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Message: [QUOTE="Niastri, post: 5064461, member: 722"] In response to your obviously rhetorical question, I'll give a long and unnecessarily detailed answer. :) On the 2009-2010 season, Jackson and Onuaku played together 32/35 games that season. Jackson averaged 26 minutes and Onuaku played 22. They averaged 21.3 points combined. Jackson had a 59% shooting percentage, Onuaku 67%. Part of the reason the team scored so well is that we had two really consistent inside scorers. But there's more. This team also had Andy Rautins and Wes Johnson, both shooting 40% from 3 point land. Scoop Jardine and Brandon Triche also shot nearly 40% from 3. Mookie Jones and James Southerland comprised the .5 in the 7.5 player rotation, although they probably were together a .25 rotation player. The 7 man rotation was a murderers row. But looking at the team, we would always have had 2-3 high quality three point shooters on the court at all times. Chris Joseph was actually the weak link in this category, but managed to score 10.8 per game with all that firepower around him, while shooting only 22% from three (only 9 made 3s all year). It helped that Onuaku and Jackson were really good at setting picks, not just away from the basket, but also on the interior, sealing their defender away from a player driving to the basket. The offensive team Red is putting together looks a little bit similar, although nowhere near the proven calibre of that team that was a top 10 team most of the season. The people who voted for the rankings didn't know how good Rautins and Johnson would be in the preseason. 2010 had a bunch of guys who could shoot like crazy. We'll have Bell and Evans to play Rautins and Johnson, the elite shooter and all around great college scorer. But to back them up we have a bunch of potential(eg, not much proven at this level). But if you squint, you could see Starling being a Jardine clone. Starling was much higher rated out of high school, and looks to be more athletic. I think the structural problem we would have compared to the 2010 team is the one IthacaMatt is concerned about. We have a bunch of guys who want to play inside first, and shoot threes later. Even if we get Evans, the only guy who wants to shoot threes before other options is Bell. Everybody else is foremost either a penetration, post up or only layups guy. Lampkin, Freeman, Bell, Evans and Starling has 4 guys who can shoot, but also two post players and two guys who want to drive as their primary way to score. A Lampkin who could shoot 40% from 3 would really open the offense up... Then again, if Lampkin could shoot that way, he'd have been in the NBA a few years now. The bench of Davis, McLeod, Carlos, Cuffe and Westry has three more guys who are threats to hit a three, but also want to score closer to the basket most of the time. Spreading out the defense is going to be our offense's mission number one, and that means hitting threes. Successfully recruiting Evans would make the team a lot better. [/QUOTE]

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