Another thing I think Red is trying to change is the ball got stuck in our players hands to often than not. The ball movement was pretty bad most of the season. JJ is a willing passer, Leffew is an above average passer. What I’m most excited about is Lampkin and Davis are extremely good passers for bigs. They are bulky guys that can back a guy down but they are willing passers and very good passers. I think when Lampkin and Davis are in together you will see a lot of big to big action.
Freeman is going to be a bucket getter, starling will also be a bucket getter, and we know Bell is going to shoot lights out. I think Westry and Davis being the two main guys off the bench is a HUGE plus. I think it’s pretty clear right away what everyone’s roles will be too.
Another thing I will say is I don’t think we’ll have that one elite scorer on our team where everything goes through them. Where they average 18-20 ppg. We’ve seen that a bunch the last 10 or seasons. Whether it’s Judah, Buddy, Hughes, Battle, etc….
Our best teams and truly any good team has about 4-5 guys that average between 12-15 ppg. I think we’ll have that next season.
Early prediction; Freeman, Starling, Leffew, and Lampkin will average 12-15 ppg.
I think Westry, Bell and Davis will average 7-10 ppg. That’s my early thoughts.
I agreed with most of your post, until you suggested Bell will be at best our fifth leading scorer.
Bell attempted only 6 threes per game in conference play last year... He was 50 attempts behind the other percentage leaders in the conference. Bell was severely underused, mostly because Mintz and Copeland were so ball dominant, partly because he didn't do enough to get open.
I think it highly likely Bell is among the leaders in attempts in the conference, shooting at least 8 threes per game. For him to average less than 10ppg, he would have to shoot worse than ever in his career, and somehow take no twos or ever get a free throw attempt.
I think it's likely he leads the team in scoring, as his usage increases, and his efficiency suffers only slightly because of the better ball movement the different players around him will bring.
15 ppg would be pretty small increase for Bell next year, easily within reach.
I agree about how the scoring will be spread out more than most seasons. This team could be like the 09-10 team, only in that team had 7 players averaging 8 points or more.
Bell, Lampkin, Freeman, Davis, Starling, Leffew and Westry/Moore (depending on Westry's health) could all be scorers averaging at least 8. We also could have one of those years where 7-8 different guys are high scorer for at least one game... Especially because we are so three point dependant.
Would anybody be shocked if Moore came off the bench as our 9th man in the rotation and somehow goes 8-9 from 3 to lead us to a win?