You need that frontcourt depth of at least four to deal with fouls and they all have different skillsets. Cutting Taine would have forced us to be more creative with Saunders, which I think was necessary, and play Sharma a lot more.
Cutting Power from the jump (not that we should have because you had to see what he could do - this is just revisionist history - although we def should have gotten away from him sooner than we did) is what would have freed up your ARob minutes more (which, I agree, would have helped him) - but youād still want Blake in that mix. Saunders, Cofie and ARob isnāt enough themselves and Buchanan played off of both Cofie and ARob well.
I just pulled that to show that Blake has by far not been our most negatively impactful player this season but I also had the thought - and if someone else has made this point apologies - the offensive/defensive splits of the team swapping midway through the season are probably most attributed just to no longer playing TJ Power and itās also relevant to whatās been going on with Saunders.
We think of Power being an offensive player and a defensive liability but it was the opposite this year. He couldnāt shoot or move the ball or get open on offense this year. His presence slowed things down and took us out of our element (and also coincided with us playing our new offense). Also, Saunders was more visibly impactful on offense during this time because he was one of the few guys who could take looks when things stalled and we were stalling a ton (but it wasnāt very efficient).
But defensively Power was normally playing the SF supported by Saunders at the PF. They didnāt play it straight up like that - normally Saunders just took the more threatening matchup of whoever it was, and Power got the easier one. So, Saunders was supported defensively some by having more length surrounding him (which weāve seen he needs), and Power didnāt have a single player he had to defend positionally. This is also why we were much worse defensively with him at the 4, though, because then he had to take a specific guy and we didnāt have the extra support on the glass.
So now, with Power out of the lineup, the Saunders/Buchanan pairing is more obviously bad because both benefit from more length around them and they donāt have Power eating some of those minutes. Meanwhile, you pair either with Cofie/Robinson, that makes up for some of that - but still (aside from recovering from injury as well) is a big reason Saunders has struggled more over the latter half of the season but a big reason our offense has improved (and our defense has gotten considerably worse - along with the switching).
Saunders was individually benefitting from Power (but the team wasnāt) while playing the PF.
Another reason we should have tried mixing him in at SF more (along with Taineās output)!
Iāll just say that when sitting at home on the couch, lots of things can look like ālack of effortā: confusion/uncertainty/hesitancy about what to do, unathleticism/clumsiness, athleticism making things look too easy, etc. And a lot of stuff fans laud as effort is just eyewash anyway.
He literally leads the team in rebounding. Iām not gonna argue heās a good rebounder or that heās a high performer in any particular area, but your characterization is overly harsh. I donāt think he lacks for effort.
BB was a big part of why we beat PITT on the road, 10 points, 11 total rebounds (and heās not a very good rebounder generally). But if you watched that stretch of games back, BB was hustling, grabbing rebounds in traffic, and getting on the floor. Heās very challenged offensively and his grip strength is obvoiusly lacking. But I donāt see a lack of effort or hustle. Doesnāt really matter, as he wonāt be here next year and this team was going nowhere even if ARob had played more early and BB benched.
*Edit: also 2 blocks
*Edit edit: 15 & 11 against SMU at home; from SMU at home to @ VT he averaged 7.5 rebounds/game, 7.4 points/game (brought down by a 2 point effort at home vs. ND and a 1 point effort @VT).
Seems pretty evident he was hustling and giving great effort for that stretch of 9 games.
I think itās the appearance that Blake has gotten worse as the year has gone by while others have gotten better. He has the same sort of lackadaisical effort this half of the year when we are fighting for our ACC and tourney lives.
To me he looks checked out and that is super frustrating when he had greater ability and effort as you said 2 + months ago.
Should Blake continue to start? I say No! Just like Jack Salt did when we began to figure things out, I think that Arob should be in Blakeās place, due to effort alone.
Iād probably start Cofie and Blake, sub in ARob for either and play Saunders at the SF a lot (and when he plays PF make it with Cofie with a lot more spacing).
But I think running two of those three together is pretty solid either way.
Heās just too inconsistent. I was extremely high on him out of HS but heās just not developing the way we need him to. Not sure I want us to put up a big fight to keep him in the offseason.
