But what is perhaps the most perplexing… at times this season: WE HAVE run legit, specific plays and offense. What happened to executing that stuff? The Princeton actions with the blur screens that we’ve done well or the Spain action after a ball screen…where have those kinds of things even, gone of late?
Exactly correct. Lottery picks almost always play big minutes on day 1, because they were selected by one of the worst teams from the year before (and they are getting paid relatively high dollars compared to peers in the draft). They are allowed to develop and "fail" playing big minutes. Guys selected later in the first round tend to be selected by higher-performing teams. That allows them to get equated to the new team's system --one of the reasons why TSJ is in such a good position where he was drafted (even though he should have arguably gone higher in the draft).
Sounds like someone needs to put a bug in Brad's ear...or maybe not since so much is going around already!
You don't draft a lottery pick on potential. You draft guys with potential and development needs in the second round. Is there ANYTHING that you see from either of those guys, mentally or physically, that don't put them in the potential/development category? WR is showing flashes. He's still young and needs a LOT of physical strength. KJ....OMG, he has measurables and he has tools, but right now, he's been a below average college guard. His decisions are befuddling.
And not to keep piling on, but the "we're wasting so much talent" complaints are flimsy, although not completely unwarranted.
The difference there is that all of those guys are bigs or have freakish size given their athletic ability, right?
Here are last year's lottery picks.
So I’ve been wondering about that too and here is my educated guess: a lot of those sorts of sets run through Tomi. And even though he’s been gutting out he likely hasn’t practiced much if at all since coming down with Mono a month ago. Those sorts of sets require timing and precision that you just can’t get without practicing, and I can see why we wouldn’t be comfortable running them in game action. Also, KJ certainly had careless turnovers last night but I felt like at least 3-4 of them were him passing to someone that wasn’t there, which could also be a result of lack of practice time.
I’m taking the rest of the year off from worrying about what this current team is and just going to spend it dreaming about a sophomore Will Riley wearing orange and blue.
Wish there was a way to convince KJ to stay, especially if his draft stock is falling. This year 1 reminds me of TSJ year 1 where it was sloppy but the bright spots were BRIGHT. Year 2 KJ would be in NPOY talks.
Really? Wow that would indeed be massive, I would think. I was curious and found this with regard to last year's draft:
www.spotrac.com
What are you talking about...Giannis got drafted 15th while he was playing in the Greek second division and no one this side of the Atlantic knew who he was. He was a project and turned into one of the best players in the world.
My feelings as well. I think LvilleILL thinks he's being positive with these takes on the future. I find it depressing.
Sturdy from Illini Guys said on their podcast last night that he talked to an NBA scout who said flat out that KJ would excel in the league and that his current struggles are bc he is simply not being used correctly.
I like hearing from you. You are always positive! Too many are negative nancys!
And on the back cut to the rim, you can also pretty much draw a straight line between Tomi’s and KJ’s health and Tre White’s fall off.
Lol what? Half the lottery these days are all "potential" "high ceiling" type picks nowadays. Literally 2 of the top 3 picks last year were dudes from France who never averaged more than 10ppg in half decent (at best) international leagues.
I feel this way when I read this board at times. :-/
