Player Length/Height vs. Speed

[shadow force]

Payne apparently wants tall and long players all over the court. He is bringing in a 6ft7 SG next year, though no PGs yet except a potential sophomore Fabio who is 6ft4.

But back to the point of this post, the tall players he has now are too slow to stop opposing guards from penetrating and also too slow to blow by their man when on offense. I realize better consistency and effort would help some on defense but that's another story.

The only guy with killer speed on offense is Ellis though he is not a great defender. Want to see what type pf PG he goes after and actually gets. This is all presuming he is still the coach next season.

 

[2330859]

Payne's experience as a college player was under Denny, and his posting tall UL guards was one of the innovations that Crum brought to college basketball and Kenny would be wise to follow .......... provided he is still around here.

 

[Guardman]

Actually height/length is a Boeheim trademark also.

 

[Guardman]

Tall and taller players will always dominate this game, as long as the court size remains as it is and the basket height as it is. Simply kinematics and physics.

 

[LouisvilleKid79]

Coach Crum, Boeheim, some others were “ahead of their time.” They understood the importance of having guys that could play outside and inside on offense with the ability to switch and defend multiple positions (for Boeheim it makes the zone that much more difficult to attack). Crum did eventually get back to recruiting and playing some smaller and quicker guards.

You hear positionless basketball a lot now but most teams still have players that fill a specific or traditional role and function. I think generally KP is looking for guys that can play inside and out on the offensive end with the ability to switch and defend multiple positions.

All that said, Cards could use some quicker guards that want and have the desire to defend and get after it. Better guards/wings that can beat their guy off the dribble - quick first step would go a long way.

 

[LouCards13]

Actually height/length is a Boeheim trademark also.

Boeheim also runs strictly a zone defense which benefits from length and height. It hasn’t had much success the better part of the last decade or so.

 

[shadow force]

Good points made in this thread.

Unfortunately, for whatever reason, all the height this Cards team has seems to do absolutely nothing. It serves as no advantage where you think it would like rebounding and defense but that's also probably due to lack in other areas.

I like the idea of having lengthy athleticism all over the court and the ability to switch easily on defense and be able to see and pass over shorter opponents as well. But having elite speed as Siva and Russ had can be great too. Of course the ideal is to have lengthy players that also possess good speed and quick first step who can also defend like junkyard dogs.

 

[DLMW]

The main issue I see with this team, when guarding their opponent, they are in more of a horizontal stance (straight up), instead of a vertical stance. With a vertical stance, they can shuffle and slide their feet faster keeping the opponent in front of them...

 

[Thecycle27]

Different game in back then. No three point line. Spacing was much different. It was a terrific plan with pressing and jamming up the lane with athletes with length.

Today it is much different with the 3 point line creates spacing. It is doable but those guys have to be terrific athletes with lateral and horizontal quickness. Then they have to have really good basketball skills. The key is keeping people out of the lane. Length and size don’t matter if that is happening all the time.

That is the problem this year. This isn’t a super athletic team. They have length but are slow laterally. Death. It really is the worst mixture of players. Can’t stop anyone on the perimeter and no shot blockers.