Yeah and everyone knows it.
Buddy, a minute limitation decreases the chance ANY player has to injury. This isn’t a case of if he plays he injures it more or worse. It either comes out or it doesn’t. Limiting his minutes doesn’t change that, outside of the obvious. And if you treat it like that, you might as well not have him cross the street. Play him. If he breaks, he breaks. That’s the only way this can be managed. And, btw, he’s gonna break. The approach being taken is desperate and silly.
You’re clueless if you think THIS team can try to limit minutes against ANY conference opponent. This team is awful without Lowe and JQ. They are average (see middle of the pack in SEC) without Lowe, at best. You just have to play him. That’s it. He’s going to break. It’s inevitable.
For whatever reason, our coach is obsessed with trying to make Chandler something he ain’t. Super frustrating.
Correct, not a good comp with Jacobs. The shoulder isn’t “dodgy”. It either says in or comes out. Outside of that, it’s pain management. But again, I think the approach being taken is asinine and desperate. That shoulder is going to come out a couple more times before the end of the season. He’s not going to finish the season. I’m shocked his handlers are allowing this approach. It’s literally Pope trying to save his job (not the season).
Indiana and St Johns are good? I agree though, 30 mins isn’t needed. But 25-28 mins are. The difference between that and 30 is just splitting hairs.
Look man, this isn’t an achy knee or a weak calf. It’s a shoulder that’s going to come out again. There’s no in between. That’s what I mean by that. No amount of minutes limit is going to change that and it’s not going to magically get stronger or lessen throughout the season.
Yep. Wanted all three to be better than they are in reality but reality almost always wins out.
It’s basically at the point from my understanding. It’s just gonna come out over and over again. The brace is the only thing that really prevents it. The muscles and surrounding tissues that hold it are stretched so much it’s just there. I think Butler was essentially the same. They don’t “repair” themselves. Surgery or it just keeps falling out. That’s what I mean by not hurting it further. But agreed, every single minute he plays is further risk of that happening. But honestly, he could do it brushing his teeth or washing his hair.
And Aberdeen. I like DA, but putting him at the pg spot, is such a bad idea.
I don't think you set a minutes restriction, it's not a lower body injury. You play him as needed.
JJ, that's what we have been talking about.
Agree to disagree on this one. Given the choice of DA and JJ to run offense, give me Aberdeen right now.
Lots of truth to that. Lowe isn’t going to finish the season, so I can only assume plugging DA into that role has something to do with that belief. That said, behind Lowe it’s JJ and then DA and then honestly I don’t think it matters. If anyone deeper than that has to play mins at PG this team isn’t beating anyone with a pulse.
I get neither are ideal, I just think JJ has a much better skill set for it. Problem is, he’s either resistant to coaching or the coaching of it has t occurred. Then again, DA has had the same issues.
Have you watched the last month? Chandler played well for about 5 games and has been awful since.
I bet you if Jasper played better defense, he would get more minutes. I know you feel like there’s this huge gulf between DA and JJ, but really there isn’t offensively. Jasper shots barely better from three (37.2% v 36%), but from two shoots horribly (47.2% v 54.4%). This means Jasper is a one-dimensional scorer. As it relates to traditional point guard skills, I’ll refer to the per-40 numbers for comparison: Jasper dominates in assists (7.1 v 5.0), but has more turnovers (2.5 v 2.0). It’s not enough to offset the rest of the basketball game —- Jasper vs Aberdeen in rebounds per 40 (4.4 v 5.2). Steals? (0.2 v 1.5). Also, Johnson has the worst defensive efficiency numbers on the entire team (outside of walkons) —- even worse than Lowe. Honestly, Pope has been far too kind in playing Jasper —- he shouldn’t even be in the rotation based on his production, but we can hope he improves as the year continues.
Our offense has consistently scored 4 or less points by the first tv timeout when DA runs the point. He is not a pg. He doesn't drive the ball, because he can't. He doesn't beat anyone off the bounce, because he can't.
Here's the issue, DA has played most of the minutes at the point while Lowe was out, he didn't get any better. Our offense struggled. He can't get by his man, he can't get into the paint and he struggles with on-ball pressure. We saw that highlighted with a massive highlighter in the St Johns game.
I’ll just agree to disagree with you on this, Jeff. My eyes see something totally different. Aberdeen has continued to beat defenders for drives, whereas I see that happen only in spare situations with Jasper —- and it almost always ends up with a wildly missed layup under heavy duress. Jasper may be one of the most disappointing athletes I’ve seen in recent memory based on high school projections —- he’s a zero ability scorer within the three point arc, isn’t overly quick and an average shooter at best, with very little comprehension about what a quality shot looks like. Aberdeen isn’t a point guard and is still quite a bit better than Jasper at that position —- that’s not a good thing. I hate even saying it, but I have to be honest and the stats back it up.
I have no issue with you disagreeing. I'll just say this though, Aberdeen has had all the minutes to.prove he can do it and our offense has looked terrible, then Lowe comes in and things immediately improve.
My pet peeve listening to CMP is the over use of adjectives like elite and beautiful. He uses those terms to loosely IMHO.
Pope's positivity may actually be a negative.
Much respect for the way you and ITVI discussed the issue of Aberdeen vs Johnson in regard to the backup PG. The best of a message board is when intelligent discussion makes you think harder about an issue. I think you’re right that Aberdeen is not a good PG, but I also believe that ITVI has a point that Aberdeen has maybe been better in that role UP TO THIS POINT.
Great post. I agree with all of it, especially your assessment of both players.
Good news is there’s more than one way to score inside. If I were Jasper, I’d be watching Immanuel Quickley film all off-season. Quickley wasn’t very strong at Kentucky and really struggled his freshman year. By sophomore year, he had developed all kinds of crafty moves and a dependable floater. Add that to Johnson and he can be a weapon. Not every player needs to be a super-athlete. Jasper might not ever see the plays develop early like a Travis Ford or a Tyler Ulis but his confidence can be a weapon later in his career.
