JJ is the least competitive Syracuse player I have ever seen suit up.

[RedtheGOB]

I'm not sure Starling has ever used a ball-screen with purpose. He plays scared. He has never seemed to understand that he has a physical advantage (namely his speed) over every defender who would check him. Combined with good size and a solid enough handle (for scoring purposes), he should be a bonafide bucket getter.

Starling should be a player who relentlessly drives the lane and lives at the line. We see his speed consistently in transition -- he is a blur with the ball in the open court. Unfortunate that he never scores in transition. Unfortunate that he doesn't turn the corner on ball-screens -- ever!

He is definitely competing hard on the defensive end, and I would think all can agree with that. He has regressed majorly on offense this season, there is no question. He has always been responsible for horrible turnovers, but if he is not scoring at volume and with reasonable efficiency, he just really is not good at all.

Well said. You prob could’ve just left it at “He plays scared”.

 

[Eric15]

A few seasons ago after Judah lost a game for us at Miami due to 4 or 5 selfish plays I started a thread where I said it was the worst few minute stretch I’ve ever seen from an SU bball player and took a decent amount of heat for it with some saying Judah could be reading the board. I caved and edited the title.

Calling JJ “the least competitive SU player ever” (which can’t possibly be even remotely true) seems significantly meaner than that.

 

[Scooch]

A few seasons ago after Judah lost a game for us at Miami due to 4 or 5 selfish plays I started a thread where I said it was the worst few minute stretch I’ve ever seen from an SU bball player and took a decent amount of heat for it with some saying Judah could be reading the board. I caved and edited the title.

Calling JJ “the least competitive SU player ever” (which can’t possibly be even remotely true) seems significantly meaner than that.

Agree. It’s also not true. All this talk of him being soft or whatever is silly. He’s simply not the player Red wants him to be. That’s it.

Blame Red for insisting on Starling.

 

[Scott11]

JJ doesn’t drive and dish.
He can’t shoot.
His free throws are a mental and physical disaster.
He can’t shoot with his left hand as a senior in the ACC.
He makes careless turnovers.
He doesn’t show interest in 50/50 balls and doesn’t hit the floor.
He doesn’t move to get open on out of bounds plays.
He’s a defensive liability and has admitted he hasn’t always concentrated on being a good defender.
He played 34 minutes yesterday.

 

[Scooch]

JJ doesn’t drive and dish.
He can’t shoot.
His free throws are a mental and physical disaster.
He can’t shoot with his left hand as a senior in the ACC.
He makes careless turnovers.
He doesn’t show interest in 50/50 balls and doesn’t hit the floor.
He doesn’t move to get open on out of bounds plays.
He’s a defensive liability and has admitted he hasn’t always concentrated on being a good defender.
He played 34 minutes yesterday.

Well when you put it that way it sounds like he *shouldn’t* have played 34 minutes.

I, for one, think it’s a shame that Red was forced to play him that many minutes. Poor guy.

 

[Millhouse]

Starling is a ridiculous athlete and just an OK basketball player. I’m guessing in high school he just overwhelmed local CNY kids with his end to end speed. Like others have said, his ideal situation would be coming off the bench. There are games where he produces and other games where he’s awful. That should guide how many minutes he gets in the moment. Overall his advanced stats (PER, VORP, etc.) this season are very poor. He almost feels to me like a defensive back from the football team who is playing basketball as a second sport.

He'd probably be a great football player

 

[Cusefan0307]

Starling is a ridiculous athlete and just an OK basketball player. I’m guessing in high school he just overwhelmed local CNY kids with his end to end speed. Like others have said, his ideal situation would be coming off the bench. There are games where he produces and other games where he’s awful. That should guide how many minutes he gets in the moment. Overall his advanced stats (PER, VORP, etc.) this season are very poor. He almost feels to me like a defensive back from the football team who is playing basketball as a second sport.

I’m not even joking when I think he was a better player as a sophomore in HS. He made like 5 or 6 3’s in a sectional game at OCC. after that season he went prep in Indiana. His freshman year he hurt his shoulder there and it completely broke his shot. Gmac did a lot of work with him when he transferred here and he did finish strong his first season here. He was the reason we beat UNC at the dome. It’s been downhill ever since and he’s a shell of the player people thought he’d be coming out of HS.

 

[23Zone]

Put a shock collar on Nate and JJ in practice. If a shot hasn’t went up in 10 seconds they get shocked.

When they think and slow down they both suck. When they are decisive they are better.

 

[23Zone]

JJ doesn’t drive and dish.
He can’t shoot.
His free throws are a mental and physical disaster.
He can’t shoot with his left hand as a senior in the ACC.
He makes careless turnovers.
He doesn’t show interest in 50/50 balls and doesn’t hit the floor.
He doesn’t move to get open on out of bounds plays.
He’s a defensive liability and has admitted he hasn’t always concentrated on being a good defender.
He played 34 minutes yesterday.

 

[anglerman]

Doesn't seem to care out there. Just floats along.

4pts today and careless turnovers. So strange from a senior, 1,000 point scorer. A true enigma.

The team is much better without him. Anthony is a better player and so much more consistent.

 

[wiCuse]

I think we need to really consider who the least competitive SU players actually were over the years. DeShaun Williams has to be in the top 3. Frank Howard?

Again, JJ doesn't deserve this thread. He shouldn't be playing this much. You'd think this is some youth team and Red is his dad with his minutes and role.

 

[CardiacCuse]

The team is much better without him. Anthony is a better player and so much more consistent.

anthony is still a freshman and his defense and rebounding are issues...hes frail and hasnt filled out yet...but his bball iq is probably higher than jjs and he understands how to score 1 on 1 much better than jj

 

[Scooch]

I think we need to really consider who the least competitive SU players actually were over the years. DeShaun Williams has to be in the top 3. Frank Howard?

Again, JJ doesn't deserve this thread. He shouldn't be playing this much. You'd think this is some youth team and Red is his dad with his minutes and role.

Elvir Ovcina was so uncompetitive that he literally **skipped a game** to go visit friends. The premise of this thread is moronic.

 

[AZOrange]

I don't think this is fair.

JJ is merely the latest victim of an SU hoops coach putting him in a position that's too expansive for his abilities. (see: Girard, Joseph)

He's a sloppy player who shoots poorly from deep and plays mediocre-to-lousy defense. However, at his best he's a very good slasher. If he were, say, the 7th man who got 15-ish minutes per game (20 when he was hot), then he'd be a useful piece on a very good team.

Better coaches would have had him playing better D, and kicking more often on his drives to strong 3 point shooters. But he's never played for a good coach here.

I think it’s worse than that. I think this staff has totally jacked JJs game up. From the weird hitches, to leaving his guys on d…I blame them

 

[AZOrange]

Agree with all this. I see absolutely no indication that he “doesn’t care.”

He cares too much which is the problem. He’s a great kid that wants everything to go right and it’s not. The coaches committed malpractice 3 years ago putting the ball In his hands and trying to make him a pg. now he’s off ball and doesn’t know what to do

 

[AZOrange]

Elvir Ovcina was so uncompetitive that he literally **skipped a game** to go visit friends. The premise of this thread is moronic.

God I forgot about that. Another player did something similar and I forget who. Dayshaun maybe?

 

[JonB]

I don’t feel like he’s “the least competitive player ever”, his defensive numbers have been better. So that indicates that he is not lazy and he’s trying. It just seems to me like he gets too sped up on offense and it’s almost like he’s still a freshman at times, and it causes him to make bad decisions, he gets bad angles, going to the basket And frequently gets blocked, trying to do reverse layups. He also doesn’t use his left hand, and at this level it’s really not acceptable.

What he does do well is get by his man, but he’s an average passer at best so he winds up turning the ball over half of the time or dribbling the ball off of his foot.

But least competitive player ever? Cmon bro.

 

[JonB]

Red is flushing his career over JJ. It's crazy.

I can agree with this….kind of. I think Starling is not their best player. I think that is Freeman. I also think they should try Kings at the 2 more, get him more shots off screens and play betsey/white at the 3. Jj will have some good games but I feel he will be remembered fondly for his loyalty in a time there isn’t any. JJ is an average ACC shooting guard. If things aren’t working a certain way, hopefully the coach cannot be stubborn and make some adjustments.

 

[JonB]

This is hilarious.

What career?

You mean to tell me that if Red had some shooting guard, that the basketball wizards on this board would deem as serviceable, that we’d be any more competitive?

Its bizarre how far the board goes out of its way to bash certain players when its clear that our staffs the issue.

The games they have lost the starting guards have been terrible. So it’s not wrong to think that if the guards were good and consistent that they would have more wins. They certainly went all in on JJ. He’s getting paid. The coach is getting paid. They both need to produce.

 

[JonB]

Agree. It’s also not true. All this talk of him being soft or whatever is silly. He’s simply not the player Red wants him to be. That’s it.

Blame Red for insisting on Starling.

I can agree with this. It’s a similar situation for JB putting Joe Girard out there and expecting him to be Jimmer Fredette. Fans were always getting on Joe, but Joe Girard was just doing what his coach asked him to do.

 

[STEVEHOLT]

JJ is a guy that would be good as a role player . An energy guy who can come in and score some quick buckets and then go back to the bench before his warts are exposed.

How many times have we seen him have these in game streaks where he can’t be stopped? He makes 4/5/6 buckets in a row and looks like vinnie Johnson.

Then not only does it stop, but he can’t make a freaking shot the rest of the game. It’s the weirdest dang thing. I actually get scared when he starts off on a heater as more often than not it’s going lead to a cold streak twice as long and 4x as impactful on game result

 

[Cusefan0307]

I don't think it matters because I think Red is cooked, but if he wants any shot at saving his job he needs to pull the plug on JJ at the 2 for 35 minutes a game. Ideally bring him off the bench for 10 minutes at the 1 and 2. Red should take a page from FLJ who just benched her captain for terrible play.

 

[RedtheGOB]

I don't think it matters because I think Red is cooked, but if he wants any shot at saving his job he needs to pull the plug on JJ at the 2 for 35 minutes a game. Ideally bring him off the bench for 10 minutes at the 1 and 2. Red should take a page from FLJ who just benched her captain for terrible play.

Thinking something similar. Throw out the offense. We actually played a real 3 min stretch of offense at the end of the Clemson game to get us back in it. 11 points of just running and quick decisions to Donnie or getting in the paint. That's the tape to rewatch and rewatch.

Telling Autry and his staff to install more halfcourt and run more crap when they can't run the basics this year is foolish.

This is what google AI says about our tempo.

Syracuse men's basketball's adjusted offensive tempo (AdjT) is approximately 68.4 possessions per 40 minutes, which ranks as the 124th fastest in the country this season. This places them in the medium-to-slow tempo range relative to the national average.

If we want to win we need to play faster. Our guards are a mess in the slow paced slogs. Obvi better and more physical defenses will make us play slow and keep putting us on the line, but the only chance this team has is to just run full stop 40 mins a game on both ends. With Donnie back it should be possible.

 

[AZOrange]

I can agree with this….kind of. I think Starling is not their best player. I think that is Freeman. I also think they should try Kings at the 2 more, get him more shots off screens and play betsey/white at the 3. Jj will have some good games but I feel he will be remembered fondly for his loyalty in a time there isn’t any. JJ is an average ACC shooting guard. If things aren’t working a certain way, hopefully the coach cannot be stubborn and make some adjustments.

I really don’t think Red is capable of moving guys positionally on the floor. I haven’t watched every min but has Nate, George Betsey combo been on the floor together for significant min?

 

[Hopkins16]

JJs problem is that he is better (stats wise) on a team that relies heavily on him and yet he can’t and doesn’t make the team better. With a solid team where he doesn’t have to carry the load, he is ineffective and doesn’t know how to mesh with the team. Bottom line, he is not a good team player and doesn’t make a team better.