While I understand with the emotions after a tough loss that the instinct is to say we need to go to the portal for everything that did not work against Denver, in the big picture ssdm/wing type defensive athletes is the big gap we need to focus on, despite only allowing 10 yesterday. SSDM was the most consistent problem through the entire season. Excuse some lengthy spitballing here.
People on twitter (Evan Molloy, Steve Panarelli) are calling for us to portal athletic dodgers. The thing is we do have "athletic dodgers" in the offense, but a running theme this year is that the middies (aside from Leo) all struggled with their shooting on the run and outside shooting. Rhoa Stevens and English, who are all without question athletic dodgers that draw slides, all ended the year below 30% shooting. Rhoa, as good of a shooter as he looks when he is on, was very hot and cold this season, and had 2 or 3 solid looks yesterday where we could have really used a goal on at least one, but he missed them all, often wildly. He finished the year at 26%. Athleticism was not the main issue.
Last year on man up we had Alex Simmons doing a lot of the operating from the top position. This year we had Stevens there and he is simply not reliable enough as an outside shooter. Inconsistent inside as well, as we unfortunately saw yesterday. Simmons could move the ball super well while also cranking it from the outside at a good clip. Man down defenses had to respect his outside shot. Think it was a mistake that we did not recognize that issue and continue to experiment with the man up lineup, including maybe trying things with Kellog again. Hate to rag on Stevens who is an elite talent provided so much for us this season, but he was not perfect in all areas of offense. An "athletic dodger", a monster on the wing, but not reliable enough as a shooter.
English Thomson and Leo I think the pros all outweigh the cons with what we saw from them at middie this year. Guys like Rhoa and Birtwistle are in a spot where they will need to either improve or get passed by. Shooting percentages in the 20s and only 3 assists between them (which would be less of a problem if their shot% was higher). They should be on thin ice.
Guys like Deere and Kellog still have potential to fit in with our offense, despite not being "athletic dodgers". We should not just abandon ship on the looks we create off of pick plays and feeding ability because of one game where things fell short, with quite a few blown finishes. Those type of looks are what got us to where we were in the tourney. Guys like Mule Rhoa and Birtwistle disappointed down the stretch. Maybe I am a hopeless optimist but I do not think we need to rethink everything with our offensive concepts. Getting Mr. Speedy Alley Dodger from the portal is not an instant answer unless they ALSO have a reliable shot and ALSO ALSO are willing passers with high quality stick skills that buy into our concepts. Our stable of offensive athletes who draw slides is far down on my list of concerns, especially with things like Anderson arriving next season and Hottle potentially moving back to offense.
