MoD, Moreno, Aberdeen, and Noah. MoD is a sure thing. Aberdeen, like MOD, is sure to play a lot and he will play well. Moreno looks better than BG already. Noah looks better than Cam and Colin.
Who’s standing out for you?
- Thread starter Eastkybball
- Start date
I was there since 2003, not sure why they never switched over...but I can solve the problem for you not liking what I post....block me little man....problem solved
I’m a little higher on Brandon Garrison right now than anybody else is. Or at least I’m less low on him.
Reason is his passing.
Last year he was just not a great passer. That had me concerned over the summer since he’d be replacing Amari. Or at least he would be until Quaintance comes fully online. And even Quaintance is excited about his new role being expanded to include a fair amount of passing. He hasn’t done so much of it either. All meaningful since so much of our offense runs through our center as drive or dish.
This year BG hasn’t been flashy with post offense even to the level he was at this point last year. But his passing is much better to my eye. I’ve watched him make passes that have some level of finesse and, even more importantly, a pretty good level of whole court awareness. Taking advantage of passing lanes opening up as plays develop to feed the right guy at the right place and time within the structured offense (as much as there is one yet).
That is a big deal to me. It means by the end of the season, BG really could be an important part of our quest for 9. A load-bearing wall, so to speak. As opposed to just an apex goon coming in sometimes when we really want dumb muscle and don’t mind getting it outside our offense, which is what I was mostly expecting from him this year.
But it’s an awful lot for him to be trying to process consciously right now, while he’s trying to play. I think it’s even affecting his defense, because whereas before he was just thinking kill a guy, now he’s thinking hey I could stand in the passing lanes as they would develop otherwise and I could maybe also get a guy trailing the play on my hip, etc. Starting to think about defense the same new ways he’s thinking about offense, in other words. He’s becoming a real basketball player.
But none of that’s muscle memory right now. So it’s all hella slowing him down while he thinks through it a step at a time like homework.
I expect that to change dramatically over the next few months. And I’d much rather be seeing it now than seeing him be the quintessential bruiser I expected him to be right now and still be basically one dimensional.
Reason is his passing.
Last year he was just not a great passer. That had me concerned over the summer since he’d be replacing Amari. Or at least he would be until Quaintance comes fully online. And even Quaintance is excited about his new role being expanded to include a fair amount of passing. He hasn’t done so much of it either. All meaningful since so much of our offense runs through our center as drive or dish.
This year BG hasn’t been flashy with post offense even to the level he was at this point last year. But his passing is much better to my eye. I’ve watched him make passes that have some level of finesse and, even more importantly, a pretty good level of whole court awareness. Taking advantage of passing lanes opening up as plays develop to feed the right guy at the right place and time within the structured offense (as much as there is one yet).
That is a big deal to me. It means by the end of the season, BG really could be an important part of our quest for 9. A load-bearing wall, so to speak. As opposed to just an apex goon coming in sometimes when we really want dumb muscle and don’t mind getting it outside our offense, which is what I was mostly expecting from him this year.
But it’s an awful lot for him to be trying to process consciously right now, while he’s trying to play. I think it’s even affecting his defense, because whereas before he was just thinking kill a guy, now he’s thinking hey I could stand in the passing lanes as they would develop otherwise and I could maybe also get a guy trailing the play on my hip, etc. Starting to think about defense the same new ways he’s thinking about offense, in other words. He’s becoming a real basketball player.
But none of that’s muscle memory right now. So it’s all hella slowing him down while he thinks through it a step at a time like homework.
I expect that to change dramatically over the next few months. And I’d much rather be seeing it now than seeing him be the quintessential bruiser I expected him to be right now and still be basically one dimensional.
Our D stood out to me....at every single spot. Looks like to me, our offense is behind. It was gangbusters early last year but our D sucked until late last season. I think we have the makings to be elite defensively and I'm sure the offense will come along. Chandler can shoot the ball well and he was 0-7 in the b/w game, too. i hope that practice isn't indicative of our offense or his shooting. I'm not worried about our offense, though. We may score as much as last year but I doubt it. I think this team puts more focus on d and that might slow the pace a bit. Rebounding looks like it'll be much improved. All this team has to do is block out and they'll be a great rebounding team as well. They've got the size and tools.
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Thought Lowe, Aberdeen, and Jasper all looked good. Much, much more depth at PG. Which evidently will be needed given Lowe's shoulder.
Noah looked awesome. I think he will be able to help and play more than I initially thought. Can he defend enough to stay on the court? Otega looked like he always has. Good to see him back. Chandler isn't there yet. My expectations for him are FAR below others. If he plays 20+ mins, I'm not sure how good the team can be. Kam was SUPER disappointing. I basically didn't notice he played and that's a problem. Given the injury to Lowe and how that shifts the PG role to Aberdeen and Jasper, one of Kam or Chandler needs to step up. They can't just be a warm body.
Garrison is what he is. If he bought himself for what I thought he was worth and sold himself for what he thought he was worth, he'd make a helluva profit. If he's the main cog at the 5, this team won't be good. Like borderline top 25 not good. If JQ comes back and is healthy, then it's a FF contender (assuming Lowe is G2G come Jan 1 or so). I think the gap is that wide there. MO is a solid role player, gives you a ton of things that won't show in a box score. Those guys are needed. Moreno could be ahead of BG by seasons end. He's skilled and seems to have a better understanding of his role.
Long story short...this team NEEDS Lowe and JQ healthy to be serious contenders. But honestly, after watching the B/W I think JQ is more important than anyone.
Agreed. He's better and don't think it's close. Chandler has a role, but he and everyone else are going to need to be aware and accepting of it. Chandler, currently, isn't a huge piece on a title contender. He's just not there yet.
Buddy, I love your positivity. Just not sure I see it. Nearly every pass he made that wasn't a straight DHO was tipped or stolen. He hangs on to the ball WAY too much in the Zoom action. It's like he's trying to feed the over the top curl every time rather than just executing the DHO. Part of me thinks he does this because if the over the top curl isn't open the next read is him 1v1. I feel like we saw a lot of that in the limited time in the B/W game. I can't take much of BG going 1v1 from the arc before I lose my ****. I love what Pope does offensively. It's the literal definition of modern basketball. He basically fed the NBA these actions. The big difference is a lot of the post "trigger" guys in the NBA are 100% capable passers, shooters, and playmakers. BG is not that. If I schemed UK with BG as the trigger, I'd just drop cover him so I could chase shooters and not have to worry about the back cuts and curls. AW was too good of a passer and relatively decent at backing into the lane with the dribble to create offense. I just can't see BG being capable of that.
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Of course they’re getting tipped or stolen. None of this is coming naturally to him yet and none of this is muscle memory yet. So he’s doing it all way too slow to be effective. That was kind of my whole point and the whole reason I understand why people are down on him but I think it’s actually a reason to be optimistic if we can be patient.
Last year BG’s assist-to-turnover ratio was actually better than Amari’s. But it wasn’t so useful because it wasn’t in the offense like it needed to be. Now he’s trying a more useful kind of passing and his connection rate is lower because he hasn’t got it down.
Maybe I should have said the passes he was *trying* to make so it didn’t sound like I was saying he looks like John Stockton out there. He looks bad out there. But to my eye he looks bad because he’s trying to make actually the right pass at least a decent percentage of the time now. And even having an inkling of what the right pass was, in our offense, was beyond him last year unless it was just a little dump off.
I think we’re seeing the same things. Only you’re grading him by what he succeeds at doing whereas I’m grading him by what he’s trying to do. What I’m seeing is that what he’s trying to do now is the right pass more often than it was last year. Those are the things you’re calling worthless because they’re getting tipped or stolen.
Of course they’re getting tipped or stolen. None of this is coming naturally to him yet and none of this is muscle memory yet. So he’s doing it all way too slow to be effective. That was kind of my whole point and the whole reason I understand why people are down on him but I think it’s actually a reason to be optimistic if we can be patient.
Last year BG’s assist-to-turnover ratio was actually better than Amari’s. But it wasn’t so useful because it wasn’t in the offense like it needed to be. Now he’s trying a more useful kind of passing and his connection rate is lower because he hasn’t got it down.
Maybe I should have said the passes he was *trying* to make so it didn’t sound like I was saying he looks like John Stockton out there. He looks bad out there. But to my eye he looks bad because he’s trying to make actually the right pass at least a decent percentage of the time now. And even having an inkling of what the right pass was, in our offense, was beyond him last year unless it was just a little dump off.
I'm not calling them worthless, I'm just saying he's not very good at it. Given what I saw from him last year, I'm hesitant to be confident in his growth.
Hard for me to show patience to a junior in college who essentially had the same role, albeit in a backup position last year.
Yeah, that's a volume thing...BUT...AW turned it over FAR FAR too much. I mentioned in another post, I love Pope's Zoom stuff. He's basically changed how college and the NBA play. Problem is, the NBA 5's are way better at facilitating because they are way, way more skilled at what is needed to play that spot. It's hard for me to envision a world where BG gets there. But I also think Pope will adjust to his skillset too, if he thinks he's going to play a ton of minutes.
I can get on board with this. Makes total sense to me. I'm just not very confident in his ability to be able to do it. He just doesn't seem to be a great fit for what Pope tries to do on offense.
Garrison looks more athletic than last year. And the transfer from Florida could be another good one, whatever we've done to help oweh get better from last year. The same should be applied for aberdeen. In fact, having 2 hungry guards, should prove beneficial. I hope oweh and aberdeen make each other better athletes this year.