There is a lot of optimism on Puff being a primary 4, playing big minutes in that role. I could be wrong, but I think that is a very difficult fit for him.. Much closer to a 2 then a 4.
Are We Done? Who Gets the Minutes?
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I think Styles is going to be a different player next year altogether.
Not seeing a 2 for Puff. I watched a handful of his HS games on TV, all his highlight videos and the last 2 years on our roster, and the next time he pulls up off the dribble to make a shot......will be the 1st time I have EVER seen him do that. Lol
He is a natural 3, but he is the most equipped player on our roster to start game one at the 4 spot.
I agree he is a natural 3, and not a very good fit at 2 as is. I just think he is closer to a big minute guy at the 2 then big minutes at the 4.
Being slight of build, and having a history of nagging injuries worries me for his durability banging around with bigger guys on dee for prolonged minutes underneath also.
I think Styles may handle it better, but 6'6 is not ideal either?
Puff, Like Cam before him can carry more weight. I never felt like Cam was undersized after he arrived at UNC ( He was at Pitt) and now Puff looks like he can easily play at a bigger size, and Frankly he is a much more aggressive physical player than Cam was. I think he will be fine vs 95 % of the guys he encounters.
Seth Tremble, for the life of me I can't understand why UNC fans are not absolutely thrilled that this kid is on the way for us. This kid is always on balance, just does not seem to ever be out of control (like we saw from both RJ and Caleb as freshmen). As a ball handler, I see him in near Ray Felton territory, he is much quicker than he looks. He uses a really nice change of pace dribble and does not give up his dribble to soon to allow to be trapped. His insane athletism allows him to explode thru traps dribble in tact (it is a quickness explosion), has to be walled off when he gets a head of steam from finishing at the rim on the breaks, 1 defender is not going to stop in in that case. His jump shot is not the strength of his game but it is rapidly improving, right now you do not give him a open look or he can hit the trey in your face. And a thing rarely talked about is that Tremble seems to love to defend and is darn good at it.
RJ and Love start for us all next season unless we have a key injury but both will feel the heat and lose PT to Tremble and that is a very good thing! When I look down the road and see a back court of Tremble and Wilcher, along with Washington and GG, with maybe Puff at the wing, I get excited.
If cam Johnson can play the four for the Suns, than Puff can play the four for UNC
If I am talking where I prefer Puff to play it is easy, he is a wing (3, small forward) but he can play the 4 for brief periods, can play it for longer if we are playing a team that has small forwards playing the 4. Thing is a lot of those shorter 4 have enough girth to battle bigs. That girth factor is really important, look for example at Sean May, Meeks or Deon, guys that struggled a bit to finish over the rim but carved out space in the paint with their girth. Bacot uses his girth really well but finishes easier over the rim than those other guys (he is longer reach). Puff have lite weight girth and that is the problem for him at the 4. He works really hard, that makes up for a lot of the physical mismatch he gives up.
When Puff gets his shooting stroke re-honed back in the groove, it was rusty this season, it is going to be hard to keep him off the court. I think he averages double digit points next season and will have multiple 20+ point games. I LOVE, say it again LOVE the idea of Tremble and Puff coming off our bench because when we get bench scoring like I feel those 2 will give us next season we are extremely hard to beat. I invite stat folks to go back and look at what our winning % looks like when we get 20pts from our bench. And when he adjusts to the level of competition, telling to now, Nichel is going to make you happy! He has that quick trigger trey that we saw Manek use really well last season, does not nor should he be expected to have Manek's savvy but he has the Manek tool kit! That kid is a freshman Manek 2.0 (Manek as a freshman to Nichel as a freshman).
Cam was not, and still isn't a 4 though. I agree they are not undersized for their natural position as a 3. Cam has worked to play some 2, maybe Puff can too? I think as a primary 4, Puff is going to be undersized night in and night out. He has already missed quite a bit of time due to nagging injuries, heck he was just throwing up on the court after taking a shot to the gut.
I do think he will bulk up and become more durable, but I question him at the 4 for any extended amounts of time banging on dee.
Fair points.
Did you happen to listen to the GG interview on Wednesday where Sean May mentioned him in reference to playing some 3? For that to happen Hubert would have to add a 4/5 before 2024 season. My pipe dream is still P.J. Hall.
Hall, Washington and GG front line?💙😎
I feel the same about these players. Plus add in Nickel and this team looks lethal. Simeon and Trimble are also known as extremely good defenders. I’m really looking forward to hearing what the veteran players have to say about the freshmen and the rest of the team this summer when the pick up games start
Just don’t see GG playing SF, at least in his projected one year of college basketball. That front line would be too slow. Now either two of those starting along with Puff at SF and we’re cooking with gas. We’ll know today if we have another scholarship to offer someone like Hall or not.
I agree, him saying it took me aback. I think he will ultimately be a 3/4 in the NBA, but his value in college will be 4/5.
It’s hard enough to be a head coach these days having to deal with the portal, one and diners, NIL, etc. but guys looking to enter draft to obtain draft info and not having to make a decision for another month would have me pulling what little hair I have left out if I were in that position.
Some 3 means mostly not 3.
I could see us playing some zone with a taller line-up and if say Nickel can play good zone defense and shoot the lights from the 3 point line, with a perimeter inside/outside monster like GG roaming around AND Bacot down low, or some line-up like that, yeah that could work sometimes and even if Bacot is taking a breather.
GG "might" could even play the 5 in a small-ball line-up for certain situations.
Hubert played under Dean. I wouldn't be surprised to see some ingenuity and unexpected variation of line-ups during games if he thinks we can handle it.
I am thrilled and expect him to be on the court a lot. He's coming in after RJ has established a pretty dominant role and so maybe he can't come in and start at pg, but Tremble can come in for either RJ or Love, playing both back-up pg and back-up sg.
As the season wears on, we'll just have to see. Hope the chemistry stays right. Maybe 20 mpg as a freshman?
Ya never know, but I do not think playing zone as a even semi regular option is anywhere near what Hubert wants, except for emergency type situations, or a couple change the look type possessions in a game I doubt zone dee ability matters much next year or down the road.
I personally would like to see Carolina play more multyple defenses like Dean did.
Well, if you have an option of playing zone say, 5 minutes a game or more, then you also have the option where it's needed for longer times and certain situations.
We played great D down the stretch. So no complaints. Just if you can throw a team off with a zone defense AND maybe add a different component on offense like a taller, 3 point shooting line-up, that could be pretty powerful.
But the basics need to be well-established first and the basic D is man to man in this case.
I see more "run and jump" aggressive options with the multitude of options Dean developed, I do not see a zone to hide a lack of quickness and dee as an avenue Hubert is looking to in the future.
I do agree as a change of pace it will be available for a couple possessions, change the look type thing, but I do not think he will go with a lineup that needs to play zone as a regular chunk of time.
Great points! During the end of the Natty game when Bacot went down I was really hoping Hubert was going to call a timeout because I told my son exactly what was going to happen. I said they are going to go straight into McCormick again and go after Brady. They did just that and so instead of being down one we were now down three. Once again I was hoping Hubert would have called a timeout there to change up the defense for that crucial play because I knew the coaching staff were aware that they were going to go back to McCormick as well. I think changing defenses is a good philosophy at times. Even if it’s just for a few plays or just one it keeps the opposing teams offense off balance.
Now that Walton entered the portal, I think Hubert should look at Patrick Baldwin JR
Here's a crude stab at allocating PT early next season.
An effort was made to cut minutes for our iron men, and to give everybody a few minutes. But as you can see, that's not so easy to do. There are a few people who I think ought to get more minutes - but where do they come from?
And if this is hard on a few players, imagine how much harder it will be if we pick up a Manek replacement from the portal and have to find starter minutes for him.
An effort was made to cut minutes for our iron men, and to give everybody a few minutes. But as you can see, that's not so easy to do. There are a few people who I think ought to get more minutes - but where do they come from?
And if this is hard on a few players, imagine how much harder it will be if we pick up a Manek replacement from the portal and have to find starter minutes for him.
| Player | PG | SG | SF | PF | C | Total | Last Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RJ | 30 | -- | -- | -- | -- | 30 | 33.9 |
| Caleb | -- | 30 | -- | -- | -- | 30 | 34.2 |
| Trimble | 10 | 5 | -- | -- | -- | 15 | -- |
| D'Marco | -- | 5 | -- | -- | -- | 5 | 4.1 |
| Leaky | -- | -- | 14 | 11 | -- | 25 | 29.7 |
| Puff | -- | -- | 12 | 9 | -- | 21 | 10.4 |
| Dontrez | -- | -- | 9 | 2 | -- | 11 | 5.8 |
| Justin | -- | -- | 2 | 5 | 2 | 9 | 7.0 |
| Nickel | -- | -- | 3 | -- | -- | 3 | -- |
| Washington | -- | -- | -- | 13 | 6 | 19 | -- |
| Armando | -- | -- | -- | -- | 28 | 28 | 31.6 |
| Shafer | -- | -- | -- | -- | 4 | 4 | -- |
| Totals | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 200 |
I do not think there is any way we have a 10 man rotation let alone a 12 man one. I also see whoever we add as a solid minute player, especially if Mayer. Him and Washington splitting minutes like Garcia and Brady were at the start
I think Caleb, RJ, and Mando all play 30+ minutes, barring injury or forced to sit by foul trouble. Leaky right around 30 again. I think Hubert will say you have to earn the minutes by being better then the vet in practice, but stay ready. Puff/Styles/ Trimble being the others with the inside track to be a core 8-9 is my guess.
I think Caleb, RJ, and Mando all play 30+ minutes, barring injury or forced to sit by foul trouble. Leaky right around 30 again. I think Hubert will say you have to earn the minutes by being better then the vet in practice, but stay ready. Puff/Styles/ Trimble being the others with the inside track to be a core 8-9 is my guess.
I agree.
In my attempt to allocate minutes, I ended up with 5 guys getting over 20 minutes (our returning starters and Puff) plus 3 more getting double digit minutes (Washington, Trimble and Styles).
So I won't be surprised to see an 8-man rotation dominating most games.
Obviously other guys could step up, or we could see some folks sidelined (we had 2 of those this year), but that's how it looks to me in May 2022.
This is not a bad breakdown, but like others, I don't think that many people get minutes when it counts later in the year. The one thing that jumps out at me is that you have Washington getting 8 more minutes per game than Styles. I would switch those 2, I think Trez gets 20 minutes at least per game next year, while Washington will just get to dip his toe in the water.
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I heard from two really good sources yesterday that we are going to get Mayer later this week.
This is the main outstanding question about Puff. Does he become the scorer we think he can be? Thinking of him in the SF role, he answered the other questions last season.
Thinking of him in the PF role, on the other hand, he also needs to get stronger.
Which is to say that as a Manek replacement, he has 2 unanswered questions. Which is why I'll feel more relaxed about next season if we land Mayer or Nance.
If Mayer signs I hope Hubert does Roy's pattern of playing a frustrating amount of line-ups and players in early season. Agree you need a solid 7/8 for March but make sure those guys have fresh legs. Mayer gives Hubert a LOT of flexibility in terms of playing different styles and I hope he takes advantage. I would love to see Roy's tempo played with Smith's defensive philosophies.
Our core is seasoned with HD play book. I would imagine the newbs and up coming players will have to fight it out with 7 man rotation by late ACC play. Hard to condition all those horses if to many in the stable. 10 man rotation would be horrible
It certainly seems like we are going very hard for him. The timeline sounds right. He would have a close to seamless transition with his experience to step right in. Still more of a 3 then a 4 in many ways, but looks to be the leader in the clubhouse for that stretch 4 role if he does indeed come.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with a 10 man rotation except tradition! Most teams can't put 10 effective peeps on the court and that is the only valid reason not to play them. If Hubs finds we have 10 that can be effective, he would be idiotic not to play them! We could come at peeps in waves with no drop off and wear them down mentally and physically! Our fresh D and different looks on O would confuse and demoralize peeps! If we really want to get back to supersonic play and hard-nosed D with energy and multiple looks-why would we want a short rotation? This does not exclude the idea that you feed a hot hand (Pro idea) or leave a group in if they are doing something special, it simply allows you to run peeps into the ground! Hubs has some DES and some Roy in him but he also has a generous helping of Pro too! I can't wait to see our deep, athletic, skilled, and unified team hit the floor! Styles, Puff, Dunn, and McKoy will force the rest to step up and push them to their highest potential! Youngsters will have to work to get on the court and this will only force the vets to stay sharp! Adding a Meyer or a Nance can only increase our flexibility and force peeps to work that much harder for PT!
I agree. Washington will be brought along slowly, Trez will get significantly more PT than last year. I think Shaver is a year or so away from making much of a contribution. Adding Mayer or Nance will provide needed depth. We’ll know shortly if the Mayer rumors are true.
Just skimmed a recent interview with Washington. Apparently he's still waiting for medical clearance to play.
Sounds like @2DDIMOND's guesstimate of low minutes for Washington may be on target.
There's also a discussion on TOS that makes Nance seem like a worse fit than I've been thinking. Excellent player if we end up with him, but maybe too much a 5 to be the fit we really need.
All reasons to want Mayer, even though I think we should be pretty good without adding anyone.
I think peeps are WAY overstating our need for a Stretch 4! (I think we can handle it in-house) I really think our needs at 5 are greater. (Shaver and Washington both have some question marks for next season) That being said either of them could be molded to fit what we need and both have maturity, size, skills, and are used to being coached!
UNC can't lose here and both would benefit from our coaching staff and the Family!
UNC can't lose here and both would benefit from our coaching staff and the Family!
I think TOS is very off base in regards to Nance. I think Mayer makes us better, but I think Nance makes us betterer😜
