Point guards are to basketball offenses, as quarterbacks are to football offenses: if the offense stinks, it's usually because the guy in charge of spreading the ball isn't doing a great job. Last night, our offense stunk for almost the whole game, because Scoop was pounding the rock too much and because Scoop, once again, led the team in wasted possessions (11, tied with KJ) and wasted seconds on the shot clock (didn't add them up yet, but there were a ton).
We are fortunate, however, that a solid percentage of Scoop's gunner shots went through the hoop.
If Scoop's out-of-sync, gunner three doesn't fall, he ends up with this line: 13 points, 5-10, 7 assists, 2 missed free throws, 4 turnovers, 4 steals, and we win by 1, at home, against a team we ought to punish. But Scoop's wild three fell, so his stat line was actually very solid (16,7, 4, 4, 60% shooting).
Still, Scoop's weaknesses were on full display last night. Down the stretch, Scoop took several shots early in the shot clock, without running any offense. Last night they fell, so Scoop is a "hero." But we have a large enough sample size to know that usually, Scoop's wild, early-shot clock gunner threes do not fall often enough to take us to the championship.
Posters will say that we "needed" Scoop last night: and maybe we did. JB seemed to think so, and he is uaually correct. I loved the play when Scoop got the ball late in the shot clock, and then made a runner going to the hoop. Even if he missed that shot, an offensive board was likely. I loved how Scoop took charge late in the shot clock, and came up onions, making a big score. In that one play, Scoop showed exactly the skill that many of his fans praise him for. But such smart play is the exception, unfortunately, not the rule. Besides that one late-shot clock runner, most of Scoop's shot selection was questionable despite the friendly rim.
Waiters getting 14 minutes is a disaster. That should never happen. Nonsense about "riding the hot hand" is simply that: nonsense. Championship caliber teams don't ride the hot hand. And Scoop wasn't even that hot: he was one bad bounce from having a so-so 5-for-10 shooting night. IMO, if Scoop had been playing a lesser role as backup guard, and our first round NBA talent (Dion) had been playing the two, bumping our star point guard (BT) to his proper position: we never would have let the Gators hang around.
I know Waiters was 1-for-8, and I know that JB felt that Dion did a poor job defending a deep three. I am also aware that Scoop came up with 4 steals, two of which were huge within the context of the game. But Waiters is an amazing defender, better than Scoop by a mile. If Florida was so sloppy that Scoop got 4 steals, Waiters would have likely given Florida's tiny guards even more trouble. No one drives by Waiters, most everyone drives by Scoop. Even against a perimeter shooting team that avoids dribble drives, Waiters is simply too good to sit for Scoop: 1-for-8 notwithstanding.
If Waiters plays 25+ minutes, the context of the game would have changed, as our NBA athletes would dominate those tiny Florida college guards all day (and although Beal isn't tiny, he is so overrated it's crazy). Only by giving Scoop 31 minutes of running our offense, could we get ourselves in a position where we needed Scoop's late gunner shots to help us. A player of Scoop's talents would be fine for a prominent role on a team like Florida, but our championship caliber team cannot afford to bench Waiters and play Triche out of position simply to accommodate Scoop.
Our offense, once again, looked substantially less efficient than championship caliber. On a neutral floor we likely win that game by a point or two, and in Florida we likely lose. That is unacceptable, because as others have noted, Florida is not a legit top 10 team (even with their stretch 4 Murphy). If we continue to give Scoop 31 minutes in big spots, I feel we are not going to win the championship.
Triche is our point guard. We look soooo much better with Triche running the half court offense. Not only does Triche make the quicker and more responsible passes, but he also gets to the line when he runs the point. Scoop is a liability at the line, he is too willing to shoot early in the clock, and makes too many boneheaded plays.
Scoop always gets "assists" because the Cuse is an amazing transition team. Many of Scoop's assists are easy transitions buckets where he simply executes the three man weave or some other quick, easy offense. Any of our guards could rack up assists playing the designated point guad spot. The only reason Triche didn't pile up assists his frosh year, is because Rautins actually played point man on so many of our transition breaks. Scoop very, very rarely creates offense for others in the half court: and it hurt us badly for most of the Florida game.
Anyway, Scoop bleeds Orange. I have 100% confidence that Scoop would be supporting the Cuse right now, even if he had already moved on. I love how he is handling Dion's emergence. I love that he made shots last night: I just don't think JB is doing us a favor by giving Dion's minutes to Scoop, and our team needs Triche to play all of his minutes. It's impossible not to enjoy Scoop being Scoop though. On soooo many other Syracuse teams, Scoop would be my favorite player. But when we run Dion, Triche, CJ, Melo, and KJ, it is awfully hard to find 31 minutes for Scoopball.
Great game, great guy, great Cuse fan, but IMO, we are hurting our championship odds to give Scoop more minutes, touches, shots, chances to make a play, possessions, shot clock seconds, etc than Waiters.
