Players Returning Next Year | Page 12 | Syracusefan.com

Players Returning Next Year

To be clear, I’m not calling for Bell to leave, just not play the two. JJ is horrible on defense as well, but he can dribble some, and has a very good midrange pull-up game.
No worries I did not think you were saying that. And I am with you. Bell would not be ideal for the two but mainly because of how it would work with his offensive game. On defense though it is kind of a wash. If anything I would like him more on defense.
 
But he doesnt play for 20 minutes a game, and it’s hard to imagine he ever can. This year was his best and he only averaged 14.4 mpg. And only played in 14 games. I don’t understand why anyone thinks we’ll ever get anything out of this kid.
Well, the hope will be that he doesn't break his foot again... The second hope is that he's willing to be second string to a better center. Failing that, when we get a better center, he portals out rather than being a pain in Red's tookus.

McLeod wasn't plan A last season, and he won't be this season. Imagine how much better the team would have been with Edwards at center, Brown at forward instead of center, with Taylor playing spot minutes instead of starting at power forward.

And McLeod playing somewhere else.

Still, certain games would have been a lot more fun (Clemson especially comes to mind) if we had a healthy McLeod who could have at least challenged Hall's shots near the basket. Brown was eaten alive in those games.
 
Well, the hope will be that he doesn't break his foot again... The second hope is that he's willing to be second string to a better center. Failing that, when we get a better center, he portals out rather than being a pain in Red's tookus.

McLeod wasn't plan A last season, and he won't be this season. Imagine how much better the team would have been with Edwards at center, Brown at forward instead of center, with Taylor playing spot minutes instead of staying at power forward.

And McLeod playing somewhere else.

Still, certain games would have been a lot more fun (Clemson especially comes to mind) if we had a healthy McLeod who could have at least challenged Hall's shots near the basket. Brown was eaten alive in those games.
All good arguments, but Hall would have scored more against McLeod. He would have dragged him to the perimeter, banged more threes, or driven by him at will. Or fouled him out in less than 10 minutes. Maybe I missed the games he played well, but I saw nothing from him. He’d get a great block, but then take the rest of the play off giving up an offensive put back.
 
No worries I did not think you were saying that. And I am with you. Bell would not be ideal for the two but mainly because of how it would work with his offensive game. On defense though it is kind of a wash. If anything I would like him more on defense.
The only pro to him on defense is the potential for a back side block. He wasn’t quick enough to stay with 3s, let alone 2s.


Can you tell I’m procrastinating?
 
It’s all really simple.

Players leaving on their own:
-Taylor: I expect if a DMV area school calls he’ll be gone real fast back home. He needs a fresh start and can play 15 mins off the bench somewhere. Works hard but doesn’t fit Reds system.
-Hima: retired

Players Red needs to get tough with and push out:
-Carey: Injury bug.

Role Players off the bench staying cuz they got no place to go:
-Westry
-Cuffe
-Patterson
-McCleod

Players returning cuz Cuse and Red are awesome:
-Brown
-Q
-JJ

Players waiting for the biggest bag:
-Judah
-Bell

Benny:
-Benny’d himself

Incoming:
-Freeman
-Moore

Portal:
- 2-3 beefcakes
 
Strength is more important than height IMO. We are weak and we have been weak for a lot of years now.
Syracuse basketball needs to stop being soft. We have been Charmin since the Tyus/Marek/Oshae Sweet 16 team. You guys can do the math on what that coincided with.

That needs to be shaken from the end of the last era.
 
It’s all really simple.

Players leaving on their own:
-Taylor: I expect if a DMV area school calls he’ll be gone real fast back home. He needs a fresh start and can play 15 mins off the bench somewhere. Works hard but doesn’t fit Reds system.
-Hima: retired

Players Red needs to get tough with and push out:
-Carey: Injury bug.

Role Players off the bench staying cuz they got no place to go:
-Westry
-Cuffe
-Patterson
-McCleod

Players returning cuz Cuse and Red are awesome:
-Brown
-Q
-JJ

Players waiting for the biggest bag:
-Judah
-Bell

Benny:
-Benny’d himself

Incoming:
-Freeman
-Moore

Portal:
- 2-3 beefcakes
Where is Taylor in your projection?
 
Where is Taylor in your projection?
First one. He’ll leave on his own. You think a player or his friends and family are going to forget getting boo’ed on their own court. I see him at UVA or Va Tech off the bench at the 3.
 
Nah, we need him
I see Bell putting his name in the portal. Just to see what his value is and what schools are interested. Cuse will have the bag ready. I assume Autry will do what it takes to keep him. Gotta keep that spacing on offense.

Going to be busy offseason trying to bulk him up and getting him to play defense.
 
I see Bell putting his name in the portal. Just to see what his value is and what schools are interested. Cuse will have the bag ready. I assume Autry will do what it takes to keep him. Gotta keep that spacing on offense.

Going to be busy offseason trying to bulk him up and getting him to play defense.
If he makes as big an improvement next year that he did this year, he will be fine.
 
Will guys opt out of the NIT to hit the portal??? That would move the time table up significantly.
 
Will guys opt out of the NIT to hit the portal??? That would move the time table up significantly.
This will be really interesting. It’ll have to be a team decision. With how short we are on players it’s probably something that Cuse will decline due to depth issues.

Some people will say oh we’re young any and all experience will help. I think that’s true for pretty much only just Cuffe and Carey. Rest of the team has played more mins in the last 6 weeks than most teams in the league and has plenty of experience
 
1) The team improved significantly once we kicked Benny off the team
Did it really? They played 9 games (6-3) after Benny was persona non grata. In their 4 games against teams in the top-half of the ACC, they went 1-3 winning a home game against UNC. Big game and big win, but it by itself doesn't make a season. They also got pasted by Clemson twice and lost to GaTech on the road. Beat Lousiville twice and a surging Notre Dame team. After removing Benny, they scored 80.4 points per game and gave up 79 ppg. Before that, in conference play, they went 6-3 over nine games scoring 71.5 ppg and giving up 77.5 ppg. Nearly all of that offensive increase is a result of Bell and JJ shooting the 3 unlike they had all season (with Benny 6.2/20.4 at 30% and without Benny they shot 6.9/18 from 3, a 38% clip).​
I don't think Benny has anything to do with them making threes considering he didn't play much before he was booted.​

2) New players
a) Freeman is a legit top-20 player and could have a huge impact, but he's still a freshman. All he needs to be is an upgrade over Justin Taylor, which ... that should be doable. But even the very best rookie PFs Syracuse had since Melo have been underwhelming. So, big expectations. The most points scored by a frosh in the last ten seasons is by Oshae Brissett at 553 (15ppg).​
b) Westry has barely played in two years and has had knee issues dating back to being a HS player.​
c) Moore is an outside the a top-100 freshman. People can't rely on that kind of player to be an immediate upgrade. I've lived through the last decade of Syracuse recruiting. Since Ennis, there have been 12 frosh guards play more than 300 minutes (Basically Kyle Cuffe minutes). Of those, three were really deployed as 3s (Malachi, Buddy and Taylor). Buddy was the median for points (217). Everyone with more points than Buddy were starters. So, realistically, expecting more than Buddy's frosh season 6-7 ppg would be expecting a lot out of Moore as an unranked freshman.​
d) McLeod is not a great offensive basketball player, doesn't react quickly, looks like he runs in concrete and on defense he gets a lot of blocks.​
On top of all of that, the main thing is that you're going to need to see the differnce between what a player gets you this season versus how much more a player next season gets you. For example, if we lose 750 points scored from 3 players who played this season and get 800 points next season from their replacements, how much better are we really?
Seems like the idea as of now is to come back with Chance, JJ, and Bell as the offense and losing Judah's 581 points. That's a big hole to fill.

Yes players can get better, but that's such a trope that you would think all a team needs is a handful of upper classmen and they would be winners. Two seasons ago, we had a sub-500 season with four seniors (two were grad transfers) and two juniors. I don't think a year of conditioning and practice is going to make JJ and Bell into average defenders let alone top defenders.

This team needs talent at both ends of the floor and thinking that they have enough after a season where they were kept well out of the NCAA tourney, again, is troubling.
Agree to disagree. That UNC win is a win / ceiling this core never flashed prior. They beat us by 36 earlier in the year, have a decent chance of being a 1 seed and it’s a program we’ve struggled with since moving to the ACC. We also had a few games where we got out to big leads and had to hold on for dear life because we ran out of steam from having no depth.

My comment was also based on running it back, which while it seems unlikely. If we bring back the entire core of sophomores from a 20 win team and add 3-4 rotation guys. That team will be very good.
 
I won't argue argue most of this, but Moore's composite ranking has him in the top 100. Rivals he's 53 and 247 he is 54. ESPN not even having him listed brings him down. I do think he can help us next year if he can play in a structured environment and improve his shot selection. Something both he and Ian Jackson have struggled with.
He’s also the anti Benny in terms of his work ethic and desire to win. His attitude will be helpful. We need more guys who buy into Red’s approach and Moore is a big fit there. Kid will put in the extra effort. He already has. I think he ends up being very good here.
 

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