Not at all. But I gave the disclaimer that I was making some assumptions. Maybe I’m being a bit hopeful there as well.
Next Year
- Thread starter Tarheels39
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Not at all. But I gave the disclaimer that I was making some assumptions. Maybe I’m being a bit hopeful there as well.
If I am Hubert Davis I am begging Cadeau to come early. If he is half the point guard that everyone says he is and we can pair him with one more shooter, I believe we will be fine. I don't think he reclassifies if Love stays. Give me a refocused Bacot, RJ, Elliott Cadeau, Washington and two portal studs in addition to Wilcher and High. We will be fine.
right. we have plenty of those. he’s literally a shorter version of his brother who was another offensive 0. he’s a solid spot minute PG who will compete enough defensively to not kill you during those minutes but not somebody who we can ever rely on to be the type of offensive guy at the PG that we need him to be, whether it be Roy’s old system or even Hubert’s new system.
Do you know that to be true or Is that your opinion? Not being snarky, actually asking the question.
I think Hubert sells the two point guard system and Cadeau and RJ could easily coexist on the offensive end. Not sure about the defensive liabilities it would cause but we have lived with that for a while.
I agree with your question. Marcus had no problem with jb at the point. Heck, it let Marcus be Marcus. I could see the same happen with rj. He’s a baller, that could definitely excel with a great pg.
It has been said before Cadeau is looking at what RJ does before deciding what to do reclassifying. So unless something changed.
I get it, but God forbid a kid having to work for a spot or have competition. Lol
Too optimistic IMO. RJ ain't transferring because we bring in a transfer. If he does it'll be for other reasons. I actually think he's more likely to transfer if we don't expect to have a talented roster.
I'm not willing to punt a season to keep Trimble or Dunn, which is essentially what we'd be doing if we pass up a more talented guard to keep them around for future years. Neither of them strike me as likely future starters. What has Dunn done to strike you as potentially being "pretty darn good"?
I also think it's super unlikely High is ready to contribute (he's not ranked too high...). Washington may be ready at the 5 (though personally I don't see him being super good yet), but I think it's super unlikely he can't start at the 4. He didn't hit a 3 all year, and we want him to replace Nance to fix our spacing issues??? Recipe for disaster. I'd be shocked if that's Hubert's plan.
That sounds right. He stays unless he's unhappy, or told to go. I don't think either of those applies to him.
If we pick up a "real" PG, RJ can slide to SG. But that could make minutes scarce for Seth or D'Marco if Wilcher is as ready to go as most of us expect him to be.
Without a new PG, I'm hoping RJ can play fewer minutes so he has more in the tank at the end of the game. And I'd also like to see him play off the ball a bit more. I expect Set to pick up more minutes in reserve at PG and while he sort of disappeared after the first Virginia game, I think he has the chops to do very well for us.
Something else we should keep in mind, this will be a normal off season for Jalen Washington where he can focus on his game, and work outs without rehabing his knee.
Watch Wilcher if you want to see our next PG! RJ will start next year at point, but I expect Wilcher's minutes to grow steadily up to ACC time! Seth, Wilcher, and RJ are a fine rotation at point since I expect:
1. RJ to continue to grow, especially getting stronger.
2. Seth to regain his confidence, work on his ball handling, and play with joy
3. Wilcher to show us he is a Lead guard and not a combo. He stated this himself and said he hates both the combo label and how easily peeps anoint players as true PGs!
I would bet we pick up 3 from the portal. 1 backup 4/5; 1 wing shooter; another shooter at 2, 3, or 4 depending on who else leaves! (IMO PG is handled for the next 2+ seasons)
1. RJ to continue to grow, especially getting stronger.
2. Seth to regain his confidence, work on his ball handling, and play with joy
3. Wilcher to show us he is a Lead guard and not a combo. He stated this himself and said he hates both the combo label and how easily peeps anoint players as true PGs!
I would bet we pick up 3 from the portal. 1 backup 4/5; 1 wing shooter; another shooter at 2, 3, or 4 depending on who else leaves! (IMO PG is handled for the next 2+ seasons)
I’d rather see us have a true PG on next year’s roster than to have any single player return-including Mondo. RJ is a good player and kid, but he is no better PG than Love, maybe worse despite having a more consistent handle. I hope he’s back and able to play off the ball at least half of his minutes, which should also be lower.
Anyone see the UK - KSU game? Newell is a true PG, and we've been sorely missing a player like that who can create and make plays for others. I think we will try to add someone like that unless Wilcher is that guy.
Why don't we recruit / add traditional SGs? I think having a Buddy Hield, Quentin Grimes, Desmond Bane, Tyler Herro type who can shoot the lights out off ball, even off of movement, but has size and ability to play defense (I realize Herro/Hield aren't great defenders) is a more valuable archetype than having a second 6'1-6'2 guy who's a bit better penetrator. YMMV but I think the ideal should be having one traditional PG, one traditional SG, and one talented combo to back them both up playing 20 minutes a game.
Wilcher is 6-4 but I don't think he's the one to be running off screens to hit tough 3s. RJ would be that guy but he's a bit too small to get his shot off in tight windows and can't defend. Any combo of two of Cadeau, Wilcher, RJ, Trimble seems a bit odd to me. RJ is the only big shooting threat but not a great off-ball fit due to size, and three of these guys are pretty small.
Why don't we recruit / add traditional SGs? I think having a Buddy Hield, Quentin Grimes, Desmond Bane, Tyler Herro type who can shoot the lights out off ball, even off of movement, but has size and ability to play defense (I realize Herro/Hield aren't great defenders) is a more valuable archetype than having a second 6'1-6'2 guy who's a bit better penetrator. YMMV but I think the ideal should be having one traditional PG, one traditional SG, and one talented combo to back them both up playing 20 minutes a game.
Wilcher is 6-4 but I don't think he's the one to be running off screens to hit tough 3s. RJ would be that guy but he's a bit too small to get his shot off in tight windows and can't defend. Any combo of two of Cadeau, Wilcher, RJ, Trimble seems a bit odd to me. RJ is the only big shooting threat but not a great off-ball fit due to size, and three of these guys are pretty small.
I understand why R.J. size is a problem on defense as a shooting guard, but I don't necessarily agree with you that he would be hindered much on offense.
There are a lot of really good small shooting guards thriving in College basketball right now that are 6'1" or shorter.
Tyson Walker at Mich St, Joe Girard at Syracuse, Marcus Sasser ( 1st team AA) at Houston, Roach at Dook.
R.J. size off the ball is not as tough as with the ball in his hands all the time.
He actually moves very well off the ball and I think he will find plenty of open spaces to get off his shot.
His pump fakes a side steps of close out defenders is top notch.
Lot of this is contingent on having a bigger guard to pair with. Of the ones I listed, only Sasser plays with another small pg in Shead.
So many times I watched this season where RJ was the PG and Seth was in at the 2, why would you do this? RJ is great at getting his own shot, get a big man caught in a switch on to RJ, RJ abuses him, makes him look like a fool, RJ is great creating shots for RJ, he is not great at creating shots for his mates and for me that is job 1 for a PG. RJ is a 2 guard, let him be what he is. Seth, just is not in any way a 2 guard, not without a ton of improvement jump shooting, so why put him in as a 2, why station him way outside the 3pt arch, do you really not realize a defender is going to leave him and dare him to shoot from out there? When all you need do is put the ball in Seth's hands, let him create, a defender has to check him then, let RJ do what RJ is best at, finding his scoring and not be worried about creating anything for his mates. You have to understand your players strengths and weaknesses and play toward their strengths, we played far to much to their weaknesses.
I agree with everything you commented on here.......except we are yet to see Seth exhibit any pg chops through year one.
I am certainly with you in the thought that Seth is not a shooting guard, now we just have to see a gigantic leap in his skills and decision making from the pg position.
I hate to break it to you, but your boy STYLES boogied!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tarwiz, Seth, I saw the PG chops, granted I saw them more prior to college but I saw them last season as well, at least what I could from a kid that played out of position for 90% of the season and only got limited minutes.
Example, after the Protland road trip (I include VT in that because we really didn't have much more than a shoot around coming off the Portland trip to work on things), if you recall the huge thing was Bacot set up down low rather than the top of the key nonsense, was pound the ball in to Bacot, know who looked to me to be single focused on that, it was Seth. Remember, he got extended minutes in that game after VT, looked like every time he touched the ball he made some effort to get it in to Bacot, eh was the jump start to that. He even caught heat by fans here where he would get the ball and try to penetrate the paint but Bacot was not used to a guard actively looking for him as much and would not get good position and Seth had to reload and pull off the try, Seth got blamed for a wasted effort in to the teeth of the defense yet the problem was his mate did not do what he needed to, get a passing lane to a spot he could finish.
Granted, the kid looked like he had lost all confidence in anything he did that may have been a scoring op at the end of this season but this kid is an electric scorer, he just needs to be able to settle in as a PG on his team and not have these choppy minutes that he can't really get fully plugged in to the game. Telling you now, this kid is MUCH better than most Tar Heel fans seem to think right now, we can not afford to lose him!
Sasser and Houston are a good point, as they have two small starting guards yet still an elite offense (and defense!). Even Sasser is 2 inches taller than RJ though.
Duke's offense is 34th in Bartorvik -- not great for them. I'm not a huge fan of Roach either. Syracuse's is 93rd, considerably worse than ours. MSU's is okay, 35th. Walker is a small SG but they have a big point guard and Walker's 3-pt volume is not that high (135 threes on the season).
I think a bigger guy will have more off-ball shooting versatility. Taller guys are a lot harder to block, so they don't need as big of a window to shoot. Think of how Manek could always get his shot off. Not a lot of 6 ft off ball comparables because they have a hard time creating enough spacing. Most of RJ's threes are off step backs or other movements with the ball in his hands.
I do think the defense is a bigger factor to be fair. Duke can play Roach off-ball because they have Proctor, who's 6-5. They basically have the two positions flipped. If you have a really huge point guard I agree it's fine to have a small shooting guard and flip the defensive assignments. Or if you have a SG who's actually a lead ball handler (think Rockets with Harden or Lakers with Kobe) then you can go for a 3-and-D point guard (ideally a big guy too like Ron Harper, but it's fine if it's Derek Fisher or Pat Bev). The issue is two small guards.
Syracuse I think helps prove my point. Girard is a good shooter but does play a lot of PG, and Syracuse's defense has been pretty horrible with him on the team. You'd want to pair him with a bigger dude because he's small, but there's not a lot of bigger defensive PGs, so you either suffer on O with Girard at point or suffer on D by pairing him with another small guy.
Good stuff Guacho, stop me if I am wrong but I think what you just said is play players at the position they are naturally fitted to and not just rely on their height or weight. I whole hearted agree!~
Good info Gaucho!
I agree that a bigger shooting guard is better than a smaller shooting guard. The thing is R.J. be done growing😉
He is what he is, I just contend he would give this team an upgrade if he slides over to the shooting guard, and Wilcher plays primarily with the ball in his hands.
Wilcher is a legit 6'4" according to his HS Coach.
I contend that Wilcher, or Cadeau would play other players open more than R.J. does. Yes R.J. currently gets his shots off side steps, and stepbacks, but he is deadly off the catch on kickouts.
I feel R.J playing shooting guard strengthens both positions.
Now let's talk about Cadeau......
I am on record as wanting him to reclass now. I was not of this opinion until the last few weeks. After watching our play, vs good teams, and also watching high level NCAAT teams, I am convinced our guard play must improve YESTERDAY!
YES, defense would be a HUGE CONCERN. I don't care!
Our offense is broke, and I can see now that we need 2-3 high level guards on the floor at all times.
I would love to see a backcourt of Cadeau, Davis and Wilcher with Trimble filling the gaps with his elite defense and hopefully improved,offensive skillset.
Sasser and Shead have become terrific two way players, why can't R.J. and Cadeau?
Ask him how did his 5-star laden dook boys do in the tourney after being picked by many as the team to beat in the East Region.
High is still on board to join the team next year, as for his impact he will get some minutes due to his athleticism. Should be a major contributor his sophomore season, if he puts in the work. See him as a possible four and 5 depends on his development. JMHO !!!
I like High but I think it is after his frosh season before we really see what he can do. He is really smooth and fluid in his movements, I like that. He is touted as a 3pt shooter, not sure I buy that, I see him as a guy that can give us a face up game and can at times step out past the 3pt arch in time. I do think it is his Jr season we really see his game step to the forefront., he is IMO a natural 4, I think like a Hicks with more range on his jump shot.
Not likely to be a big presence next year, particularly with Hubert's style of bench minutes.
The plan was and is to have a Davis - Portal - Portal - Portal - Bacot starting lineup. We'll add 4-5 new portal guys overall; three will start and another shooter + big to come off the bench with Dunn/Washington. Only exception to this is potential reclasses.
