Felton ?

[smooth as butter]

Do you think Roy will use him as a backup to Berry or will he play him at the sg and have Seventh play the pg spot.

 

[ACokeForRoy]

I can see Roy using him at SG but Felton will be bringing the ball up plenty.

 

[superstar57]

Joel Berry is our best player and he happens to be our PG, I'm sure Felton gets a chance to play some PG, but Berry has to stay on the court in order for us to win any games, and that means Felton or Woods will be playing a lot at SG position. As someone said, Felton will bring ball up plenty I'm sure, but Berry plays PG.

 

[TPFKAPFS]

JB will play the lion's share of PG; Felton and 7th will share back up minutes and both will play some 2. Honestly, I really want to see Felton and 7th in at the same time. I know it will be a little risky, but the combined athleticism and creativity should make for some exciting bball!

Peeps seem to be discounting KW in their calculations up to this point. I expect he will break out big time (if he can remain healthy) and demand minutes. He could potentially be the one that restrains other wing minutes. This is a good problem to have!

 

[DSouthr]

I think initially, we will have 7th backing up Joel and Jalek backing up Kenny, clearly there are more minutes backing up Kenny than there will be backing up Joel.

I am extremely interested to see what 7th gives us next season, I think folks are sleeping on him a little bit, much like they slept on Kenny all of last summer. Keep in mind folks, 7th went in to last season not close to 100% so his start was stunted. Playing behind Joel was not going to give him many minutes to show and I think he tried to do to much at times. But the kid showed some flashes of fantastic play ability, like all freshmen it is a matter of things finally coming together for him. Really needs to throttle back just a lil bit, learn as Ray and Ty did that a tad slower can actually be faster. Needs to work on his shooting, should be tied to the hip with Joel, match him jump shot for jump shot this off season.

Big time competition for PT in our back court next season so PT is not going to come easy, it is very much a win/lose/get out of the way situation in our back court, the cream will rise.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

Last season's minutes per game. Number in paren is corrected for games played.

30.4 - Berry (28.9)
19.0 - Nate
07.7 - Seventh
03.6 - Stilman (2.4)

That's 60.7 minutes per game from our point guards - or 59.2 using the corrected numbers. We only played 1 OT game, so our games averaged 40.125 minutes.

Obviously some of those extra 20 minutes per game from our PGs weren't at PG.

Maybe someone else here can parse this better but clearly Berry and Nate each played some at SG. I don't remember ever thinking that 7th was playing SG, but that could have happened a little.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

We lose Nate's 19.0 minutes and Stilman's 2.4, for a total of 21.4. With a depleted front line, there's a chance we'll play more small ball. So we might see even more minutes from our back court players.

But are those minutes actually "available" to guys like Jalek and 7th?

Berry played 34 mpg down the stretch (except for 1 creampuff game and 1 when he was in foul trouble). Why would he play less next season?

Meanwhile, Kenny returns. We add Jalek and Andrew. So we are losing 2 (Nate and Stilman) while gaining 3.

BUT, Theo will be moving to SF (and occasionally PF) and Brandon will be main backup at SF, so it's really more of a wash.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

I think initially, we will have 7th backing up Joel and Jalek backing up Kenny, clearly there are more minutes backing up Kenny than there will be backing up Joel.

I am extremely interested to see what 7th gives us next season, I think folks are sleeping on him a little bit, much like they slept on Kenny all of last summer. Keep in mind folks, 7th went in to last season not close to 100% so his start was stunted. Playing behind Joel was not going to give him many minutes to show and I think he tried to do to much at times. But the kid showed some flashes of fantastic play ability, like all freshmen it is a matter of things finally coming together for him. Really needs to throttle back just a lil bit, learn as Ray and Ty did that a tad slower can actually be faster. Needs to work on his shooting, should be tied to the hip with Joel, match him jump shot for jump shot this off season.

Big time competition for PT in our back court next season so PT is not going to come easy, it is very much a win/lose/get out of the way situation in our back court, the cream will rise.

Seventh was much improved by the end of the year. He got less PT down the stretch, but that belied his improvement. Depending on how much he improves in the off season, he could be a big upside surprise. And it won't actually be a surprise.

It took Berry most of his first year to edge out Nate in the rotation. We could easily see that sort of competition between Seventh and Jalek. The consensus seems to be that Jalek is better, but Seventh will have something to say about that.

I'd like to see both 7th and Jalek get time at both guard spots. And I assume they will.

In less critical games, I could see Berry playing some SG to give either 7th or Jalek time at PG (with Berry there to bail them out, if needed).

I could also see 7th playing point some with Kenny at SG. But wouldn't expect to see Jalek and Kenny in together much in the first half of the season against good teams.

By the end of the season, I could see Jalek and 7th on the floor together. I expect that backcourt of the future to be very dynamic.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

For reasons I never quite figured out, we often had trouble punching the ball inside to our bigs last season. With Kennedy and Isaiah and Tony gone, it's hard to imagine that we will get better at that. Luke's size doesn't help him be an easy target, although he moves pretty well without the ball and seems to have good hands. We don't yet know if our new bigs will prove to be good targets.

 

[DSouthr]

For reasons I never quite figured out, we often had trouble punching the ball inside to our bigs last season. With Kennedy and Isaiah and Tony gone, it's hard to imagine that we will get better at that. Luke's size doesn't help him be an easy target, although he moves pretty well without the ball and seems to have good hands. We don't yet know if our new bigs will prove to be good targets.

Yeah and that drove me as bit nutz at times, felt we could have worked the ball inside more than we did. That is an area I would like to see Joel work more for but with our lack of experience in that front court not guessing we will see more pounding it to our bigs than we did last season, logic would dictate less than even last season. Our spacing for our bigs last season was not a strong point for us, off ball movement and getting great post up position to allow for the entry and path to finish was a nagging problem. Darn good thing we offensive rebounded so well last season,m hope we can do some of that this season. We have some big bodies that may allow for that, not just big but long, evfen longer than we were collectively last season, not nearly as polished thou.

 

[TPFKAPFS]

Uh Guys, offensive rebounding vs. either inconsistent positioning and hands were the reasons we didn't pound it inside as much. Even announcers recognized that the offensive rebound was a major part of our O. If I'm coach I want peeps like JJ and JB to drive and put the ball up near the basket more than to try to push it into bigs that either don't explode through contact or have sometimes suspect hands. (+ they hit their fair share of runners!) Once it is up there, our bigs and 3s did their thing on the offensive boards all the way to the Natty!

I think this is a nuance to Roy's coaching brilliance and not chance!

 

[Heeelz46]

I'm still not sure what Kenny did last year to prove those of us who were sleeping on him last summer wrong.

 

[Tom79]

Review the first half of the season. Kenny was important to our early season until he was injured.

I would like to get some of the pick up reports on how some of our guys are doing...

 

[Heeelz46]

Review the first half of the season. Kenny was important to our early season until he was injured.

I would like to get some of the pick up reports on how some of our guys are doing...

Eh he was ok. Helped some on the defensive end for sure. But besides a game or two against bad mid majors his offense and his shooting has left a lot to be desired. He's also extremely passive on offense and plays hot potato a lot. When Theo came back we got better and didn't miss Kenny a whole lot when he got hurt. We certainly need him to make a big jump next year especially if the cam Johnson thing doesn't happen, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[GoNtheDistance]

Add me to the camp that outside of a game or 2, Kenny really didn't do much for us offensively at all frankly. The challenge for Roy and staff will be to properly manage all the wings we have. For example, unless Kenny shows up this year hitting shots from the outside or being able to score off the dribble consistently, you absolutely can NOT have him at the 2 and Theo at the 3 for any long stretch if we want to put the ball in the basket consistently. Them 2 on the floor at the same time would allow people to provide additional wing support on Berry which would make scoring non existent. Replace Kenny with Robinson and it's the same problem. Seventh provides the ability to get to the rim off the dribble which is nice so I think he will get minutes. It's a good problem to have but something that must be managed. I expect there to be a few games early on where we say "what the hell Roy you can't play them together" but have to trust the process. When the dust settles, I expect to see a lot of Berry, Felton and Pinson.