Looking Back at Starling’s Season

[Niastri]

If the only play you have is isolation, you better have a good isolation player.

Mintz and Starling are both very good college isolation players. There were a few games where our best offense was “Give JJ the ball and get out of the way.” He scored 20 plus points against P4 programs 9 times this season. In 6 of those games, he shot at least 50% from 2. One outlier game, he was 5 of 10 from 3.

When Starling has a guy he can beat off the dribble, he’s capable of winning a game with his scoring.

He also had games where he got absolutely shut down. Unfortunately, teams with the right personnel or scheme were able to greatly reduce his efficiency. He had game scores of 20+ and -2, an insanely variable performance. A lot of it has to do with his inconsistent 3 point shooting, but more about whether he could get to the basket in a given game.

Since we didn’t have many other options, Starling often took bad threes, turned it over, or couldn’t find teammates in positions to score when the ball was in his hands at the end of the shot clock. I would love to see Starling’s performance on threes in a season where he only shot catch and shoot threes… None of those fade away 26 foot threes at the end of the shot clock.

Here’s the thing about JJ, he’s never played with a decent point guard. He’s always been stuck next to a combo, and therefore asked to be a combo too. On top of that, this season he was also our only good offensive perimeter player. He is a pretty good to great college player attacking the basket, but he’s not so good he can win every game for you taking the ball in isolation.

If we get Freeman back, get a center who can finish on lobs, and most importantly, a point guard who can handle the ball instead of Starling, JJ can be an excellent second or third option. Especially if teams aren’t able to always put their best defender on him or scheme for him.

The portal will determine Starling’s end result next season to a great degree. His game will benefit from having good players around him, especially a point guard, disproportionately.

 

[kingtidge]

If the only play you have is isolation, you better have a good isolation player.

Mintz and Starling are both very good college isolation players. There were a few games where our best offense was “Give JJ the ball and get out of the way.” He scored 20 plus points against P4 programs 9 times this season. In 6 of those games, he shot at least 50% from 2. One outlier game, he was 5 of 10 from 3.

When Starling has a guy he can beat off the dribble, he’s capable of winning a game with his scoring.

He also had games where he got absolutely shut down. Unfortunately, teams with the right personnel or scheme were able to greatly reduce his efficiency. He had game scores of 20+ and -2, an insanely variable performance. A lot of it has to do with his inconsistent 3 point shooting, but more about whether he could get to the basket in a given game.

Since we didn’t have many other options, Starling often took bad threes, turned it over, or couldn’t find teammates in positions to score when the ball was in his hands at the end of the shot clock. I would love to see Starling’s performance on threes in a season where he only shot catch and shoot threes… None of those fade away 26 foot threes at the end of the shot clock.

Here’s the thing about JJ, he’s never played with a decent point guard. He’s always been stuck next to a combo, and therefore asked to be a combo too. On top of that, this season he was also our only good offensive perimeter player. He is a pretty good to great college player attacking the basket, but he’s not so good he can win every game for you taking the ball in isolation.

If we get Freeman back, get a center who can finish on lobs, and most importantly, a point guard who can handle the ball instead of Starling, JJ can be an excellent second or third option. Especially if teams aren’t able to always put their best defender on him or scheme for him.

The portal will determine Starling’s end result next season to a great degree. His game will benefit from having good players around him, especially a point guard, disproportionately.

He doesn't play effective defense.

If he was just an "average" defender, it could be overlooked, but he's bad.

On a good night, you hope his scoring outweighs his lax defense and the points the other team scores by torching him.

On a better team, he'd be used a lot less due to his defensive deficiency.

 

[Nicknack]

If we get Freeman back, get a center who can finish on lobs, and most importantly, a point guard who can handle the ball instead of Starling, JJ can be an excellent second or third option. Especially if teams aren’t able to always put their best defender on him or scheme for him.

Well, with Donnie coming back, maybe this can happen! As long as JJ plays within the offense, he can be a really important piece next year. If he hogs the ball and plays iso constantly, we're in for a long season again.

 

[jsshap]

Well, with Donnie coming back, maybe this can happen! As long as JJ plays within the offense, he can be a really important piece next year. If he hogs the ball and plays iso constantly, we're in for a long season again.

I don't get the hog the ball comment at all in the context of this team where most other guys on the floor had little to no ability to score at this level. Was he not liked by his teammates???

 

[CardiacCuse]

If the only play you have is isolation, you better have a good isolation player.

Mintz and Starling are both very good college isolation players. There were a few games where our best offense was “Give JJ the ball and get out of the way.” He scored 20 plus points against P4 programs 9 times this season. In 6 of those games, he shot at least 50% from 2. One outlier game, he was 5 of 10 from 3.

When Starling has a guy he can beat off the dribble, he’s capable of winning a game with his scoring.

He also had games where he got absolutely shut down. Unfortunately, teams with the right personnel or scheme were able to greatly reduce his efficiency. He had game scores of 20+ and -2, an insanely variable performance. A lot of it has to do with his inconsistent 3 point shooting, but more about whether he could get to the basket in a given game.

Since we didn’t have many other options, Starling often took bad threes, turned it over, or couldn’t find teammates in positions to score when the ball was in his hands at the end of the shot clock. I would love to see Starling’s performance on threes in a season where he only shot catch and shoot threes… None of those fade away 26 foot threes at the end of the shot clock.

Here’s the thing about JJ, he’s never played with a decent point guard. He’s always been stuck next to a combo, and therefore asked to be a combo too. On top of that, this season he was also our only good offensive perimeter player. He is a pretty good to great college player attacking the basket, but he’s not so good he can win every game for you taking the ball in isolation.

If we get Freeman back, get a center who can finish on lobs, and most importantly, a point guard who can handle the ball instead of Starling, JJ can be an excellent second or third option. Especially if teams aren’t able to always put their best defender on him or scheme for him.

The portal will determine Starling’s end result next season to a great degree. His game will benefit from having good players around him, especially a point guard, disproportionately.

i hate the isolation offense because it is so easy to shut down for well orgranzied defensive teams

its a reason I wanted JB to step down...bc he wasnt willing to adapt away from it

its frustrating as a fan to watch the continuity of lack of scheme continue

but yeah having other pentrators on the court with JJ will defintely open things up for him

 

[Melancer46]

This thread feels more appropriate for this snapshot of JJ's scoring profile that I posted in the Bethea thread earlier. He had a pretty impressive season scoring the ball if you can ignore the 3 pointers lol. If he could maintain this kinds of efficiency and just focus more on avoiding the 3's, it would go a long ways (of course improving as a 3 point shooter would also help a ton). Also to his credit, we were better with him on the floor vs. off the floor this season instead of the prior year where he had (if my memory serves me correctly) the worse on/off splits on the entire team.

 

[Brooky03]

It’s not unusual for guys to play better defense when the offensive burden is taken off their shoulders. I doubt Starling will ever be a plus defender, but if we get an actual PG and either Sadiq or Kiyan are as good as advertised, the offense should be better than it was this year. That might allow Starling to work off the ball more and expend less physical and mental energy on that side of the court. Maybe that leads to better defensive effort. Hopefully it does.

That depends entirely on whether or not we can find a bargain at PG who is also a star. Not an ideal scenario.

 

[CardiacCuse]

also have to remember the broken hand he suffered mid season ...not sure why people just write that off as inconsequential i.e. his performance

but i agree his LACKADAISICAL defense is very poor

 

[Oakland]

also have to remember the broken hand he suffered mid season ...not sure why people just write that off as inconsequential i.e. his performance

but i agree his LACKADAISICAL defense is very poor

JJ shot 32.4% from 3 the previous season when he was fully healthy - not good but adequate.

 

[Niastri]

JJ shot 32.4% from 3 the previous season when he was fully healthy - not good but adequate.

The thing that gave me hope coming into this season was his performance the second half of the 23-24 season, where he shot 36% from three over 16 games.

He was way worse this year, but as our number one option, he also took more bad threes than the year before. Hopefully, next year, he improves his shot selection and has a quality point guard to help him as well.

 

[Niastri]

This thread feels more appropriate for this snapshot of JJ's scoring profile that I posted in the Bethea thread earlier. He had a pretty impressive season scoring the ball if you can ignore the 3 pointers lol. If he could maintain this kinds of efficiency and just focus more on avoiding the 3's, it would go a long ways (of course improving as a 3 point shooter would also help a ton). Also to his credit, we were better with him on the floor vs. off the floor this season instead of the prior year where he had (if my memory serves me correctly) the worse on/off splits on the entire team.

View attachment 250622

I wanted to bump this thread now that we have Kingz and George committed. I think both of them are going to help Starling a lot. The efficiency info about Starling is really helpful.

Bell was a very good shooter, but didn’t do anything else well. Worse, Bell didn’t move of the ball much. A good shooter moving, trying to find open space puts stress on the defense, just by being a threat. Kingz moves a lot more, and when he gets the ball, he can go to the basket substantially better. He’s going to attract attention from the defense that Bell couldn’t attract. Kingz is also a decent passer, so he will help Starling get catch and shoot threes that he rarely got last year. Starling still shouldn’t be a high volume three point shooter, but he can be a threat if he only takes good shots.

George is going to be the game changer for Starling. Taking the primary ball handling responsibilities from Starling is going to make everything easier. We’ll still see Starling with the ball in isolation plenty, Red is a JB disciple, after all. But we’ll also see George with the ball, getting it to players in their best position to score.

I expect Starling will look very different next year, more like the player he was the second half of his junior year, when he was pretty efficient on lower usage. A more efficient Starling taking a couple fewer shots, taking mostly good shots, is going to be much more fun to watch.