Couple things that have been standing out to me recently:
- Sometime Maliq gets the ball at the elbow or a step farther after setting a screen, has position on his defender, and either waits a split second or passes right away. I want to see him recognize this advantage and use it - drive. Even if he just dribbles once and stops, he'll likely create an advantage for someone else and be able to make the pass. But ideally, I'd like to see him recognize these spots and just take it to the bucket and go up strong. I think if he does, he'll absolutely terrorize opponents. Especially when he's at the 5, and him having his man out of position means that the biggest defender is not down low. I don't think many non-centers are going to feel all warm and fuzzy about Maliq coming at them full speed. I'm not a basketball coach and never played beyond freshman year of high school, so this is more based on the idea that he may not be in his comfort zone doing that - I'd coach him to just put it on the floor for that first dribble and go from there. If he gets uncomfortable, he's going to have all the same passing options (or better) after one dribble that he has before it.
- It seems like a lot of our guys choose to go for an extra dribble and a tough reverse layup instead of just going up strong and trying to draw contact.
- "Good Judah" has gotten a lot better lately at making some of the passes he used to struggle to see/execute, and also using his positioning to help his teammates. If this continues and we get into the dance and win a couple games, he might shoot up draft boards.
- "Bad Judah" needs to smooth out the emotions and take a complete 180 in how he handles officials. Sometimes there are stretches where he spends three straight possessions jawing at the same ref behind the play.
- The offense looks so much better and the way we are using players has changed so much that it's got me rethinking some of the stay/go discussions. Suddenly, mostly running it back doesn't sound so crazy.