Donnie Freeman injures foot

[Dinkyspond]

say want you want about paul harris. at 6 foot 5 inches he led in Syracuse in rebounds 3 years.it ain't all about size. he was a hungry rebound beast.

Paul was fun to watch grab boards. He was a warrior.

 

[Niastri]

Yes, I agree. Coleman was a 4/5. Billy Owens was a 3/4.
Freeman is not strong enough at the 4, or skilled enough at the 3. Not yet.
But he needs to work on BOTH aspects of his game (inside and outside) or he won't be a pro. He is not an explosivelathlete. He is a tall and skilled basketball player for his size. But he's not good enough at the fundamentals of the game yet to have any chance right now as a pro.

Foot injuries seem to start, and then gradually get worse, until you can’t play. I suspect we never saw a healthy Freeman this year.

He certainly looked less athletic than his high school tapes.

It’s unclear when he started having the problems with his foot… But if he can go 14 and 8 while nursing an injury that sapped his explosiveness, imagine next year after another year of S&C and experience.

 

[Niastri]

The more I look at the number of players out of eligibility and the influx of money in hoops I think Freeman will easily get more than a million on the open market.

I think $1.5 million is his discounted rate to stay.

The schools being allowed to pay directly, on top of the arms race in NIL that is already ramping up means significantly more money is in play. Top schools might have $15 million rosters next season.

 

[Niastri]

The Mets were foolish, that guys going to end up getting paid 50 million a year when he is at the age where he is an average or worse player.

Good thing whoever pays Freeman only has to worry about a one year contract.

 

[Red2003]

He’s only a sophomore with 14 games under his belt only 8 of which were P5 games along with a foot injury.

He will command a huge bag no doubt but may not be the sure thing that the top programs are looking for at the 4. Would he entertain teams that tell him he’s a backup forward or fighting for time when he already has a relationship here and will likely be guaranteed the starting spot.

Just saying He can give Cuse another run and if it goes to crap again he has another year or another if he wants to go wherever.

 

[Red2003]

Donnie was really good as a defensive rebounder in his limited time on the court this season. His defensive rebounding percentage (as calculated by KenPom) is the highest an SU player has had going back almost 25 years. Here’s the list of the Top 5 defensive rebounders in SU since 2002:

#1 - 31.4% rate - Donnie Freeman (2025)
#2 (tie) - 23.8% rate - Eddie Lampkin (2025) and Jesse Edwards (2023)
#4 - 21.5% rate - Bourama Sidibe (2020)
#5 - 21.3% rate - Paul Harris (2007)

True but adjust for SoS too. 6 of the 14 games he played this year were against Q4 NonCon cupcakes or should’ve been.

He would likely have improved as well in ACC play but really it’s tough to rely too much on his metrics for me. Also given the rotations were a mess with JJ out and Bell being a a dumpster fire in December it’s not as if he was ever able to get any rhythm so maybe he could’ve even been much better.

We just really need him back because we can’t just be a farm league to the big dogs. He’s our guy and we need to step up and say enough is enough with our bigs at the 4 and 5 getting sniped every year.

 

[sufan59]

True but adjust for SoS too. 6 of the 14 games he played this year were against Q4 NonCon cupcakes or should’ve been.

He would likely have improved as well in ACC play but really it’s tough to rely too much on his metrics for me. Also given the rotations were a mess with JJ out and Bell being a a dumpster fire in December it’s not as if he was ever able to get any rhythm so maybe he could’ve even been much better.

We just really need him back because we can’t just be a farm league to the big dogs. He’s our guy and we need to step up and say enough is enough with our bigs at the 4 and 5 getting sniped every year.

Also, the team seems to all be very close with one another. If we can retain most of the eligible guys and they agree to take smaller roles, so we can get some impact P4 guys from other schools to fill the 2 to 3 remaining spots. We could have something going for us. Hope it’s simple enough.