Mal to play the 3 this year

[pearl31]

OrangeXtreme has posted this in the 'Daily Articles' thread, but I think it is worthy of it's own thread.

Per JB, Malichi will be playing small forward

Thoughts?

 

[ebucklewis]

OrangeXtreme has posted this in the 'Daily Articles' thread, but I think it is worthy of it's own thread.

Per JB, Malichi will be playing small forward

Thoughts?

that's impossible - many "experts" on this board said that Malachi was only a 2 - maybe JB hasn't been told yet..

 

[Brooky03]

No room for him to get significant minutes at the 2 with Cooney there. With the talk that Gbinije will get a lot of minutes at PG, it makes sense that Malachi would be in at SF for those stretches. Lydon will likely play more 4 than 3, though I'm still convinced Lydon is a legit 3 instead of a stretch 4.

What's the plan on defense, though? I don't know if we want to rely on Malachi to get rebounds or bang down low when he has to rotate to the paint from SF. Gbinije is much better suited for this, but I like what G gives us at the top of the zone. Decisions decisison.

 

[tee1222]

that's impossible - many "experts" on this board said that Malachi was only a 2 - maybe JB hasn't been told yet..

I was one of those "experts" but I am wrong often! Still surprised but coach knows best, I am sure about that.

 

[PeteCalvin]

I was one of those "experts" but I am wrong often! Still surprised but coach knows best, I am sure about that.

How would Coach know? Supposedly he doesn't monitor his program.

 

[jordoo]

The best thing in that article was that JB said he wanted to get multiple shooters out there to stretch the floor. I like that a lot. Its a very good thing if Mal can play the 3 IMO. It gives us another front court player which we need.

 

[Cusefan0307]

No room for him to get significant minutes at the 2 with Cooney there. With the talk that Gbinije will get a lot of minutes at PG, it makes sense that Malachi would be in at SF for those stretches. Lydon will likely play more 4 than 3, though I'm still convinced Lydon is a legit 3 instead of a stretch 4.

What's the plan on defense, though? I don't know if we want to rely on Malachi to get rebounds or bang down low when he has to rotate to the paint from SF. Gbinije is much better suited for this, but I like what G gives us at the top of the zone. Decisions decisison.

I know on offense there really isn't much difference between the 2 and the 3 in our system as far as positioning on the court. The interesting part of the article that was left out of this discussion is that JB seemed to infer he plans to use a lineup of G, Cooney, Mal, and Lydon at least some of the time.

If that is the case, I expect G to go down low, and Mal to play the top with Cooney. Lydon has shown he can rebound against elite talent, but that would be one of the smallest lineups we have put out there since Harris/Rautins shared time at the 3 in 08-09.

 

[jekelish]

It'll be playing the '3' in title only. As others have mentioned, there's no PT at the true 2 spot. This will be more like when we played Rautins at the '3' now and then.

 

[Trueblue25]

As long as he knocks down shots and isn't a blatant liability on defense I don't care where he plays.

 

[cuseinseattle]

He said for this year. Which makes total sense. We will get killed on the glass in my opinion and will really need DC2 and Roberson to do a great job on the boards. For all of the people that love to bitch about JB making decisions only based on the zone and forfeiting offense...no complaining about defense and defensive rebounding this year.

 

[44doubledees]

What does everyone think? Barring injury do we see Howard at all this year, looks like a three man rotation at Guard and a four man rotation at forward, and two man rotation at C. I see Howard being the odd man out. JB rarely has gone with a 4th guard and we know G and Cooney will be playing 32 mins plus.

 

[Full_Rebar]

Small ball, man to man pressing defense with a motion offense focused on shooting 3's

 

[RF2044]

What does everyone think? Barring injury do we see Howard at all this year, looks like a three man rotation at Guard and a four man rotation at forward, and two man rotation at C. I see Howard being the odd man out. JB rarely has gone with a 4th guard and we know G and Cooney will be playing 32 mins plus.

Word is that Howard opened eyes this summer and impressed the coaches. Doesn't mean he'll be a regular member of the backcourt rotation, but I wouldn't discount the possibility so quickly.

 

[jekelish]

Word is that Howard opened eyes this summer and impressed the coaches. Doesn't mean he'll be a regular member of the backcourt rotation, but I wouldn't discount the possibility so quickly.

I still think he's a year away from contributing and becoming part of the rotation to be honest. In part because he's still relatively raw for the PG position, and in part because it's a numbers game and right now, he's probably #8 on the depth chart.

 

[reedny]

He said for this year. Which makes total sense. We will get killed on the glass in my opinion and will really need DC2 and Roberson to do a great job on the boards. For all of the people that love to bitch about JB making decisions only based on the zone and forfeiting offense...no complaining about defense and defensive rebounding this year.

With the Diagne situation, this doesn't come as a complete surprise. We're down a forward; JB needs offense; and Richardson has enough length to contribute at SF in a pinch (the same could be said of TR playing PF). If he's ready, MR gives JB the option of a pro-style "small" lineup that could be effective.

But I wouldn't expect it every game. There are plenty of hedges in the article: "this year"; "Mike G can play SF too"; "this gives us some flexibility"; there will be "several situations", etc.

 

[longislandcuse]

After what we've been subjected to lately, i'll take a year with less size and more shooting. I might regret saying that but my knee jerk reaction is that this is a good move for this year.

 

[reedny]

After what we've been subjected to lately, i'll take a year with less size and more shooting. I might regret saying that but my knee jerk reaction is that this is a good move for this year.

Like a bandaid on top of another bandaid.

 

[HoustonCuse]

Just hurts that he suddenly went from a huge guard to a very small forward. Definitely lose on the matchups in that switch.

 

[44doubledees]

I still think he's a year away from contributing and becoming part of the rotation to be honest. In part because he's still relatively raw for the PG position, and in part because it's a numbers game and right now, he's probably #8 on the depth chart.

I agree that he is probably good enough to get some very limited minutes but we know when JB gets into the conference that G and Cooney will be playing 35 plus. I just dont want to see him play 3 to 5mins in non conference and ride the pine for the rest of the season and burn a year like BJ. I also think if BJ redshirted he would still be here. Of course all goes out the window with an injury.

 

[reedny]

Just hurts that he suddenly went from a huge guard to a very small forward. Definitely lose on the matchups in that switch.

He's a freshman. He'll have to show he's ready to contribute before he'll see meaningful minutes at any position, let alone one where he'll come in undersized. Still, it makes for a fast lineup and might create some matchup issues.

 

[hoopsupstate]

Just a reminder, that we dealt with Rautins, Pace, Harris at the three on defense, so Mali should be just fine. Who says he plays defense on the bottom? G might slide down like last year.

 

[skurey]

He said for this year. Which makes total sense. We will get killed on the glass in my opinion and will really need DC2 and Roberson to do a great job on the boards. For all of the people that love to bitch about JB making decisions only based on the zone and forfeiting offense...no complaining about defense and defensive rebounding this year.

One could argue the zone results in the poor rebounding.

 

[reedny]

One could argue the zone results in the poor rebounding.

Probably does (no particular assigned player to box out). But having undersized front line players doesn't help either.

 

[MCC]

Just hurts that he suddenly went from a huge guard to a very small forward. Definitely lose on the matchups in that switch.

He'll cause tons of matchup problems when we have the ball. The zone can to some degree mask defensive liabilities although like everyone else I worry 'bout 'bounding.

 

[kcsu]

He will play the 3 on O and expect to see G on the back line on D when he is in