To the drooling, there are some freshmen doing some ridiculous things this year. Boozer, AJD, Brown, Wilson, Peat.
Right now Mullins falls into the DP camp of hasn't been out there long enough and integrated enough to get a real feel for him.
Castle fell a few weeks behind and had to integrate into an established team of veterans. He didn’t really look like an nba player until February. And even then - Alabama didn’t even guard him in the Final Four since he was considered our fifth most dangerous player. Now he’s a budding all star.
When you fall behind like Castle did and now Mullins too, you’re adjusting to a lot of things at once - the speed of the college game, playing on a team that’s been playing without you and trying to fit seamlessly, being a cog and not the main guy, running a complex offense and getting your timing down. Any one of those things takes time. All of them at once is even harder.
Mullins also isn’t really a “here’s the ball, go make plays” sort of player like a DP or Boozer or a post player can be - which maybe makes the transition a little easier since attacking people with the ball and creating your own shot has years of muscle memory built in. Mullins can create his own mid range, but he needs to get most of his offense out of offensive sets and by making good reads against a scrambling defense. What’s clear is that when he is in a functioning offense, he can pull threes super quick without a lot of space - his footwork and his quick trigger makes him tough to guard with even a little bit of separation. Yesterday on an off day, Mullins missed his 3 mid range shots that he created for himself (really the first time he couldn’t get those to go), but was 4-6 shooting threes. Two didn’t count (he stepped on the line on one, and a foul was called on the pass another), but he showed the skill. We missed him wide open a lot too - Demary once, Smith twice, Reibe once in the first half. In the second half he had one drive and kick to AK (great read) where AK drove and Mullins relocated to the space AK vacated. He didn’t have a defender within 15 feet of him - but AK didn’t process that (he kicked it to Silas in the corner instead). But i liked that after the pass, he wasn’t watching his handiwork, he was on to the next cut and did his job. He’s getting there - and when he goes on a heater, I’m sure guys will be more cognizant of where he is.
But I think it’s clear projecting him that he can do his thing and has the ability to be a tough cover once he’s settled into a system. NBA sets are a little less complicated since they compacted into 24 seconds, so a guy who can have a quick trigger is high value. And he’s shown some flashes (but just flashes so far) of being a complete player who isn’t just a shooter - a smooth drive here, a great pass there. He has so much more to offer - a little more passing and playmaking, making better reads (ie the back to back turnover and blocked shot against Butler) getting to the line a little more (only 3 FTs all year and 2 were at the end of Kansas), not reaching in so much (or at least not hacking downward - that always invites a whistle). The hope for us is that he develops those things and finds a good groove over the second half of this season so we get the best of him - because next year he’s likely gone unless he goes into a prolonged shooting slump (which we don’t want).
