KO may just not be smart enough to think creatively how to get the strongest team out of his players. He may need that X's and O's strategist, a George Blaney type right hand man, to run the offense. It looks like his team is strong in recruiting with Chillious and Killings. But he seems weak in some key aspects. It's too bad the assistant coaches are limited to three, he could use a few more.
If Alterique is out, then it seems his hand is forced -- Jalen at point guard 35+ mpg, Larrier at the 3 35+ mpg, Vital and Anderson sharing 50 minutes with maybe Polley stepping up to grab a few perimeter minutes, then develop Whaley/Carlton/Diarra/Cobb as an interior rotation, of which it seems to me Whaley is the only natural power forward, maybe Kwintin can step up and grab some minutes at the four but given his academic troubles maybe he'll be slow to pick up defense. I don't see Onuorah as good enough to merit taking time away from the developing young guys.
With the Adams-Vital-Larrier-Whaley or Diarra-Cobb and Carlton lineup, I like the offensive strategy of Larrier running the perimeter of screens to get open looks from three and Jalen the creator finding him and Vital on the perimeter or big guys cutting to the basket after screens. It's a little old fashioned and not hard to defend since everything is so predictable, but it plays to the strengths of the only lineup we have. Larrier is tall enough he should be able to get his shot off from 3 more often than not, if Vital can knock them down to that might open some space for Jalen and the bigs to operate inside, then we need Jalen to have a mid-range pull-up game so that the bigs have space to get close to the rim where they can hope to finish after receiving a pass. It would help a lot if the bigs could knock down 10-15 footers, but I don't think we have that big.
Defense has to be this team's calling card. Perimeter defense better be outstanding because the interior defenders don't have the length or experience to be great. There's no excuse for letting three point shooters go off. Don't know what KO is doing to teach and motivate defensive effort but he needs to do it better.
