Brimah back in a week?

[Leebo]

Personally, the one thing that would be nice to see is more credit to both Brimah and DHam for their alley-oops. Beginning of the season, I remember people dismissing Brimah's FG% because it was nothing but dunks and alley-oops, and IIRC people were saying anyone could do that. It doesn't appear as easy with Brimah out.

Ha, you said it way before I posted... guess I should read the whole topic

 

[OkaForPrez]

@mauconnfan I get why you have to take an aggressive anti Brimah-Blinders, not to be confused with anti Brimah, position. I think you often oversell your point though and drift too far then come back to center (no pun intended) and say we all want to see him succeed. The truth is somewhere between Brimah as an NBA Caliber talent and where you put him on the sliding scale. We can argue about how far between the two until the cows come home (Oh home on the range!) but let's just all agree you're wrong.

 

[tcf15]

Ha, you said it way before I posted... guess I should read the whole topic

It's such an important, yet underrated, part of the offense, and a reason why I think we'll probably see more of an improvement on offense once Brimah returns.

 

[David 76]

Here is how I see our bigs:
Best rim protector and energy guy: AB
Best 1-on-1 defender: Phil (by the way this is feint praise).
Best rebounder: Facey
Best offensive potential: Enoch
Best overall: AB
If we had a player with AB's rim protection, Facey's rebounding, Enoch's offensive potential, and some of the charge drawing, 1:1 defending. We would have quite a center.

 

[David 76]

Oh!
AB traditionally has covered up for a lot of mistakes from our perimeter players. If that is not help defense, I don't know what is. It may not look the same as Shonn's help defense. But it is defense that helps. A lot.

 

[tjc1888]

Couldn't be more spot on and couldn't agree more. Yeah to the casual basketball fan Amida is a "better defender" because he has tremendous blocks and is a rim protector, however, he has very little discipline. Phil may not block the ball into the 3rd row every other time down the floor, but you cannot argue the fact that he is often in the right place and plays a very fundamental defensive game. Being in the right place, and being in the right spot is more than half the battle. Both will play important roles down the stretch.

He tries to block everything.....because that is what he is told to do. If a guard came down the lane and he tried taking a charge he would be pulled by Ollie and 99% of this board would have a stroke.

 

[Justin M]

He tries to block everything.....because that is what he is told to do. If a guard came down the lane and he tried taking a charge he would be pulled by Ollie and 99% of this board would have a stroke.

Well obviously he isn't going to take a charge, but the best shot blockers have a sense of what they can get to and what they can't. And when they can't get to it, they get into rebound position or slide into a better defensive position.

 

[MexicoHusky]

Step 1: With Brimah out the rest of the team needs to step up defensively. Other bigs need some PT
Step 2: Brimah get healthy
Step 3: Brimah comes back and solidifies our defense
Step 4: Championship

At least that's how it's supposed to happen in my head. So far Step 1 appears to be happening which is all we can ask for at this point. Step 2 shouldn't be that big of a deal. Step 3 and 4 are significantly harder, but my fingers are crossed.

 

[James]

Well obviously he isn't going to take a charge, but the best shot blockers have a sense of what they can get to and what they can't. And when they can't get to it, they get into rebound position or slide into a better defensive position.

The only reason ab is "going for these blocks" is because the perimeter defender let his man penetrate . You make it sound like brimah goes out there hunting blocks like he's whiteside which is just false , half the time he was guarding two players because a uconn player was plastered on a screen.

As far as Nolan , don't mistake activity for achievement . He is good at stringing out the offensive player or hard hedging but as @Ricker noted many times his overzealous pnr defense led to jumbled rotations. People love Nolan's hard hedging , brimah hedges and gets back to block shots . That's the difference .

Also ab isn't perfect either and I hate how threads like these pin one player vs the other. Brimah is foul prone, doesn't have great strength, and is wildly inconsistent... But it would be irresponsible to sit here and say Nolan at his peak is more impactful.

 

[Justin M]

The only reason ab is "going for these blocks" is because the perimeter defender let his man penetrate . You make it sound like brimah goes out there hunting blocks like he's whiteside which is just false , half the time he was guarding two players because a uconn player was plastered on a screen.

As far as Nolan , don't mistake activity for achievement . He is good at stringing out the offensive player or hard hedging but as @Ricker noted many times his overzealous pnr defense led to jumbled rotations. People love Nolan's hard hedging , brimah hedges and gets back to block shots . That's the difference .

Also ab isn't perfect either and I hate how threads like these pin one player vs the other. Brimah is foul prone, doesn't have great strength, and is wildly inconsistent... But it would be irresponsible to sit here and say Nolan at his peak is more impactful.

I'm not saying Brimah isn't a better weapon and more valuable, but the value that Phil can't be undervalued as well. Having Brimah in the game allows our Guards to be much more aggressive and take more chances. At one point this year, Ollie was having every player jumpswitch every single screen because of how poorly we were defending them. Phil defends them pretty well. Both are completely different players, and I can agree that Brimah is more impactful and will be an upgrade defensively seeing as no player wants their shot blocked. But Brimah by no means is our lord savior , as some people are making him out to be.

As someone said earlier, neither are spectacular

 

[Excalibur]

Yeah to the casual basketball fan Amida is a "better defender" because he has tremendous blocks and is a rim protector, however, he has very little discipline.

In reality, the "casual basketball fan" ignores Brimah's factor as a deterrent.

 

[Excalibur]

But Brimah by no means is our lord savior , as some people are making him out to be.

Um, nobody is saying this . . .

 

[James]

@Justin M hamilton Gibbs were defensive sieves until about 3 weeks ago. Early in the year, with ab playing, they would often lazily call for switches or ball watch and find themselves out of position .

Look it's very important for Nolan to be focused and do what he does well. He will be called upon because brimah and facey will get into foul trouble . I'm just concerned about his inability to do anything on offense (catch , finish , average screener). But I agree uconn needs both hitting on all cylinders to really compete with elite squads

 

[Excalibur]

It took a few games to adjust defensively after he went out, but we did eventually adjust. Phil has helped the perimeter defense by his presence as he's a better pick and roll defender, but most of the improvement on the perimeter has been due to the guards -- Adams and Gibbs have visibly improved.

My bigger concern is on offense. While Brimah has the potential to help Hamilton by being available on the back line for the lob, his hands are bad enough without a finger injury. If he can't catch the ball, he'll be pretty useless.

 

[mauconnfan]

@mauconnfan I get why you have to take an aggressive anti Brimah-Blinders, not to be confused with anti Brimah, position. I think you often oversell your point though and drift too far then come back to center (no pun intended) and say we all want to see him succeed. The truth is somewhere between Brimah as an NBA Caliber talent and where you put him on the sliding scale. We can argue about how far between the two until the cows come home (Oh home on the range!) but let's just all agree you're wrong.

Ok good

NEXT

But so you know Justin M does get it.

 

[ctchamps]

It took a few games to adjust defensively after he went out, but we did eventually adjust. Phil has helped the perimeter defense by his presence as he's a better pick and roll defender (Strongly agree), but most of the improvement on the perimeter has been due to the guards -- Adams and Gibbs have visibly improved.

My bigger concern is on offense. While Brimah has the potential to help Hamilton by being available on the back line for the lob, his hands are bad enough without a finger injury. If he can't catch the ball, he'll be pretty useless.

Disagree about Adams. Strongly agree about Gibbs. Add in DHam. Don't buy the argument that the bad perimeter defense was singly or even primarily due to the safety blanket of Brimah. A lot of the guard penetration was the result of ineffectual high screen play by the bigs.

If an argument can be made that Phil stays too long on hedging (I feel he's guilty of this only occasionally) there is a stronger argument that Amida leaves too early or positions ineffectively facilitating the drive to baskets by opposing guards. Heck there are times he's screened his own team mates.

All last season the coaching staff was working with Amida to reduce his fouling. Towards the end of last season they were trying to get him to discern when to position for rebounding as opposed to trying to block every shot. If he figures this out, and it appeared he had before the injury, he is a very good defensive player. If he can figure out how to be a better screen player he would be an outstanding defensive player. To be clear my criteria is predicated on a player who is well rounded at the roles of defense vs. those who focus only on the savant blocking abilities of Amida.

 

[krinklecut]

Clueless

Yeah he's really proving what he's made of here this game

 

[mauconnfan]

Yeah he's really proving what he's made of here this game

Nice reply. Dope alert!

 

[krinklecut]

Nice reply. Dope alert!

I mean you have to recognize he was god awful tonight right? He does not look like a senior starter.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

How about Brimah back in -1 days? That would be ideal