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

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

I think 6th man on a ranked team is generous. I think he doesn't do enough well to be on a really good team.
Which is crazy because he has the physical skills. Big, fast can dribble & shoot but just doesn't seem wired to compete. You never see him get pissed off or angry on the court.

Great kid and wish him well but man he is frustrating.
 
Red is flushing his career over JJ. It's crazy.
It reminds me of Thibodeaux with the Knicks. Refusal to acknowledge that certain players do not fit the roles you want them to, and all it does is result in losing when it matters and your job being lost.
 
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.
 
Doesn't seem to care out there. Just floats along.
IMG_9435.jpeg

4pts today and careless turnovers. So strange from a senior, 1,000 point scorer. A true enigma.
It’s really not hard to see at this point. JJ can be a good piece of a good team. The first play ran for him to start the 2nd half is a perfect example of getting JJ to a spot he excels at for a bucket.

For whatever reason, Red is dead set on having JJ be our alpha dog, 3 level scorer, go-to guy. Problem is everyone, but apparently Red, can see JJ is not that guy. And that’s ok!

Watch the first minute of Red’s post game conference. Once again, he makes comments “We couldn’t get JJ going”, “He’s a big part of what we do”. I imagine JJ has been hearing this for 3 seasons now and he can’t meet his coach’s pipe dream role for him.
 
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JJ has started 94 games in his career. Played in 98 overall.

Stat: Career / This Year
FG%: 42.9% / 43.2%
3PT%: 30% / 33.3%
FT%: 65.6% / 44.8%
PER: 12.9 / 11.7
TS%: 50% / 48.6%
AST%: 12.3% / 16.5%
AST: 2.0 / 2.4
WS/40: .056 / .102

I'm not in JJ's head. I don't know what the deal is, especially with free throws. And I'm not at practice to see how he is coached.

Here is what I know: JJ is exactly who he has always been. Some minor fluctuations here and there but he has never been a great player. He's really never been even a good player. He's, at best, an average player.

But this misappropriation of talent/capabilities has been going on since the JB slide started as well with other players that certain people have way overvalued even though the stats, especially advanced stats, have been clearly showing forever, along with the eye test. No reason to re-hash the past though.

This isn't absolving Red and the coaching staff of their culpability for the ills of the team or Nait George under performing what we need, etc.

As Scooch said, he isn't doing what he's best at -- slashing and creating opportunities. I've said it before, he should be attacking like crazy, using his lift and understanding of angles and kicking out when the shot isn't there. But he is dribbling way too much, he is shooting off the dribble jumpers which is crazy. In the 2H, he shot an off the dribble long two and then a contested off the dribble three. Two possessions that ended with shots that should have never have happened. That's just a small example.

I also think he's more and more reticent in attacking because of his problems at the FT line. I think it was the reason he didn't come aggressively get the ball at the end of the Hofstra game as well.

Seems like a good kid. Always like having a local kid on the team. But watching him at ND, outside of worrying about injuries, I honestly would have never thought he would plateau like this.

Do I think Red has helped him? Absolutely not. It honestly looks like there is so much chaos and friction on offense that JJ just reverts to what he's always done. And he's not alone in that. But JJ has to own some of this. He has a severe lack of awareness of what he can and can't do.
 
His baskets won the Tennessee game.
Yes, when he shifts it into the proper gear, he has shown he has the ability to take over. Other times he just disappears. For this team to be successful, it needs players that can impact the game doing more than just scoring.

When the "offense" plants a guy in the corner or when the "offense" consists of one guy dribbling the ball up top looking to drive to the hoop and not one other player doing anything besides just standing around, is that really "offense". Sounds more "offensive".

Maybe JJ is at the wrong school. But he can't shoot on a consistent basis. And he can't shoot FT's, so he's worthless in the last couple minutes of a game.

Yes, he can drive to the hoop, but not consistently at this level. Maybe he should be at the MAAC.
 
HyattsCuse and MikeSU02 amplified my point perfectly.

Red wants JJ to be something he so clearly isn't. Starling should be nothing more than a drive-and-kick guy coming off the bench. With the right roster (which we currently have IMHO) and the right coach emphasizing his strengths (which we currently do not have IMHO) he'd be an effective, popular player.

Instead JJ is basically the poster child for Red's 3 year flop.
 
Least competitive EVER?? I know this is a message board and hyperbole is par for the course but that is absolutely an exaggeration.
Poster must have missed the Mookie Jones years. Who is the guy that threw the chair at Boeheim, him too. :)

Not defending JJ either. He should be so much better by now and I do agree he plays soft.
 
Least competitive EVER?? I know this is a message board and hyperbole is par for the course but that is absolutely an exaggeration.
Obviously an exaggeration. I'll blame it on frustration and a few too many rum and cokes! But his effort from game to game is wild to me. To me it's more mental than physical with JJ...once something goes bad for him, his confidence shatters and his whole game shrinks. He was so passive on the court yesterday, like he didn't want to be out there
 
He has the worst PER, worst offensive rating and second worst defensive rating of all the regulars. We may have looked better early in the season simply because he wasn’t playing l.

Steve Bannon Bingo GIF



144% THIS.

It was addition by subtraction when he was out injured.

Tenn game was the only one where he played well, but also not a ton of minutes.

It’s almost like there’s a causation thing there, with less minutes yet more effective.
 
Obviously an exaggeration. I'll blame it on frustration and a few too many rum and cokes! But his effort from game to game is wild to me. To me it's more mental than physical with JJ...once something goes bad for him, his confidence shatters and his whole game shrinks. He was so passive on the court yesterday, like he didn't want to be out there
I thought the info graphic about Starling when he makes his first shot vs not was telling, but not in the way the broadcasters talked about.

The record was much worse when JJ played better.

Seems telling.
 

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