Niastri
Two Time Iggy Award Winner: Edwards for Three!
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- Aug 28, 2011
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I thought this was an interesting discussion and I am cross posting here, since it's otherwise buried deep in an inappropriate recruiting thread. One poster suggested that or guards deserved an A ranking, and another snarked "you think this is one of the best groups of guards we've ever had?" To me, that seemed like a silly thing to say, and this was my response:
I would suggest we are using a standard distribution across A,B,C,D, and F... Not across every team ever, but across the current teams in high major basketball, because who cares if Girard and co. are better than Directional University's guards? So an A position group should be a top 20% of all high major groups. I'll call high major the top 10 conferences by NET, although only because that includes the WCC, and thus Gonzaga.
Guards: B
Girard is a proven commodity as a shooter and ball handler (for better or worse) who is moving into a more natural role as shooting guard for the first time, so he should light up some score boards. His point guard skills cost us some games, so having Mintz and Torrence to help him improves this group. Mintz is very high upside, but inexperienced at this level, and Torrence is a steady pass first point guard who hasn't done much yet in his college career. Copeland is unlikely to play this year. I think you could argue that this group is better than 60-75% of all guards groups, but 80th percentile seems a big stretch.
Forwards: D
This group has a ton of potential, but has done almost nothing. We seem to have Benny Williams locked in at one forward, but nobody can even say for sure if he's a big small forward or a quick power forward or just an ineffective tweener. He was a highly rated recruit, and JB seems to have faith Williams will be good, but his upside hasn't yet come through. Everybody else is a freshman or bench warmer. As it stands, Brown, Taylor and Bunch are likely candidates to be in the rotation, but nobody really knows what to expect from them. Two of them need to be good, or we will see some three guard lineups while JB tries to get something to work. I think at least one of the freshman and potentially even Ajok put together enough for the team to be good.
Center: B
Edwards is an extremely solid center, perhaps the best in the ACC. He can score, defend and rebound. He is very good in the 2-3 deflecting and preventing shots and passes. But he is foul prone and his backups in Hima and Carey are largely and completely unknown, respectively. At least neither is 6'9"and 175lbs like former backup centers.
Intangibles: B
This team is way better constructed than last year. Or defense had too little athleticism and we had too many guys who could only help the team by shooting. Our upcoming team has everything. Pick and roll, drive and finish, drive and dish, three point assassins, drive and kick, rebounding and athletes to play good defense again. We should be able to score, even if we can't figure out exactly who is going to score what. But more importantly, we should get better all season long on defense, and not get torched on the boards game after game all year long. And don't get me started again on breaking pressure and inbounding successfully.
The Girard and Edwards pick and roll was very promising before Edwards got hurt last year. My optimism on how good they can be running the pick and roll is the foundation of my faith that well be ok next year. They were looking dominant scoring on the pick and roll. Oh, Edwards breaking his wrist at the end of a losing season isn't a "what if" on the scale of losing Onuaku or Fab Melo, but I think we would have had a long run, maybe even making the NCAA tournament if Edwards hadn't gotten injured.
I would suggest we are using a standard distribution across A,B,C,D, and F... Not across every team ever, but across the current teams in high major basketball, because who cares if Girard and co. are better than Directional University's guards? So an A position group should be a top 20% of all high major groups. I'll call high major the top 10 conferences by NET, although only because that includes the WCC, and thus Gonzaga.
Guards: B
Girard is a proven commodity as a shooter and ball handler (for better or worse) who is moving into a more natural role as shooting guard for the first time, so he should light up some score boards. His point guard skills cost us some games, so having Mintz and Torrence to help him improves this group. Mintz is very high upside, but inexperienced at this level, and Torrence is a steady pass first point guard who hasn't done much yet in his college career. Copeland is unlikely to play this year. I think you could argue that this group is better than 60-75% of all guards groups, but 80th percentile seems a big stretch.
Forwards: D
This group has a ton of potential, but has done almost nothing. We seem to have Benny Williams locked in at one forward, but nobody can even say for sure if he's a big small forward or a quick power forward or just an ineffective tweener. He was a highly rated recruit, and JB seems to have faith Williams will be good, but his upside hasn't yet come through. Everybody else is a freshman or bench warmer. As it stands, Brown, Taylor and Bunch are likely candidates to be in the rotation, but nobody really knows what to expect from them. Two of them need to be good, or we will see some three guard lineups while JB tries to get something to work. I think at least one of the freshman and potentially even Ajok put together enough for the team to be good.
Center: B
Edwards is an extremely solid center, perhaps the best in the ACC. He can score, defend and rebound. He is very good in the 2-3 deflecting and preventing shots and passes. But he is foul prone and his backups in Hima and Carey are largely and completely unknown, respectively. At least neither is 6'9"and 175lbs like former backup centers.
Intangibles: B
This team is way better constructed than last year. Or defense had too little athleticism and we had too many guys who could only help the team by shooting. Our upcoming team has everything. Pick and roll, drive and finish, drive and dish, three point assassins, drive and kick, rebounding and athletes to play good defense again. We should be able to score, even if we can't figure out exactly who is going to score what. But more importantly, we should get better all season long on defense, and not get torched on the boards game after game all year long. And don't get me started again on breaking pressure and inbounding successfully.
The Girard and Edwards pick and roll was very promising before Edwards got hurt last year. My optimism on how good they can be running the pick and roll is the foundation of my faith that well be ok next year. They were looking dominant scoring on the pick and roll. Oh, Edwards breaking his wrist at the end of a losing season isn't a "what if" on the scale of losing Onuaku or Fab Melo, but I think we would have had a long run, maybe even making the NCAA tournament if Edwards hadn't gotten injured.
