting on a hoops message board post. That’s why.
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