Who Starts? Who's Our 6th Man?

[alabamaheel]

Yet where do Ian's minutes come from? He will play the off guard and small forward spots, our 2 most populated positions, where our 2 jump shooters start on a team that lost a lot of jump shooting from last season? I am getting push back for saying RJs minutes have to come down?

And btw Dav, I’ve given some pushback against the RJ mins only because of last year he had to play. I really don’t think he was ever exhausted and the team needed what he gave. People complain about the different style was when he ran the point but didn’t mind us winning those games either.
I do hope we have some bodies that can show out this year. If they can, then he can play a little less. If not, then he’ll have to see the court just as much.

 

[NathanFielder]

Maybe I’m too old school but if RJ suffered from fatigue playing 32-34 MPG last year…. Then work on your conditioning and strength to be able to handle that or more minutes this season.

Sure the coach bears some responsibility if they’re running players into the ground. I don’t think Hubert is really doing that.

 

[DaveChapelle]

 

[TPFKAPFS]

Best case: The roster develops as needed and we platoon peeps in waves. Only RJ and EC approach 30+ minutes.

Worst case: ACC POY and National POY contender RJ has to play Iron man minutes and a few of ours don't get where we need.

Either way we have a potentially good to great team.

I don't see any chance that most of what we need won't happen. Our players are too motivated and our coaches are too skilled to expect anything less than major development and/or improvement in health/strength/conditioning; skills; shooting; and IQ!

With our roster, optimism makes far more sense than pessimism!

 

[DSouthr]

And btw Dav, I’ve given some pushback against the RJ mins only because of last year he had to play. I really don’t think he was ever exhausted and the team needed what he gave. People complain about the different style was when he ran the point but didn’t mind us winning those games either.
I do hope we have some bodies that can show out this year. If they can, then he can play a little less. If not, then he’ll have to see the court just as much.

Ok, for me this discussion of RJ's minutes goes to a larger concern I have, a concern that I do NOT expect to be held by many here. For the first 2 seasons under Hubert I felt we focused way to much on Caleb to provide scoring even when he was not shooting well. Got to the point where our offense stagnated. While not as bad, I did feel at points we tended to rely to much on RJ to save us while others deferred to RJ. Bacot said as much, that he felt it was RJ's team. This is not to disparage RJ in any way, RJ was doing what he felt he needed to do. But having my offense centered around a small for position shooting guard is not exactly like say Perdue centering around Edney.

I am all about riding the hot hand but when that hot hand cools it is time to spread things around, I am not on board with having a players shoot as much as he wants and hoping he shoots himself hot. Granted, much better last season with Caleb gone, it did feel to me that we slipped back in to some of that late last season.

 

[DSouthr]

Best case: The roster develops as needed and we platoon peeps in waves. Only RJ and EC approach 30+ minutes.

Worst case: ACC POY and National POY contender RJ has to play Iron man minutes and a few of ours don't get where we need.

Either way we have a potentially good to great team.

I don't see any chance that most of what we need won't happen. Our players are too motivated and our coaches are too skilled to expect anything less than major development and/or improvement in health/strength/conditioning; skills; shooting; and IQ!

With our roster, optimism makes far more sense than pessimism!

Honestly, I am not as optimistic as I was last season. I feel like we have lost our huge inside presence and just have not replaced that loss. I don't know how it is going to work without that? Not saying we can't win but I think it will take outstanding decisions from the bench and I am not convinced our staff is up to that. Realize, we are going to have to rely on a kid that played 8mins a game last season, has history of major injury, picks up fouls trouble a lot, and isn't considered a solid defender. His backups are under sized, more fitted as 4s than 5s. I don't know how that is going to work but I suspect it will be a bigger problem than we realize.