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Message: [QUOTE="Niastri, post: 5387148, member: 722"] 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. [/QUOTE]

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