In Defense of Starling

[IthacaMatt]

I got to thinking about Houston and Joseph Tugler after referencing him in my previous post.

Here is an article about Houston from earlier this season. I think it’s clear that they have become the standard for following “length over height” when it comes to building a basketball roster. I couldn’t find a measurement for standing reach for Tugler, but his wingspan is between 7’4 and 7’6 depending on the source.

For reference, wingspans in next years front court.

White is 7’0 with 8’11 standing reach.
Kyle is 7’2, I couldn’t find his reach.
Souare is 7’2 with 8’11 standing reach.
Freeman I also couldn’t find. One place said ‘almost 7’ wingspan’ but they didn’t have a measurement.
Betsey 7’0 with no standing reach measurement.

The Tao of Tugler

Is Houston's valuing of wingspan over height a sign of the future or a team finding their outlier niche?

statsbywill.substack.com

IMO, Kawhi Leonard's success made everyone start looking more closely at this.

 

[CardiacCuse]

They are using standing reach and wingspan as a substitute for tall. The fact is, using Kyle for an example, with a 9’ standing reach and a 44” vertical leap, his ability to contest shots might be the best we’ve ever had, based on pure ability to get his hand highest in the air.

More importantly, the guys I referenced (Kyle, Souare and White) all have very long arms, good to great hops and agility unusual for a player their size.

This is going to allow switching, double teams, weakside shotblocking and recovery that we haven’t had in a while. Even Freeman, who was terrible last season at rotating to help on defense was much better by the time he was injured.

Compared to last year, our forwards are going to be much better defensively. It won’t be close, especially whenever you use the lineup after Freeman’s injury…

Our guards weren’t any good at defense last year, either. Taylor, Cuffe and Carlos were our only positive DBPM players last season, and they combined for 2.6 DBPM.

Starling wasn’t great, but George was a 1.2 and Kingz a .4, so we’re at worst a wash, and likely an improvement.

Anyway, we’ve reached the silly season where we’re hypothesizing without any additional data… I feel like I’ve made those points previously.

We’ll see in the Fall how much better the team is. I think it’s going to be a lot better.

i've been very opimistic every season for the past 10 years or so...no more for me haha

they have underperformed relative to my expectatins for one too many seasons now

i'm not trying to rain om your parade...and i like the idea of length instead of height being a good substitute (when you cant recruit how you want to)

but its a gamble...lets just call it what it is

defense is about scheme and coordination...you can have great individual defenders with a lot of breakdowns...i still havent seen that this staff can coach that

i expect the defense to be better simply bc there is no longer a midget at PG and the C will actually try to guard the rim instead of being a matador...so yeah...an improvement...but i dont think the defense is going to be a strength or win any games for the team...if that equals "a lot better" to you, then ok

 

[IthacaMatt]

Well, yes. We have to get better at defense. Being longer armed might be a step in that direction, but it certainly isn’t the final step.

The fact they recruited better athletes in the portal is a huge step in the right direction.

It's about toughness and effort. Remember Villanova winning titles with 4 guards and a big man? Look at Houston, like you said. You don't have to be tall, but you have to be physically strong enough not to get pushed around on defense. I hope we have that this year.

 

[tbonezone]

In Defense of Starling​

just seems incongruous putting starling and defense in the same sentence.