WOW, very encouraging first game.

[jordoo]

I know some will bemoan all the misses in the first half, Rak's fouls, Tyler's shaky potatoes and Kaleb's sketchy first game but if you cannot see the amazing upside and positives from this first game then I think you are missing the big picture.

#1: Kaleb's game doesn't bother me at all. Its a good learning experience for him and I will bet you a big part of it was simply first game ever and suddenly its all on him no comfort fall back on Mike who wasn't playing. Kaleb will have games where teams force him to score, which he can do, but other than that early season he is going to work on getting the ball to his teammates, running the offense and pushing the ball looking for advantages. I think he has all the tools and he is surrounded by guys who can score.

#2: All those misses showed off a huge strength of this team. We have too many good offensive rebounders to keep us off the glass. If you key on Rak and Chris then Tyler and even BJ will kill you on the offensive glass. BJ's ability to collect the rebound in the air and score before coming down allows him to hurt teams that way even with his slight build. I'm not worried about the misses by Tyler and Chris they will get better at finishing as they gain experience. As our shooting comes around we will be even harder to keep off the glass. This is a strength that can save a team on bad shooting nights or bad streaks offensively. You can stay in the games and get the other team in foul trouble.

#3; Tyler Roberson is going to have a great season. This kid is far more well rounded than I thought. he has a lot of skills and will get less attention than Chris or Rak. The late game jumpers are exactly what he needed and I expect will catapult his confidence much like they did for BJ at the end of the last exhibition game. I loved JB playing Roberson through his missed bunnies which was an advantage of having no MikeG this game. BJ and Tyler are going to get a lot of open jumpers and easy driving opportunities because of the attention Rak and Chris get. Their well rounded offensive skills are really going to help us.

#4: Rak's fouls trouble while troubling showed us a couple of good things. He remained aggressive and played well even with the fouls. If you are going to be in foul trouble and you come off the bench and play hesitantly whats the point? Yes he needs to keep away from some of the silly fouls but we also need him to be an aggressive player which he has been. Its a balance that he has time to learn. Obokoh moved much better on defense and rebounded well plus he showed that he can get some offensive rebounding and put back work done. Just like RFO2044 said preseason he fouled a lot but played aggressively and gave us some good minutes. Still a work in progress and depth at center is still probably my biggest concern but sans DC2 coming back its simply something the team needs to learn to play with.

Other than that even without MikeG we showed a squad of guys with multiple offensive skills. Everyone other than Chino can handle pretty well, pass a bit and do more than one thing on offense. This front line specifically is light years more maneuverable on offense than last seasons. Yes we will make a lot of mistakes and loose games but over all as things come together this team has a chance to do major damage. Once the defense gets into form no one is beating us when we have more than one guy making their jumpers. BTW we have more capable jump shooters than we have had in years!

Enjoy this season because its going to be exciting and this team will grow instead of becoming exposed and limited as the season goes on.

 

[Cowtown]

There was a lot of moaning and gnashing of teeth in the chat room about missing bunnies early in. Jeez, we ended up 48% from the floor. These are the same people who'd expect Anna Kendrick to cook, LOL!

 

[pearl31]

Nice post Jordoo

 

[jordoo]

There was a lot of moaning and gnashing of teeth in the chat room about missing bunnies early in. Jeez, we ended up 48% from the floor. These are the same people who'd expect Anna Kendrick to cook, LOL!

LOL, I can only imagine! What do people expect with young front line players. The important thing is that they are consistently getting those shots which they will start to make at a high rate once they get acclimated.

 

[bevosu]

I'll wait to judge how dominant our offensive and defensive rebounding is, and will be, until after we play a few teams that have some height and bulk in their front line.

I like what I've seen (1 game) so far, but the competition was not strong enough to really get a a good read. imo.

I like the potential that BJ shows. Rak has looked solid, but he has been going against fairly weak competition.

KJ looks very good so far. I don't think PG is going to be a problem.

CMac and TR...got to see what they do against tougher opponents. I expect both will take some time to be consistent.

The potential is there with this team, but a lot of ifs still have to fall in place. Still not convinced we're a good shooting team.

 

[bballbeadle]

There was a lot of moaning and gnashing of teeth in the chat room about missing bunnies early in. Jeez, we ended up 48% from the floor. These are the same people who'd expect Anna Kendrick to cook, LOL!

To be fair, it was really awful looking.

 

[AlpharettaCuse]

All those misses showed off a huge strength of this team. We have too many good offensive rebounders to keep us off the glass.

We likely will not rebound that well against the better teams, which mean no second or third chances off of those misses. If we can't shoot the ball, we will lose more than our fair share of games. If Joseph is that careless with the ball and Rak gets himself into foul trouble (probable) we have nobody to back him up, we will lose a lot of games.