Some quick overall season thoughts

[General20]

I'll start with the Drexel game. The narrative here, on the broadcast, and on syracuse.com seems to be that Syracuse struggled a little defensively in the first half, and then figured things out in the second half and pulled away. I didn't really see it that way. I thought the D was good all through the game, and the O struggled early but picked things up in the second half. In the first half Drexel got three 3's off broken plays. Plays where we got a hand on their passes, but they ended up getting the ball back and drilling the 3. All three plays were fluky. Kudos to Drexel for hitting the shots and taking advantage of the opportunity, you could tell they came ready to play, but 9 fluky points is a lot for a half. Take away those and Drexel only scored 24 points, which I think is a better representation of Syracuse's defensive effort.

The defense is being lead by Jesse Edwards who looks great on both ends of the court. It feels like we are seeing a best case scenario as far as offseason development. Its hard for me to envision him looking any better than he has so far, given where he was last year. He's so disruptive in the zone. He gets his hands on 1 or 2 passes (or shots) that nobody else ever has. I honestly don't think Syracuse has ever had his combination of length and agility, and it pays of at unexpected times in unexpected ways.

Im almost tempted to say this was a below average offensive game for Syracuse, but they shot 56% from the field and 50% from 3. How can any team put up those numbers and also have an off night? What I will say is they came out flat offensively, so Buddy decided he had to take over, and for the first time this year we saw the potential all american Buddy from last March. The exciting thing about this team is, they always have that in the bag. Most nights Buddy is going to be able to take over the game and score efficiently as well. Unlike last year there are many other options to try if that isn't working.

Before the season I mentioned that the development of Edwards, Jimmy, and Girard would be the key to the season. In two games they all look about as good as they could have.

Edwards is shooting 100% from the field and looks like a monster on the defensive end.

Jimmy is shooting 73% from the field and scoring 16 a game.

Girard is shooting 100% from 3 and averaging 6 assists and only 2 turnovers per game (and one was a totally bullshit moving screen foul when the defender ran into him and knocked him down).

The unexpected surprise of the season as been Swider's defense. I would call it elite. Most (all?) of our elite defensive forwards in years past have been high flyers, and Swider is definitely not that, but he seems to have a perfect understanding of where to be in the zone, he's got great size, moves great, and most importantly he's got hands of steal. He's getting to spots and ripping rebounds/steals from opponents hands. We will see how that holds up against high major opponents soon enough, but its not going to be bad. Worst case, he goes from elite to just good.

The unexpected disappointment of the season, at least for me, has been Benny Williams jump shot. I watched him play 7 times in high school and he hardly missed a shot in any of those games. Now his shot looks all funky and you don't ever feel like the ball is going in when it leaves his hands. This also happened with Demetrius Nichols. I watched him play in high school and he looked like the greatest shooter I had ever seen, then he came to college and couldn't hit a shot for two years. Things worked out just fine for Nichols in the end though, and I think the same will be true for Benny. Until then though, I don't like Benny and Symir in the game together, which does limit our rotations.

 

[SoBristol]

The defensive effort was better in the second half, cutting down the open 3s.
On offense, the problem was the last 8 or 10 minutes of the first half. JB subbed in 3 reserves. I thought Torrence was doing ok in his PG role, but he got one basket off a drive and nothing more.

Frank Anselem is the one who has surprised me. Maybe he shouldn’t be a surprise, because the staff had commented about his big improvement over the summer. He isn’t as effective as Jesse, but he battles and gives us defense and a couple of finishes today.
Jesse is going to have foul trouble. So we need Frank.

I remember Nichols as a frosh. Just not ready - always seemed nervous and eager to get rid of the ball rather than doing anything. Not sure that is Benny’s issue. With Cole and Jimmy as the starters, Benny may have to work things out in smaller doses than many anticipated.

 

[rocklloyd]

Thank you for high school insight on Benny. His outside shot needs a lot of work. He should lay off 3 pointers and focus on 10’ and in until he gets release dialed in. I would not put a guy on him beyond 20’ and we don’t want that to happen.

 

[DCUNITED13]

The unexpected disappointment of the season, at least for me, has been Benny Williams jump shot. I watched him play 7 times in high school and he hardly missed a shot in any of those games. Now his shot looks all funky and you don't ever feel like the ball is going in when it leaves his hands. This also happened with Demetrius Nichols. I watched him play in high school and he looked like the greatest shooter I had ever seen, then he came to college and couldn't hit a shot for two years. Things worked out just fine for Nichols in the end though, and I think the same will be true for Benny.

Wait, isnt Nicols one of our assisstants now? Interesting. LOL

 

[DCUNITED13]

Our center position has been solid but in both cases, it was against teams that used the center position to distribute the ball. When we get againt the bigs of Atlantis/ACC, I'm wondering how we will hold up. We may perhaps allow more points in the paint and have to sag in with the forwards allowing more shooting from the outside. We will need to score at a 50% clip in those games. However, ACC is in a flux as we saw Clemson and now FSU lose games. Winnning these games is important and even in a blow-out most of our starters stayed.

Dissapointment is Girard. He had a "howler" especially on defense. The turnover in the end was careless and should not have occured. Once he loses focus he might as well sit. He is good player but he is becoming like Trish (both 1 and 2), 4 years of underappreciation by the fans. Symir has to start putting away the layups against cupcakes. Or at least draw fouls in the process.

Wondering about Cole sweet spots on the floor. He seems to get the shot around the top ARC, (wondering if that has to do with being able to defend the break). Does anyone know if at 'Nova he was mostly shooting from the corners?

Coach wants Benny to drive and attack the basket. He has stated that specifically in the Drexel postgame. If he does, he will create contact and get 6-10 pts a game. Doing that he will also eat into the minutes of Cole and JBIII. Defensively, he is quick and has hops. He is the only one off the bench that could get us points off of set plays.

We have blown out two teams by +15 each. This is a good team, I hope to see the potential at the Atlantis in the Bahamas. Go CUSE

 

[Newhouser]

I too think the D is better than I thought and Jesse's activity is the main reason. He impacts the game on that end almost every set. He also does a great job running the floor and his skill set on O is not awful. Same could be said for Frank at least thus far.

My concern continues to be the PG spot. Until JG3 proves he is happy facilitating and not being the Alpha I am wary of his progress and people just aren't going to cover Symir and as pointed out above if he is on the floor with Benny the offense is going to muck up.

Posted it last night - Cole needs more touches. He is our best all-around player and a much needed scoring option to help Buddy who has developed into a "I know how to score" guy.

 

[two3zone]

I too think the D is better than I thought and Jesse's activity is the main reason. He impacts the game on that end almost every set. He also does a great job running the floor and his skill set on O is not awful. Same could be said for Frank at least thus far.

My concern continues to be the PG spot. Until JG3 proves he is happy facilitating and not being the Alpha I am wary of his progress and people just aren't going to cover Symir and as pointed out above if he is on the floor with Benny the offense is going to muck up.

Posted it last night - Cole needs more touches. He is our best all-around player and a much needed scoring option to help Buddy who has developed into a "I know how to score" guy.

Not sure how Cole is the best around player, he’s made a couple of moves with the ball but other than that he’s a spot up shooter. The only two guys who’ve shown they can create their own shot are the Boeheim boys, and when we play against stronger opponents I’m guessing it’s only Buddy.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

Not sure how Cole is the best around player, he’s made a couple of moves with the ball but other than that he’s a spot up shooter. The only two guys who’ve shown they can create their own shot are the Boeheim boys, and when we play against stronger opponents I’m guessing it’s only Buddy.

Cole had a play on the left side of the arc last night where he easily could have gotten by his man and taken it to the basket, but he stopped himself. I agree that he is better than he thinks he is. That's going to take some work by the coaching staff to get his confidence back to where it belongs.

 

[two3zone]

Cole had a play on the left side of the arc last night where he easily could have gotten by his man and taken it to the basket, but he stopped himself. I agree that he is better than he thinks he is. That's going to take some work by the coaching staff to get his confidence back to where it belongs.

He needs Jimmy’s mentality, Jimmy may be the most fearless guy on the team, I can honestly see Jimmy being the better player out of the two of them by the end of the year.

 

[OrangeFoo]

Our center position has been solid but in both cases, it was against teams that used the center position to distribute the ball. When we get againt the bigs of Atlantis/ACC, I'm wondering how we will hold up. We may perhaps allow more points in the paint and have to sag in with the forwards allowing more shooting from the outside. We will need to score at a 50% clip in those games. However, ACC is in a flux as we saw Clemson and now FSU lose games. Winnning these games is important and even in a blow-out most of our starters stayed.

Dissapointment is Girard. He had a "howler" especially on defense. The turnover in the end was careless and should not have occured. Once he loses focus he might as well sit. He is good player but he is becoming like Trish (both 1 and 2), 4 years of underappreciation by the fans. Symir has to start putting away the layups against cupcakes. Or at least draw fouls in the process.

Wondering about Cole sweet spots on the floor. He seems to get the shot around the top ARC, (wondering if that has to do with being able to defend the break). Does anyone know if at 'Nova he was mostly shooting from the corners?

Coach wants Benny to drive and attack the basket. He has stated that specifically in the Drexel postgame. If he does, he will create contact and get 6-10 pts a game. Doing that he will also eat into the minutes of Cole and JBIII. Defensively, he is quick and has hops. He is the only one off the bench that could get us points off of set plays.

We have blown out two teams by +15 each. This is a good team, I hope to see the potential at the Atlantis in the Bahamas. Go CUSE

Given that Jesse was probably the 2nd best player during our NCAA run last year with the way he took over the game on defense and held his own on offense, I think we will be just fine. I particularly remember against Houston he came in and seemed like our best player... the announcers who hadn't watched Syracuse too much were talking about how he totally changed the game for Syracuse.

 

[billsin01]

I'll start with the Drexel game. The narrative here, on the broadcast, and on syracuse.com seems to be that Syracuse struggled a little defensively in the first half, and then figured things out in the second half and pulled away. I didn't really see it that way. I thought the D was good all through the game, and the O struggled early but picked things up in the second half. In the first half Drexel got three 3's off broken plays. Plays where we got a hand on their passes, but they ended up getting the ball back and drilling the 3. All three plays were fluky. Kudos to Drexel for hitting the shots and taking advantage of the opportunity, you could tell they came ready to play, but 9 fluky points is a lot for a half. Take away those and Drexel only scored 24 points, which I think is a better representation of Syracuse's defensive effort.

The defense is being lead by Jesse Edwards who looks great on both ends of the court. It feels like we are seeing a best case scenario as far as offseason development. Its hard for me to envision him looking any better than he has so far, given where he was last year. He's so disruptive in the zone. He gets his hands on 1 or 2 passes (or shots) that nobody else ever has. I honestly don't think Syracuse has ever had his combination of length and agility, and it pays of at unexpected times in unexpected ways.

Im almost tempted to say this was a below average offensive game for Syracuse, but they shot 56% from the field and 50% from 3. How can any team put up those numbers and also have an off night? What I will say is they came out flat offensively, so Buddy decided he had to take over, and for the first time this year we saw the potential all american Buddy from last March. The exciting thing about this team is, they always have that in the bag. Most nights Buddy is going to be able to take over the game and score efficiently as well. Unlike last year there are many other options to try if that isn't working.

Before the season I mentioned that the development of Edwards, Jimmy, and Girard would be the key to the season. In two games they all look about as good as they could have.

Edwards is shooting 100% from the field and looks like a monster on the defensive end.

Jimmy is shooting 73% from the field and scoring 16 a game.

Girard is shooting 100% from 3 and averaging 6 assists and only 2 turnovers per game (and one was a totally bullshit moving screen foul when the defender ran into him and knocked him down).

The unexpected surprise of the season as been Swider's defense. I would call it elite. Most (all?) of our elite defensive forwards in years past have been high flyers, and Swider is definitely not that, but he seems to have a perfect understanding of where to be in the zone, he's got great size, moves great, and most importantly he's got hands of steal. He's getting to spots and ripping rebounds/steals from opponents hands. We will see how that holds up against high major opponents soon enough, but its not going to be bad. Worst case, he goes from elite to just good.

The unexpected disappointment of the season, at least for me, has been Benny Williams jump shot. I watched him play 7 times in high school and he hardly missed a shot in any of those games. Now his shot looks all funky and you don't ever feel like the ball is going in when it leaves his hands. This also happened with Demetrius Nichols. I watched him play in high school and he looked like the greatest shooter I had ever seen, then he came to college and couldn't hit a shot for two years. Things worked out just fine for Nichols in the end though, and I think the same will be true for Benny. Until then though, I don't like Benny and Symir in the game together, which does limit our rotations.

Good thoughts here and a really interesting team. As someone here pointed out, two pretty easy wins and some good showings in the preseason as well, so I'm hopeful we have something a little higher end than we've seen the past several seasons, but I suppose the jury is still out until we get through Atlantis.

A few of my general thoughts:

• Don't see Benny as a disappointment, per se, but he's clearly not entirely ready for extended minutes against really good teams and not going to be much of a factor offensively at this point. I think the key is what JB said -- attack the basket and try to find some hoops that way. Might help some of those jumpers fall eventually as well. His athleticism might be an absolute necessity against some teams later in the season so hopefully he comes along.
  
  
• I feel like I have a different Girard take than most people here. I really am not worried about him shooting too much or looking to create offense. The best version of Girard, IMO, is a guy who is a threat to drain a deep shot or get to the paint for a little turnaround or floater or something. He's a solid passer and a pretty willing passer, so I don't worry about him facilitating either (though he's obviously not a pure point). My frustration with him is how overly casual he is for stretches. His turnover last night late in the game is carelessness and his defense is OK at times in terms of getting in passing lanes and trying to strip the ball, but he has a bad habit of standing flat-footed watching the action when he's opposite ball side. It's borderline brutal, IMO. For him to be really successful here, I believe he has to be more like that Braxton Cave kid from NC State -- get in phenomenal condition (doesn't have to be jacked like that kid but should be really lean) and work your tail off. If he can add that fiery intensity to his shooting, solid passing and OK-enough ball-handling, I think you really have something. But he just seems too disengaged for stretches.
  
  
• Love Jimmy's craftiness. Not much more to say. So few kids have the array of options he has to get a ball up to the basket. Uses both hands, can shoot from deep, put it on the deck. He's not overwhelming athletic, but he'll be annoying for teams all year, I think.
  
  
• Swider is a really talented kid so I echo what everyone here is saying. I think he'll continue to get more aggressive and be more effective. Really nice addition.
  
  
• Rebounding is an issue but Drexel attempted more than half of their shots from three, so you've to extend and that's going to leave you vulnerable on the glass. Didn't feel like it was a huge issue in that particular game, but we will have some tough moments on the glass this season, I would guess. A game like Bayler could be brutal.
  
  
• Really like Torrance's activity on defense. He's almost the exact opposite of Girard. Think both will see plenty of action, which is probably a good thing. Not sure what kind of offense we'll get from him but he's quick and handles the ball well. Maybe he finds a way to contribute on that end as well.
  
  
• Buddy's game has come so far. Really works defensively even though he's still maybe only approaching average there (his activity when Girard gets to standing around is pretty striking). Really tough kid to guard and, as someone mentioned, he looks quicker getting his shots off in the early going.
  
  
• Jesse's a tough kid. Still don't think he covers ground like Fab but he does a nice job and is key for us. Frank was solid. Looks small to me for some reason but really nice to see him get some run.
  
  
• Speaking of run -- I know JB has his things that drive people nuts but, for one night at least, thought he made it a point to get Benny, Symir and Frank some good minutes in a tight game. They all contributed. Nice to see as opposed to starters all playing 35 mins vs. Drexel. Should pay some dividends down the road.
  
  
• Agree with your point on defense. Didn't think it was bad early when you factor in the broken plays. Not sure we're going to be very good here but hopefully good enough that when paired with our offense, we can win our share of games.
  
  
• Overall, been a fun team to watch thus far. Hope Girard is more intense, Benny finds a way to impact the offensive end of the floor and everyone stays healthy. If so, we could be a couple wins better than the last couple years.

 

[AZOrange]

Lol at anyone being down on Girard right now, avg 15.5/6 in 25 mpg. Shooting 100% from 3 and FT line

 

[General20]

Lol at anyone being down on Girard right now, avg 15.5/6 in 25 mpg. Shooting 100% from 3 and FT line

I honstly don't understand the criticisms of Girard. He's only playing 25 minutes a game and in those 25 minutes he putting up assist numbers that would have lead the ACC last season. I also keep seeing people cricisizing his ball handling which has never been an issue, especially this year where he has a 3 to 1 assist ratio. His only legitimate turnover in this game came in the last minute up 20 when the game was long over.

He still needs to prove he can do it against top competition of course, but so does everbody on Syracuse except Buddy, along with just about everybody on every other team too. I'm really not sure what more you could ask of Girard that he hasn't given in the first two games.

 

[hoopsupstate]

This team figured out in the second half to not double down or dive down to help on defense. Let Jessie and Frank cover inside and the other four stay home to guard the three point line. They did a great job in the second half. JB was correct when he said they (the players) should have figured that out sooner in the first half. He acknowledged after the game he and the players should have communicated this better in the first half. I thought JB’s technical descriptions of the team and individuals was right on the money after the game. I liked how they didn’t just stand around looking to jack threes but attacked the basket. Buddy, JB3, and Swider all did this in the second half. They must realize that teams are not going to let them stand and shoot threes. JB3 gives us something in the mid range and baby hooks that we haven’t had since CJ Fair. I really like what Jessie and Frank are giving us. We need to make sure we look for both of them. They can score. Jessie showed great hands and keeps the ball up and he can beat bigs down the floor. Frank can too.

 

[billsin01]

Lol at anyone being down on Girard right now, avg 15.5/6 in 25 mpg. Shooting 100% from 3 and FT line

If you're referring to me I'm actually a griard fan and I"m happy to see him draining shots and playing a nice role. Was happy he battled through a painful season last year and contributed nicely in the tourney. I also mentioned that I'm happy to see him being aggressive offensively. His strength is shooting the ball, so some early shot-clock threes, some deeper threes, some floaters/turnarounds in the lane are important even though when he misses it might be frustrating.

So I don't mean to hammer him. I just feel like there's an intensity on the defensive end and handling the ball that isn't always there. That turnover he had late was just kind of lazy, frankly, and some of his defensive work when he's opposite ball is the same.

I guess I just mean, and it's probably not fair, but if you're a 6-5 athletic stud like Kadary, you're sort of a presence by simply being out there. Girard has to scramble and hustle to make up for his lack of height and limited quickness.

But I'm not at all trying to crush the kid. He's played well, I just feel there's more there than we're seeing, I guess.

 

[SU94]

I'll start with the Drexel game. The narrative here, on the broadcast, and on syracuse.com seems to be that Syracuse struggled a little defensively in the first half, and then figured things out in the second half and pulled away. I didn't really see it that way.

Could not agree more. The defense was quite good and kinetic in the first half (let's say, A-). It was terrific in the second half (A).

As for JG3 and Torrance making turnovers with 45 second left in the game, ... who cares? The absolutes that are thrown out on these boards sometimes make me crazy (and yes, I saw JB peeved even after the final horn, that's his job, not ours). Girard had a nice game yesterday. He wasn't perfect, but another stride in the right direction.

 

[AZOrange]

This team figured out in the second half to not double down or dive down to help on defense. Let Jessie and Frank cover inside and the other four stay home to guard the three point line. They did a great job in the second half. JB was correct when he said they (the players) should have figured that out sooner in the first half. He acknowledged after the game he and the players should have communicated this better in the first half. I thought JB’s technical descriptions of the team and individuals was right on the money after the game. I liked how they didn’t just stand around looking to jack threes but attacked the basket. Buddy, JB3, and Swider all did this in the second half. They must realize that teams are not going to let them stand and shoot threes. JB3 gives us something in the mid range and baby hooks that we haven’t had since CJ Fair. I really like what Jessie and Frank are giving us. We need to make sure we look for both of them. They can score. Jessie showed great hands and keeps the ball up and he can beat bigs down the floor. Frank can too.

The strangest part of JB3 is his finishing with his right hand. It has to be so disorienting for the defender hedging his left shoulder

 

[billsin01]

I honstly don't understand the criticisms of Girard. He's only playing 25 minutes a game and in those 25 minutes he putting up assist numbers that would have lead the ACC last season. I also keep seeing people cricisizing his ball handling which has never been an issue, especially this year where he has a 3 to 1 assist ratio. His only legitimate turnover in this game came in the last minute up 20 when the game was long over.

He still needs to prove he can do it against top competition of course, but so does everbody on Syracuse except Buddy, along with just about everybody on every other team too. I'm really not sure what more you could ask of Girard that he hasn't given in the first two games.

I get this and responded above. I do think he could tighten up the handle a bit (as we head into tougher competition) but above all, just want to see him become more of a pest defensively. He makes some plays there but just the consistent effort is a question for me. He kind of comes and goes on that end of the floor.

But to be clear, the kid's hitting shots, which is huge, and I have no problem with him as a passer or being aggressive when he's got an opportunity to score. He's had a really nice start offensively.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

I honstly don't understand the criticisms of Girard. He's only playing 25 minutes a game and in those 25 minutes he putting up assist numbers that would have lead the ACC last season. I also keep seeing people cricisizing his ball handling which has never been an issue, especially this year where he has a 3 to 1 assist ratio. His only legitimate turnover in this game came in the last minute up 20 when the game was long over.

He still needs to prove he can do it against top competition of course, but so does everbody on Syracuse except Buddy, along with just about everybody on every other team too. I'm really not sure what more you could ask of Girard that he hasn't given in the first two games.

Given Buddy's shooting as well as others on the team, do you honestly believe Joe's assist numbers reflect his distribution abilities, or the shooting abilities of his teammates? Other than the excellent long pass to Jesse yesterday, I can't think of any situations where he created a shot by his pass. As opposed to just hitting the guy, who may or may not have been open, who can hit a great shot. Buddy's first two shots were against a kid who clearly didn't read the scouting report, or the other pre-season POY polls, and who decided not to put a hand up in Buddy's face.

I see some hesitation from Joe to hit open guys who are new to the team for example. I think he's been better so far as compared to last year, but I'm still seeing some tendencies that need to be overcome to really help us beat much better teams. I recall a 'fast break' in the first half yesterday where he held the ball to drive instead of hitting someone ahead of him in better position to finish. He shot, but missed and that lead to a 'slow break' the other way.

 

[rrlbees]

If you're referring to me I'm actually a griard fan and I"m happy to see him draining shots and playing a nice role. Was happy he battled through a painful season last year and contributed nicely in the tourney. I also mentioned that I'm happy to see him being aggressive offensively. His strength is shooting the ball, so some early shot-clock threes, some deeper threes, some floaters/turnarounds in the lane are important even though when he misses it might be frustrating.

So I don't mean to hammer him. I just feel like there's an intensity on the defensive end and handling the ball that isn't always there. That turnover he had late was just kind of lazy, frankly, and some of his defensive work when he's opposite ball is the same.

I guess I just mean, and it's probably not fair, but if you're a 6-5 athletic stud like Kadary, you're sort of a presence by simply being out there. Girard has to scramble and hustle to make up for his lack of height and limited quickness.

But I'm not at all trying to crush the kid. He's played well, I just feel there's more there than we're seeing, I guess.

He did have 3 steals last night.

 

[two3zone]

Given Buddy's shooting as well as others on the team, do you honestly believe Joe's assist numbers reflect his distribution abilities, or the shooting abilities of his teammates? Other than the excellent long pass to Jesse yesterday, I can't think of any situations where he created a shot by his pass. As opposed to just hitting the guy, who may or may not have been open, who can hit a great shot. Buddy's first two shots were against a kid who clearly didn't read the scouting report, or the other pre-season POY polls, and who decided not to put a hand up in Buddy's face.

I see some hesitation from Joe to hit open guys who are new to the team for example. I think he's been better so far as compared to last year, but I'm still seeing some tendencies that need to be overcome to really help us beat much better teams. I recall a 'fast break' in the first half yesterday where he held the ball to drive instead of hitting someone ahead of him in better position to finish. He shot, but missed and that lead to a 'slow break' the other way.

Assist numbers in basketball can be severely inflated when you have a team full of elite shooters. Draymond Green is a solid passer out of the post, but he isn’t some passing savant and can bust out a 10 assist game pretty often.

 

[721Comstock]

Given Buddy's shooting as well as others on the team, do you honestly believe Joe's assist numbers reflect his distribution abilities, or the shooting abilities of his teammates? Other than the excellent long pass to Jesse yesterday, I can't think of any situations where he created a shot by his pass. As opposed to just hitting the guy, who may or may not have been open, who can hit a great shot. Buddy's first two shots were against a kid who clearly didn't read the scouting report, or the other pre-season POY polls, and who decided not to put a hand up in Buddy's face.

I see some hesitation from Joe to hit open guys who are new to the team for example. I think he's been better so far as compared to last year, but I'm still seeing some tendencies that need to be overcome to really help us beat much better teams. I recall a 'fast break' in the first half yesterday where he held the ball to drive instead of hitting someone ahead of him in better position to finish. He shot, but missed and that lead to a 'slow break' the other way.

Well - London Perrantes made a career of just passing the ball to a dude who hit a shot.
And also, shooting wiiiide open 3's, due to the attention his teammates were deservedly getting.

I was always like "WHY is everybody fellating this dude?
All he does is stand at the top of the key, swing it one way, swing it the other, a teammate then shoots and scores, and yay for Perrantes??!!"

Well - I'll take that from Joe, every day and twice on Sundays.

 

[br801]

Cole had a play on the left side of the arc last night where he easily could have gotten by his man and taken it to the basket, but he stopped himself. I agree that he is better than he thinks he is. That's going to take some work by the coaching staff to get his confidence back to where it belongs.

That's sort of what JB was suggesting in the postgame interview with Schulman.

 

[rrlbees]

Given Buddy's shooting as well as others on the team, do you honestly believe Joe's assist numbers reflect his distribution abilities, or the shooting abilities of his teammates? Other than the excellent long pass to Jesse yesterday, I can't think of any situations where he created a shot by his pass. As opposed to just hitting the guy, who may or may not have been open, who can hit a great shot. Buddy's first two shots were against a kid who clearly didn't read the scouting report, or the other pre-season POY polls, and who decided not to put a hand up in Buddy's face.

I see some hesitation from Joe to hit open guys who are new to the team for example. I think he's been better so far as compared to last year, but I'm still seeing some tendencies that need to be overcome to really help us beat much better teams. I recall a 'fast break' in the first half yesterday where he held the ball to drive instead of hitting someone ahead of him in better position to finish. He shot, but missed and that lead to a 'slow break' the other way.

I’ll push on this a bit. Of his 12 assists only 3 have been to an open shooter hitting an outside shot like a 3. In fact the first game when he had 7 assists, 5 of them were to the bigs inside and 1 was on a fast break. Last night of the 5, 2 were to shooters outside while 2 were on a fast break including that long pass to Jesse. The other one was in the paint.

 

[stuckinbig11]

"Girard is shooting 100% from 3 and averaging 6 assists and only 2 turnovers per game (and one was a totally bullshit moving screen foul when the defender ran into him and knocked him down)."

The refs called some strange offensive fouls when no screen was being set.