🏀 KuBuckets Archive

Lets do some chase cutting to, shall we?

Lagerald Vick was our most overall productive perimeter guy against Siena.

Among our perimeter guys, Lagerrie, he of the nano thickness legs, had:

a.) the highest FG%;

b.) tied for most points from the the field;

c.) the most offensive reebs (3);

d.) the most defensive reebs (8);

e.) the most total reebs;

f.) the third most points;

g.) the third most assists;

h.) tied for second fewest TOs;

i.) tied for most blocks;

j.) tied for most steals;

k.) tied for second most minutes; and

l.) tied for fewest personal fouls.

His only short comings?

He was 0-1 from trey and did not get to the FT stripe.

Well, considering he is not one of our designated drivers, not getting to the stripe hardly matters.

And considering he only took one measly iron pyrite attempt, well, here agains it is hardly a negative.

12 points, 8 rebounds and 2 assists!!!!

And he did it on a night when everyone else was 32rd order Free Mason bricking everything in sight from trey.

Put another way, those 3 offensive rebounds indicate that Mr. Elmers gave his team exactly what it needed yet again. He gave it high efficiency, high protection, AND he got on the offensive glass to make up for his mates' frigid shooting, and he got on the defensive glass to get the defensive stops at the other end to make up for his mate's veritable pop tart bakery on the offensive end.

This is the stuff that makes Bill Self get doe-eyed.

This is gluing par excellence.

Lagerrie is becoming known for running a basketball protection racket.

But against Siena he added offensive and defensive glass vaccing exactly when needed!!!!

Throw in the efficient scoring and OMG!!!!!

Go, Legerrie, go!!!!!

@jaybate-1.0 Josh can do those things too, once he keeps his head in the game and his emotions in check. Vick and JJ on the floor together with DG and Frank? Deadly by seasons end.

@Lulufulu your slogan is accurate - this team will start destroying opponents once their shooting averages out.

@Lulufulu

Unless Josh is yet another unreported/under-reported injury, the video is already in: let Josh have the Trey and deny his drive. Josh is suffering what all phenoms without treys suffer. He is now being denied the drive by guys just good enough to do it. The high school guys couldn't do it.

If D1 guys could slow Andrew Wiggins up with sagging off and a face punch, they can slow JJ up, too. All he has to do is make 40% from Trey and they will stop laying off. But it's easier said than done. Josh has never had to make 40% to make them guard him honestly. He's also never had guys that could face punch him and dare him to retaliate. It will get worse before it gets better, even though Self will try to gift him a 30 point game against some cupcake to get his confidence back.

@jaybate-1.0 I think good thing about Josh is that he looks engaged in the whole game. His passing and awareness of where everyone is what I'm most excited about. So if he gets shut out like Wiggins, he can still impact the game. Plus we don't have to count on him. He just needs to be a cog in this soon to be well oiled machine and he is on his way to fit in without the need to dominate the game.

@FarSideHawk

Copy and paste. He's going to make some big contributions. It will just take a month or so. Devonte and Landen are my concerns. We need them playing smoothly and consistent with their ages and experiences. Devonte really spoiled us last season with one of those career seasons, but we need him to get back up on the wave. I gotta be greedy about Devonte. We need more of his best to be our best!

@jaybate-1.0 One thing to remember is that even in the league good offense beats good defense. Stopping Josh by ganging up on his drives only works if he can't pass and none of the others on the team can shoot. Your scenario also assumes that an opponent can keep the team from playing a full court game. That may happen and if it does we are toast but I still have to see it happen.

@sfbahawk

Good to see you back posting.

I see OADs like Andrew and Josh as special cases regarding the failure to have a trey being acutely detrimental to their ability to perform in D1.

Notice that Andrew Wiggins tore up the NBA as soon as he got there, even though he appeared to struggle in D1. I hypothesized that it was not that he could not score in D1, but that his handlers did not want him to risk injury by trying to hang big numbers game in and game out. Once in the NBA, the handlers had gotten paid, and Andrew was starting to draw his checks, and so it was okay for him to go ahead and be a threat every game. And the NBA reputedly tends to have its refs protect its stars and future stars, so that's another reason a guy like Andrew could go hard every game in the NBA.

The problem for Andrew, and I believe Josh, is that they face in D1 a real injury risk, if they try to go hard every game' i.e., the defenders are going to clock him and keep clocking him. And they can do it without significant, egregious penalty, if they can hang back and clock him on the way to iron, rather than have to punch him in the face 23 from the basket. If Andrew and Josh were BenMac grade trifectates, then they could make the D1 players play them honestly and burn them on the way to iron. But without a solid trey, D1 defenders are going to punch him in the face, and put him on the floor, and upend him, as he tries to get past them laying off, and there will be a considerable probability of injury that could hurt his draft rank and shorten his earning career.

As a result, the prudent thing to do is stand outside and be decoy most games. Get inside on some back doors. Have branding game against some cupcakes. And generally don't be threat to go off...just get through the season.

I believe Josh will have a few branding games. And I believe he will be a solid rotation player. And I believe next year he will fare well in the NBA. But this year in D1? He just doesn't appear to have the trey ball to keep them honest.