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Message: [QUOTE="Huskyforlife, post: 4707183, member: 3403"] [MEDIA=youtube]s6jrXg9pwPs[/MEDIA] Apologies for the long rambling post, but I’m bored and feel like expanding on my Spencer/Castle thoughts after watching practice. I think people need to go back and watch the things Spencer did in the half court offense for Rutgers. He really likes dribbling into his pull up or turn around mid range shot, and uses screens to set up playmaking possibilities, and he was a solid playmaker last season. This is what he was doing in the open practice as well, I doubt the staff wants to reinvent his game. Sticking Spencer in the corner will work when the sets for Castle and Newton to handle the ball are in action, but I don’t think he’ll be third in that trio for usage percentage. He’s really more of a point/combo guard than Hawkins, who was almost entirely reliant on getting his shots off ball. That’s why I don’t think he’ll be running Hawkins sets. Which is also why I expect our offense to be reinvented with so many new pieces and their differing skill sets. This is why I kinda eye roll at the people saying we need to replace the “Andre Jackson role,” when the role only existed to begin with because Andre had a unique skill set, and was too good to keep off the floor. His ball handling and playmaking role will be distributed among Newton/Castle/Spencer/and even Karaban taking his next steps as an on ball player. We had these same silly conversations about replacing RJ the year before, when we should’ve known the offense would be re crafted around the players stepping up. Even with all this being said, I still think Castle will start the season as the 5th starter, if I had to put money on it. But I won’t be surprised either if we eventually start having conversations about better fits in our main lineup. These conversations do not mean the player in question is bad, or that you wish to see them fail, even though I don’t think anyone actually believes that. Just as our most recent example of this taking place, everyone agreed that Isaiah Whaley was an impactful and important piece of a very good team from a couple years ago, but we also had to acknowledge his fit in the lineup with an all time UConn great in Sanogo was awkward and often cratered our offense. Both players were talented and deserving of starting, but maybe we should’ve benched one for the greater good of the team, especially after seeing what a greater fit with Alex looked like the year after. [/QUOTE]

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