Yeah, so many question marks this year. We need either Ennis to step in and be able to penetrate and create right away or Fair needs to improve his ball handling so he can get his own shots. Regardless, it'll be a fun season. I expect them to exceed my expectations when it's all said and done, and I prefer that much more than falling short of expectations obviously lol.
Yeah, I'm with you and RF. It's been a little while since we've had so many question marks -- a frosh that we are literally banking on for 30+ mpg at the point, major question marks with two prominent bigs, and a seeming logjam at the 3 with Grant/Fair/Roberson (potentially) and no clear answer at the 2.
I also agree with the point that JB teams have to fit together a certain way to reach their potential and this group doesn't have that feel. My guesses for how it plays out (in games that matter):
Fair and Grant are on the floor together far more often than not. One at the 3 the other at the 4. The two are the top scoring options with Fair approaching 18 ppg and Grant at ~12-13 ppg. 30+ mpg when it matters and good two-way guys. Tough to keep either off the floor.
Keita is Keita and that's a good thing. When games matter we'll get a heavy dose of Keita and we should embrace that. Guy's a good if limited player.
Ennis will log a lot of minutes out of necessity and have a decent but by no means transcendent year. If he does truly excel that's great, but I'm thinking anything more than handling the ball, playing decent defense and keeping his turnovers more or less in check could be a tall order.
Coleman emerges as a nice scoring option down low but maybe only for ~15 mpg. Guy still has a really long way to go defensively. The one key here is that if he loses more weight and is a step quicker, he could become a big factor a la Fab in his soph. year. Big X factor here.
Christmas is Christmas, but that's not so good a thing. I like the kid, he has incredible talent and better-than-advertised skill, but I'm not sold on the desire being there to truly excel. We'll see, but he's a really tough guy to trust. JB's big on trust. That's not a good formula for big minutes.
Roberson gets Grant-type minutes. I hate projecting freshmen b/c it's a crapshoot, but Grant had trouble forcing his way into games when Southerland was healthy and I think Roberson will fight the same battle.
Gbinje -- No idea but I'd imagine he'll play a decent role based on the fact that I don't think JB would worry about bringing him in if he didn't think he could contribute right away. Can't project numbers but I'd guess no worse than splitting time with Cooney.
Cooney is the biggest X factor. Cooney's 12-13 is a difficult year to figure out. You look at it one way and think his form isn't real pretty (lots of legs on that jumper), his handle's shaky, his results were downright ugly offensively. But then you look at it and figure he shot the ball atrociously but it's likely to improve and otherwise he gave some quality minutes -- quick hands and good effort defensively, unselfish and few poor shots/turnovers etc. If all he becomes is a solid but unspectacular shooter (35%?) he's a valuable piece. My guess is that this happens and he plays a solid role in this rotation (15 mpg, 6-7 ppg).
Nothing for the rest of the group.
