Which player on our team (besides Birt) will make the biggest impact?
- Thread starter I.I.
- Start date
Junior or TK needs to be Mr. Rebound Machine- ie Kenneth Faried/ Dennis Rodman (in my dreams)- that's it, don't need them to score, just rebound and set legal screens. You don't bring in JUCO's to sit, so I suspect they will get the minutes to start the year. Sterling needs to work this summer. He needs to be the leader- don't know if that is his personality or not, but the team will need a leader- especially with the youth and inexperience. Any chance of the team going to Canada, Europe, etc from the "team building?" this summer?
I'm counting on some great defense and rebounding from him too. He's had some problems in the past but hopefully has them straightened out during his redshirt year.
I like what his Rutgers coach said about him. We can sure use this:
..................
Etou always seemed a little uneasy in Piscataway, and losing 43 games over two seasons did not help. He certainly has talent. In October, Jordan said "his defensive technique is the best I've ever seen" and called Etou, "an NBA-level defender right now."
Sterling Taplin
I like what I saw when he started getting minutes. I expect him to become a scoring threat. It will be so refreshing to have a PG who can knock down jumpers with range!
TX
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I don't know....is being an NBA-level defender really a compliment? Have you seen the Thunder play defense?
Amen, and there is a lot more to his skill set than shooting....We always got much
better shots with him in the game....He has very good PG intuits...
The real key for him is to get strong enough over the summer to defend his position
adequately (or better).....If he does, he can make the Wheelers, Koritas, Artisons,
Atsons, Hendersons, and Battles (I think he may play quite a lot of 2 guard as well)
all better....
Of the new players (this year's recruits) I think that Artison will have the biggest
impact.....He seems to be a very skilled and versatile player....Wheeler, Atson,
Battle, and Korita may not be far behind......
I hope Etou is what he appears to be....A tough rebounder-defender....That could
well make us a different ball club.......
I actually think that we will not have a single player make the biggest impact. I think the biggest impact player will vary through the roster, depending on the opponent and who is hot at that time. Every one of these players seems to have the tools to be the biggest impact player at a given time and against a given team.
I'm scared of Etou on offense. I hope the RS season he took helped him with his offensive decision making as far as shot selection goes. I think we have enough guys who can make shots on the team that he doesn't need to jack up 3's at the same clip he did at Rutgers. All I want from him is 8 points and 8 boards a game.
Depends...Michael Ruffin stuck around in the NBA for a long time as an NBA level defender without much offense.
I mentioned this before that I think Haith will keep Etou close to the basket, as well as Edogi and Magnay. Our 3's and 4's that can shoot the 3-pt are Artison, Birt, Atson, Korita and Igbanu. I think those are sufficient threats from those positions.
And then we have Wheeler, Henderson, Taplin and Battle who are more than capable 3-pt shooters at the guard positions. That's 9 of our 12 scholarship players that are capable with the 3-pt.
I'm sure if some are shooting and not at a good enough percentage, Haith will take corrective action. .
I guess one exception would be if we had a Kobe Bryant on our team. The last 3 years his 3-pt % has been:
15-16 28.5%
14-15 29.3%
13-14 18.8%
It didn't seem to stop him from shooting because he was so valuable and could hit those shots when it counted. By the way, his career percentage was 32.9, not Steph Curry like but solid to go with his other skills.
15-16 28.5%
14-15 29.3%
13-14 18.8%
It didn't seem to stop him from shooting because he was so valuable and could hit those shots when it counted. By the way, his career percentage was 32.9, not Steph Curry like but solid to go with his other skills.
I'm guessing without those last 3 years his % would be closer to 35? (also from deeper range)
Probably. After 17-20 years of wear and tear on your body, the legs don't get the same lift on the jumper and all athletes that reach the end of their careers talk about those things. Bernard Langer mentioned while playing the masters at 57-58 that his drives are 15 yds shorter, his iron 10 yds.
Payton Manning became a dump off passer because the legs and arms had left him.
Even though Kobe played 20 yrs, 2 more than he didn't play in the NBA. Lol he was extremely productive those last 3 years and might have been more productive if the Lakers had more talent around him.
Scoring 60 in your last game wasn't too shabby. Great, great player.
Word on the street is that TK developed a ton during his redshirt year. Good chance he'll be a major contributor during our transition with these new guys.
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That's good to hear because he went from "what am I doing here?" As a freshman to a solid contributer as a sophomore. If he's made a similar leap during the redshirt year then we should be better inside next year than last.
I really hope so. He's a great guy and is very athletic. If he developed some post moves and a mid range jumper, we know what he can do defensively and rebounding, we could have a great inside player.
As so many complained about him red shirting, I think we'll see why he needed it and can now give us 2 productive years.
Chad, we've heard hardly anything about Etou except from English and Haith and possibly Felton commenting on how hard he's been working. Do you have any idea what he will bring to the team next year? Thanks.
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At Dayton, TK was putting down some high flying dunks & even hitting 3s during pre game warm ups. We were joking that Haith sent him out there to scare & confuse Michigan. He did look good shooting the ball!
I'm just hoping he was an exception rather than a reason that the Rutgers team was horrid.
Judging by Rutgers year (2015/2016), Etou is worth 4/5 wins- again, if he can block out and set legal screens, he will be fine in Haith's offense. It's all about dribble drive and kick- Shaq could drive, and finish- didn't kick all that much- will Taplin or Henderson do it? We wait with baited breath.
Thanks, Chad. I'm sure he's improved. My experience has been if the player really wants to get better and works at it, they will. And it doesn't at stop in college.
I was a much better player 3-4 years after college, when I was playing for the Conoco Oilers. We practiced a lot and faced college teams, which made us better.
And Steph Curry has improved so much after he became a pro, as do most pro players. As you know, if you're willing to put in the time, you'll improve until the body says otherwise.
I imagine we'll see great improvement from both Edogi and Etou. I think with those 2 alone, we'll get more production out of the 4-5 positions than we did last year. Throw in Artison, Magnay and Igbanu, even tho we're younger there, we'll be much better, IMO.
The Wheeler signing fascinates me the most. Haith had told me before the season that he wasn't looking to sign many jucos. One or two at the most. Now he has three jucos and a transfer.
He gets Wheeler committed after Artison. Henderson already had signed. The Wheeler signing tells me that either, he was too good to pass up, or he isn't sold on Henderson. Maybe a little of both.
If Wheeler is really good, it completely elevates the team. We will see. I'll predict, for whatever it is worth, that Wheeler has the biggest impact.
He gets Wheeler committed after Artison. Henderson already had signed. The Wheeler signing tells me that either, he was too good to pass up, or he isn't sold on Henderson. Maybe a little of both.
If Wheeler is really good, it completely elevates the team. We will see. I'll predict, for whatever it is worth, that Wheeler has the biggest impact.
I agree with you that it's probably a little of both. Henderson's stats did fall the 2nd half of his season. It could have been a nagging injury or he just didn't play as well. I know his fellow guard, Dunningan began to shoot more and score more and seemed to be more of a team leader later in the season.
On the other hand, Wheeler put up fantastic stats and what you read about him is that he's a tough, strong player that is good on the defensive end also. I think he definately was to good to pass up.
Although I think signing another juco guard was in the works before their seasons were very far along. We were concentrating on Wheeler and juco guard Jordan Holland who signed with Fresno at that point.
We were recruiting Holland hard but then we must have seen Wheeler and his recruitment took off and Holland's dropped off. Holland used to post things about Tulsa on his Twitter account but once we started recruiting Wheeler, he seemed to stop and begin putting up Fresno stuff.
At that point Chris snd I felt we were dropping off Holland. And I was glad because I liked Wheeler much better than Holland. So I guess we were looking for a scoring juco from early in the juco season. From my notes we offered Holland on 12/10/15. We offered Wheeler on 1/20/16.
If there is one major area we could improve in our post play that I would most like to see, it is
passing the ball back out immediately if you don't have a good opportunity to score....You saw
other teams get very open threes by passing the ball into the post, and immediately reversing
it to the other corner.....NOT us, however.....If the post player holds the ball, the offense is frozen,
and generally, only bad things happen as a consequence......
Last season, passing the ball inside was like passing it into one of Dr. Hawking's black holes---
Never to be seen again.....Dre or Swanney would hold it, and hold it, and finally take a bad shot
or turn it over....Swanney did have a couple of games 2/3 of the way through the season where
he was effective offensively, and it really helped, but over the season, our post offense generally
sucked...
Taking a low percentage shot from the post position after holding the ball too long, when passing
it back out immediately for a good look at three or a more favorable repost is an option, makes
no sense.....We were privileged to watch Harrington and KJ work that play to perfection--Some-
times Harrington would repost it more than once, until either he or KJ got the shot or situation
they were looking for.....
Let's hope Etou, Edogi and Magnay are taught to make quicker decisions when the ball comes
into them...With a 30 second shot clock, those seconds are even more precious.....None of
our post men project to be high scorers, but they can be a positive part of the offense!!
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You mean you don't just lower your head and shoulder, dribble to the right, charge as hard as you can into your defender and pick up an offensive foul?
Would,be nice however the offensive system Haith loves does not require a lot of post scoring. I too never understood,the inside black hole. I had to wonder whether we were just that bad of an outside shooting team. Indeed a in the game of 2016 you have to create an inside out game
Can anyone find Etou's shooting stats @ Rutgers his last year? I've heard he didn't find many
shots not to his liking......
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