Yeah, I would maybe suggest a lil more but not much, maybe 25% so we can get Theo and Cam in the floor together and still have guys like Joel and Jalek as back court scoring threats. But I would really like our true big on the floor with them to be a rim protector rebounder, hope Huff can fill that role, I think he is more likely to than Manley this season but ya never know.
[apologies in advance for this too-long exposition]
That's where I started out thinking. Ten minutes of small ball. But the more I thought, the more that didn't work.
Let's start by saying Luke can play 30 minutes. Similarly, let's say Garrison can play 20.
That's more than Luke has ever played. He only played over 20 minutes a few times last season, and never over 25. That doesn't mean he can't give us 30 game-in-and-game-out, but it might be a stretch.
We very seldom see a big give us even close to 20 minutes as a freshman. A few exceptions come to mind - Hansbrough and Wright. Anyone else? And those guys were top-ranked players. None of our bigs is anywhere close to those rankings. Which is to say that maybe Garrison can play 20 or even more. But 20 is pushing beyond what we usually see.
OK. We have 80 minutes to fill without going to small ball. And we just filled 50. Leaving 30.
Does Huff give us 15? Does Sterling give us 10? Does Walker give us 5? If so, we don't need to play any small ball. We might still WANT to play small ball - on the theory that our small ball squad will be better than a team depending on a lot of minutes from Sterling and Walker. But we wouldn't have to if those guys could give adequate minutes in those amounts.
But suppose the real numbers look more like this:
Luke = 26
Garrison = 18
Huff = 13
Sterling = 8
Walker = 3
That actually sounds plausible to me. That's 68 minutes. Leaving 12 out of the 80 we need.
Now that might make you think that we only have to play 12 minutes of small ball. But is that true?
The problem is it isn't a simple mix-and-match calculation.
For example, would you ever want Sterling and Walker on the floor at the same time? I'd say no.
Would you ever want Sterling or Walker to be the single big on the floor with the small ball squad? Again, I'd say no.
Next year, maybe; this year probably not.
The only guys I'd be comfortable with on the floor as the only big are Luke, Garrison and maybe Huff.
So . . . lets divvy up the solo big time like this
Luke = 6 solo minutes, leaving 20 Luke minutes
Garrison = 4 solo minutes, leaving 14 Garrison minutes
Huff = 2 solo minutes, leaving 11 Huff minutes
That accommodates 12 minutes of small ball. But does it give us our best team?
If you don't want Sterling or Walker on the floor with each other or by themselves, then you have to pair them with Luke, Garrison, or maybe Huff. Preferably with Luke, because of the experience and smarts he brings. So let's pair them with Luke. That leaves 9 Luke minutes to match him up with Garrison or Huff.
The end result is that Garrison and Huff play more minutes together than Luke and Garrison or Luke and Huff.
That's why I think we go small more. It gives more time for Luke and Garrison to play together and for either Luke or Garrison to pair with Huff. I think that gives us a stronger team.
