My Take

[sutomcat]

Had our three year old granddaughter over so I did not watch the whole game. She was supposed to have her bath and be put to bed at 7 but she is a pro at getting grandma to let her get a snack, or color just one more picture, or just watch one video with grandpa.

Anyway, here are some thoughts:

Donnie is our most talented player but he played like a frosh. Dribbled into traffic against smaller, quicker guys, took a bunch of low percentage shots and spent too much time far from the basket. He will learn from this and get better.

When JJ was the point guard, things got ugly. I think he can give us a couple of minutes here but he can't play starter minutes at the point. Doesn't have the judgement or skill set to do it. He is a slasher who is a lot better playing off the ball.

Carlos didn't shoot it well and struggled some on defense (Shaggy was tough on him). He really strugged in the first half but was much better in the second. He ended up with 6 assists and if we shot it decently would have easily had 10. We are a lot better team when he runs the offense. But teams are going to stop covering him if he continues to miss open shots.

Lucas Taylor really struggled on defense and looks lost on offense. He is playing with no confidence. I would give Cuffe or Moore some minutes after seeing what Taylor brings to the table. If Chance can play, he might get a lot more minutes than expected a lot sooner than expected.

Lampkin was a mess in the first half but it was good to see him play better late in the game. We finally got the ball in the paint a lot with him and Davis and that was the beginning of the end for LeMoyne.

I like Petar and hope he stays in the rotation. It might be tough if Lampkin, Davis and Freeman all play well. And Naheem. We have good depth at PF and C.

I think Bell is much improved. His defense has gone from full matador to passable. You can see he is trying hard. Not easy to cover smaller guys all game long but he hung in there pretty well against them and held his own. I like that he is finishing in the paint and on the break more now. He has been passing better but we didn't see that last night. Gotta get more boards though Chris! He stepped up when the Dolphins went zone, which was good to see.

If we didn't get them in foul trouble, they win. Props to the Dolphins for making their shots and running their offense well. I think they got tired late and started getting sloppy setting their screens. But they were well coached and executed well.

Should help us a lot in our preparations for Colgate.

Surprised at how short Red's bench got once we had a close game to deal with.

A big key to me is the third guard position. We need someone to step up. Not writing Lucas off yet. But I would like to see more from Elijah and Chance please.

 

[Sbucketball]

A big key to me is the third guard position. We need someone to step up. Not writing Lucas off yet. But I would like to see more from Elijah and Chance please.

This is huge. Need someone else who can play in a tight game, not just filler depth to steal first half minutes. Also need someone who can play PG when Carlos can't. I think Elijah will be really good and gives us shooting but not ballhandling or creation -- def not a pg. If Chance can actually play, he'd probably get minutes at PG so JJ never has to. It's critical, but I'm not counting on it.

 

[SarasotaPaul]

Thank you for an intelligent reasoned post.

 

[NineOneSeven]

Literally one game and first I've watched, but pretty clear the most well rounded lineup is Carlos, JJ, Bell, Freeman, Lampkin, and Davis as 6th man and an option when we go small.

Who is the 7th man aka 3rd guard is the huge question mark. Petar got opportunities early but only played 6 minutes (which surprises me), but who sits when he plays? Taylor played the most off the bench at 12' but was largely unproductive. Moore played 2'. The mythical Westry?

 

[billsin01]

Had our three year old granddaughter over so I did not watch the whole game. She was supposed to have her bath and be put to bed at 7 but she is a pro at getting grandma to let her get a snack, or color just one more picture, or just watch one video with grandpa.

Anyway, here are some thoughts:

Donnie is our most talented player but he played like a frosh. Dribbled into traffic against smaller, quicker guys, took a bunch of low percentage shots and spent too much time far from the basket. He will learn from this and get better.

When JJ was the point guard, things got ugly. I think he can give us a couple of minutes here but he can't play starter minutes at the point. Doesn't have the judgement or skill set to do it. He is a slasher who is a lot better playing off the ball.

Carlos didn't shoot it well and struggled some on defense (Shaggy was tough on him). He really strugged in the first half but was much better in the second. He ended up with 6 assists and if we shot it decently would have easily had 10. We are a lot better team when he runs the offense. But teams are going to stop covering him if he continues to miss open shots.

Lucas Taylor really struggled on defense and looks lost on offense. He is playing with no confidence. I would give Cuffe or Moore some minutes after seeing what Taylor brings to the table. If Chance can play, he might get a lot more minutes than expected a lot sooner than expected.

Lampkin was a mess in the first half but it was good to see him play better late in the game. We finally got the ball in the paint a lot with him and Davis and that was the beginning of the end for LeMoyne.

I like Petar and hope he stays in the rotation. It might be tough if Lampkin, Davis and Freeman all play well. And Naheem. We have good depth at PF and C.

I think Bell is much improved. His defense has gone from full matador to passable. You can see he is trying hard. Not easy to cover smaller guys all game long but he hung in there pretty well against them and held his own. I like that he is finishing in the paint and on the break more now. He has been passing better but we didn't see that last night. Gotta get more boards though Chris! He stepped up when the Dolphins went zone, which was good to see.

If we didn't get them in foul trouble, they win. Props to the Dolphins for making their shots and running their offense well. I think they got tired late and started getting sloppy setting their screens. But they were well coached and executed well.

Should help us a lot in our preparations for Colgate.

Surprised at how short Red's bench got once we had a close game to deal with.

A big key to me is the third guard position. We need someone to step up. Not writing Lucas off yet. But I would like to see more from Elijah and Chance please.

Taylor is a weird situation. The highlights I saw of him, his jumper looked really nice. It has looked like a walkon's thus far. He's got some athleticism but I'm not sure what he is or how he fits.

The variety Bell showed in his offensive game was nice to see. Obviously an inferior opponent talent-wise but he is good at putting the ball in the basket in general. Nice to see.

My one thing is that I keep hearing Donnie is our best athlete but I haven't really been blown away by his athleticism, to be honest. He hasn't shown all that much lift around the basket and while he moves his feet pretty well, he doesn't jump of the screen in terms of his agility. I actually have liked a few of his passes, which I wasn't expecting exactly. Will be interested to watch him progress.

 

[ElwoodJBlues]

Carlos didn't shoot it well and struggled some on defense (Shaggy was tough on him). He really strugged in the first half but was much better in the second. He ended up with 6 assists and if we shot it decently would have easily had 10. We are a lot better team when he runs the offense. But teams are going to stop covering him if he continues to miss open shots.

I called this out when he committed after watching a bunch of Hofstra games last year when they were on MSG down here.

He’s a streaky shooter. You can pretty much tell by his second shot or so whether he’s going to contribute points for the game. If he hits his first couple, his confidence is high and he’ll shoot well. He doesn’t have the size or athleticism to get to the rim, so he’s pretty one dimensional offensively if he can’t hit an open shot.

If defenders play off of him he’ll need to find ways to get the ball in the basket whether it be himself or others. I think he’ll start taking advantage of defenders playing off him and shoot from midrange which is a higher percentage shot for him (Speedy Claxton’s guards tend to use this type of shot a lot).

 

[cuseincincy]

Your last statement is the most important and I agree. The answer needs to be Choppa or the player I won't talk about until I see him on the court (preferably both). Taylor will make some plays for us this year but I'm not sure he can be the 6th man. I like our frontcourt options, didn't like the way Red used them. I think the Donnie Freeman we see after game 10 will be a very different player than we see now.

 

[Bayside44]

Your last statement is the most important and I agree. The answer needs to be Choppa or the player I won't talk about until I see him on the court (preferably both). Taylor will make some plays for us this year but I'm not sure he can be the 6th man. I like our frontcourt options, didn't like the way Red used them. I think the Donnie Freeman we see after game 10 will be a very different player than we see now.

I think your last sentence is so much of this. Finish those chippies and no silly turnovers in the paint and it's a different game fast.