Who will provide the fire next year? | Page 6 | Syracusefan.com

Who will provide the fire next year?

I think we are going to have 3 players that will come off the bench and be contributors. I think Boeheim sticks with an 8 man rotation with Malachi, Lydon, and Diange being the 3 we use off the bench most often. I think those 3 players are going to surprise people and lydon especially is going to make a bigger impact than most think.


Lydon is the question mark and I think you're missing Obokoh. Diagne could certainly play Center, since that's what he was technically recruited as, but I see him as more of a PF. Obokoh has experience at the position and Coleman might not be able to play for long stretches, so I think that gets him in the rotation unless he's awful at the start of the season.

As we all know, 9 is too deep for Jim, though. I'll go with 8.5.
 
I had Lydon in as a forth shooter. It was basically a prospective shooting lineup if we where struggling to score. I was just thinking of it from a stretch the floor, get 1on1 touches for Coleman or open shots perspective. I also think that that lineup could get some slashing done off of kickouts as well as open jumpers.
I think Roberson will be a big part of the team this season but, he needs to develop some consistent offense when receiving the ball away from the basket or he could cause some offensive issues like last year. I think he will have a very solid season overall. I'm not sold yet that he can truly develop that midrange jumper which his game needs. I hope he can but I'm just not ready to count on it.
Joseph on the other hand is IMO very likely to shoot that mid range pull up well this season. I think the questions with him have more to do with improving his handle and belief in his handle. He needs to be able to keep the dribble alive until he has a pass or a shot. He also needs to learn how to run the offense and of course be a threat to do damage while driving. I think all of those things will come to him much easier in his second season. Will he be able to improve in all those area's enough to be a studd? doubtful but likely enough to be an effective PG. I actually worry more about his defense to be honest. It was alarming and shocking to see someone play out top all season and basically never get it while also seemingly refuse to put forth any sort of consistent effort.

In short I expect Roberson and Joseph to start and have good seasons. As far as Lydon I don't disagree that it may take him a while to pick up the nuances of the defense but I have a suspicion that he will have sort of a CJ Fair like freshman season. When his number is called he will make plays and contributions enough to counter act his mistakes and make him a valuable bench player.
The 4 is a very interesting position. The presumptive starter, Roberson, started to flash towards the end of last season and had some big games for us. At other times he would struggle. His jump shot might have regressed from his first year when he could at least hit the mid-range shot. Last year, with more minutes (and pressure), his confidence (in his shot) tanked and his points came almost exclusively from put backs or rebound layups. These were available against smaller teams but against bigger teams were harder to come by. Taller front line players would push him out of the lane easily and he would struggle without a reliable jump shot.

I think we all agree that the sky's the limit for Roberson athletically (in that sense, he reminds me of Wes Johnson). The problem is .. at his size, he needs a jump shot to be a significant force on offense. It's pretty clear that confidence is the main thing holding him back .. (I can't detect any major problems with his release). But whatever it is, he's very tentative with his shot. Defenses figured this out and turned him into a liability on offense, enabling them to play off him and double Rak. This could again be a problem with DC2.

However, if Lydon becomes servicable, at 6'9 against bigger teams he is a better fit at the 4 on D, and could stretch opposing defenses with his outside game - as you point out. Therefore, if Roberson's shot doesn't show up, and Lydon gets up to speed, I'd prefer a combo of G/Roberson at the 3 and Lydon at the 4. That would put more size inside and give Roberson room to slash and rebound at the second level where he can be successful.

Roberson will start at the 4 and then we'll see what happens with Lydon.
 
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The 4 is a very interesting position. The presumptive starter, Roberson, started to flash towards the end of last season and had some big games for us. At other times he would struggle. His jump shot might have regressed from his first year when he could at least hit the mid-range shot. Last year, with more minutes (and pressure), his confidence (in his shot) tanked and his points came almost exclusively from put backs or rebound layups. These were available against smaller teams but against bigger teams were harder to come by. Taller front line players would push him out of the lane easily and he would struggle without a reliable jump shot.

I think we all agree that the sky's the limit for Roberson athletically (in that sense, he reminds me of Wes Johnson). The problem is .. at his size, he needs a jump shot to be a significant force on offense. It's pretty clear that confidence is the main thing holding him back .. (I can't detect any major problems with his release). But whatever it is, he's very tentative with his shot. Defenses figured this out and turned him into a liability on offense, enabling them to play off him and double Rak. This could again be a problem with DC2.

However, if Lydon becomes servicable, at 6'9 against bigger teams he is a better fit at the 4 on D, and could stretch opposing defenses with his outside game - as you point out. Therefore, if Roberson's shot doesn't show up, and Lydon gets up to speed, I'd prefer a combo of G/Roberson at the 3 and Lydon at the 4. That would put more size inside and give Roberson room to slash and rebound at the second level where he can be successful.

Roberson will start at the 4 and then we'll see what happens with Lydon.

I agree with most of this. I would say that his jumper is a little flat and too mechanical looking but its his confidence on the release or rather lack there of that kills him. Everyone that ever played bball and got hot shooting the ball can tell you they never once thought about mechanics or release when they where in the zone. You basically just can't wait to shoot again because the shot feels so good coming off your fingertips since you're just letting it go. Tyler looks like he's thinking about the form itself as he shoots. He played a lot and still did this all season. He's a very talented and athletic kid as you point out but he is not an ideal size for the 4 in our system and he doesn't have the ideal skills to play the 3 in our system. He is excellent at running the floor and tracking rebounds. He's a good garbage man, a good defender other than losing the corner to start every game and he has some ability to slash but that is rarely showed off since everyone can play off him until he can make that jumper regularly.
On a stacked team for us ideally he would be the 3rd forward who backup up both spots. By the time he's a senior I expect his skills to be developed enough to play the 3 and his strength and experience to allow him to play the 4. I actually think on an undermanned front line he played the 4 admirably for his size and other than a few matchups as you mentioned he held up well. I expect he gets most of his minutes at the 4 this year because the alternatives are freshman (Diange, Lydon) and I think Mike will play more minutes than anyone with a majority of those minutes being at the 3. I do agree that likely Roberson slides to the 3 when Mike isn't there.
This team has a very interesting dynamic in that it could be especially good if we get a healthy and ready Coleman, consistent play from Mike/Trevor, player development in Kaleb/Tyler and production off the bench from our freshman. The thing is that almost all of those things are at least somewhat questionable and if most of them do not happen we very well could struggle in much the same way we did last season. Not necessary as bad as last season but similar. There are a lot of ways that things could go. I personally think we will be pretty good but I'm counting on a healthy Coleman(which is a gamble), I'm counting on a much improved Joseph, I'm counting on Roberson being more of an offensive threat, I'm counting on Mike being a star, I'm counting on Trevor having to do less and I'm thinking that that freshman will mostly be needed as bench players. Who really knows :noidea:
 
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My money is on Prometheus.

Dude you are very lucky that I know enough not to have to google this! Tuesday afternoon at work isn't the best time for me to be reminded that I'm not too bright.
 
This is assuming no improvement, though. I'd argue the Junior-Senior jumps at Syracuse have been more significant than the Freshman-Sophomore jumps. I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that Cooney and G will be one of the best scoring duos in college basketball next season.
Duke just won a ship with four shooters and a guy in the middle. Obviously, they had very good players - 3 guys are going to the NBA. So even though we don't have CM back, it's not impossible to be successful. Unfortunately, I don't know if we have the horses to make it work.

You point out how good TC and G could be .. I agree. They make each other better; TC benefits especially because another shooter, or better two, will prevent him from being face-guarded every game. That's why having MR come in is huge. If he can contribute as a freshman, we could see a Jordoo-like lineup of TC, MR and G (and even Lydon) on the perimeter ... pick your poison. So yes, even if KJ is not ready for prime time, there's still room for optimism about our guard/SF rotation.

The problems are: 1) MR is going to take some time to adjust .. hopefully not too long as he's needed desperately; 2) we're thin at SF. I can see G logging major minutes and if necessary Roberson can slide over if Lydon/Diagne can contribute (at the 4).

And 3) for the above to work, we need some inside balance and DC is a total dice roll. No one has worked harder .. the kid has given it his all and showed great perseverance and loyalty to the program. But the surgery he had .. and the amount of time away from the game .. these are not easy hurdles to overcome. I predicted 8-10 from him ... but that's well into the season IF he's healthy. Opposing teams will run guards at him to give him fouls ... knowing that we don't have depth at the position. So this is a dice-roll that would best be solved by picking up a JUCO center. Just my humble opinion.

But I do admit that we could be decent ... if a bunch of things fall into place.
 
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He is a 6-5 point guard or shooting guard in all the articles I have read. I've never read anybody remotely suggest he would be capable of playing the 4.

at 6-5 howard can handle the role of the 4 while playing the 3. he doesn't need 1 or 2 if he already has 3 and 4
 
Way to early assessment but malachi striked me as one of those guys that will take a whole year to get ready for the speed of the game for a sg position on both sides of he ball. And I don't think he will have the size and strength to rebound at the three, if he miraculously does though, it could be good for him to get a few minutes there as a spot up shooter. I just get the feeling his dribble against a physical defender,defense, and release will take a year for him to be ready under pressure situations at SG. And I hope I am wrong.

On a positive note with that last thought, I think we will see Gbinije, Cooney, Coleman, and maybe Joseph forcing things off the dribble which will help Lydon and Malachi spot up some.

Roberson always keeps you on the edge of your seat you just never know when he is going to break out. Will he become a spot up guy, attack off the dribble, or learn a leaning jumper, hard to tell.

No clue on howard.

With Diagne Lydon, Obokoh, and Dajuan as the bigs one word experiment.
 
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I think it all boils down to defense. KJ was terrible last year, but the MR I have seen is also a terrible defender. No way he gets time over TC playing ole defense. We will go 7/8 deep at best. As Otto said, JB won't change. Same formula every year.

KJ
TC
MG
TR
DC

Bench
TL
MD
CO/MR

We go as far as KJ takes us. He determines the season. Our best players MG/TR depend on him being productive.
 
I think it all boils down to defense. KJ was terrible last year, but the MR I have seen is also a terrible defender. No way he gets time over TC playing ole defense. We will go 7/8 deep at best. As Otto said, JB won't change. Same formula every year.

KJ
TC
MG
TR
DC

Bench
TL
MD
CO/MR

We go as far as KJ takes us. He determines the season. Our best players MG/TR depend on him being productive.

In fairness to Jim B., 8 deep is as far as we can go. This doesn't seem like it will be a case where capable players are stashed away. Obokoh will likely not be ready to compete in the ACC and Howard isn't expected to contribute as a Frosh. As you said, Richardson probably won't be ready to go on defense, and Cooney's deserving of the 28-30mpg he'll get. So, yes, the formula won't change, but I don't see room where it could change this year.
 
I know we will be missing alot and be young early, but I always love november.

We have Dajuan returning, Roberson stepping into a upperclassmen role. Diagne coming in. Obokoh getting older. Malachi/Lydon fighting to knock down some jumpers. Howard stepping in. Joseph adding some seasoning to his game. Gbinije and Cooney laying it all out in their last stand. Makes me love college ball its not like the nba where stars peak in the 3rd 4th 5th years.
 

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