Final thoughts?

[diggerfoot]

I’ve been taking a self-imposed exile, as I have done in the past whenever I get a little snarky. I’m thinking of making this one permanent due to other factors, but not before settling some unfinished business.

First I apologize to @CocoHusky , for being a little snarky, though we have a rapport where I suspect he’s OK by it. I was a little less snarky with @Bone Dog and @BobbyJ, but I have less previous rapport so, no hard feelings?

And I must say I think it was unfair to call @CocoHusky’s use of Muhl’s scoring stats to refute @Bone Dog ’s optimism as specious. Those are precisely the type of stats he should have used in his argument. Admittedly, I criticized the math behind his data, but that was before I understood that @Bone Dog likely views a successful Muhl at PG as averaging far less minutes than I would.

For the record I view success for Muhl as a starting PG to involve at least 25 mpg and she would need to average 8-10 ppg, which I don’t know will happen. I have hope it will, but I don’t know. I understand why other people have doubts about Muhl as PG because of her scoring potential, but I do not understand the view that this and other factors means Fudd would be a superior one.

Let’s get to the heart of the PG role, which is to be able to make decisions and get the others to abide by those decisions with a minimum of mistakes. That quality takes precedence overall others. An indicator of such is not so much who brings the ball up or shoots, but more like the hand signals we witnessed Bueckers giving. If a team is sparse on talent, and the PG is a good scorer, then a lot of those decisions that the team has to abide by is the PG shooting. If the team has the potential for balanced scoring, then you want the PG decisions to respect that.

Fudd had a A/T ratio last year under 1.0 and her apm was very small. Even the scorer Ducharme was better at assists per minute, though worse at A/T. Regardless of Fudd’s immense talent, that does not reflect the type of decision making or execution you want from your PG heading up a balanced offense. I doubt any UConn FF team had a person directing the offense with a A/T ratio less than 1.0, and I wonder if any championship by any team was won with the director of the offense having anA/T ratio under 1.0. Maybe one of the Tennessee teams that focused on defense and rebounding? I don’t know. That’s a serious inquiry, if any enterprising BYer wants to provide stats on that I’d be curious.

Now I have hope that Fudd could learn to be better at directing an offense with balanced scoring, just as I have hope that Muhl could learn to be better at scoring for the sake of a balanced offense, but this leads me to a comparison with Collier. She played an undersized center for us. For the most part she did a terrific job, an immense talent that deserved the AA awards she got playing center. But her worst games came against the best teams with big, elite centers. ONO in fact, though less of a talent, did better against big, elite centers than Collier. Once Collier got to the WNBA and had a teammate like Fowles to handle the big, elite centers she became even more of a superstar.

If we were to go all in on Fudd as a PG I do not doubt her ability to achieve AA status at that position, just like Collier did at center, but I do doubt her ability to make and execute decisions against elite teams with elite perimeter defenses challenging and rushing the PG decisions. If I had a choice of hopes for this team it would be for the person who has trained her whole career to make PG decisions to continue doing so while improving her scoring.

Last year I made a pizza bet with @oldude that technically I won, though did not follow up because of the injury plagued season. I am willing to bet the first taker that if we win a championship this year, Muhl will have averaged at least 25 mpg as our starting PG. PM me with the bet, as I may not post again.

 

[Bigboote]

Digger, please don’t go into exile. I find your contributions valuable.

 

[Bone Dog]

@diggerfoot I think you give me more credit for cogency or consistency than I deserve. I mainly like to think out loud, and often end up in roundabouts and contradictions.

One thing I'll say about Azzi's assist numbers is that I wouldn't expect her to get a lot of them stationed on the wing waiting to drop a dagger on opponents. Put her on the ball and I think those numbers will shift.

I like Nika... a lot. I think if she ends up playing 25+ mins/g this year it will be a very good sign for us. I suspect it will mean she's upgraded her offense and reduced her fouling. Though there may be a limit on how much she can reduce the fouling and still be a defensive terror. In my heart, though, where all the sad thoughts live, I suspect she'll probably average more like 20 mins.

One thing I learned from @CocoHusky is the value of looking at Nika's free throw numbers. These really tell the story -- not just that she doesn't make many of them (only 22% last season) but more importantly that she doesn't go to the free throw line much. This means defenders don't think she's enough of a scoring threat to bother risking fouling her when she slashes through the lane. That seems like a picture of futility.

 

[oldude]

I’ve been taking a self-imposed exile, as I have done in the past whenever I get a little snarky. I’m thinking of making this one permanent due to other factors, but not before settling some unfinished business.

First I apologize to @CocoHusky , for being a little snarky, though we have a rapport where I suspect he’s OK by it. I was a little less snarky with @Bone Dog and @BobbyJ, but I have less previous rapport so, no hard feelings?

And I must say I think it was unfair to call @CocoHusky’s use of Muhl’s scoring stats to refute @Bone Dog ’s optimism as specious. Those are precisely the type of stats he should have used in his argument. Admittedly, I criticized the math behind his data, but that was before I understood that @Bone Dog likely views a successful Muhl at PG as averaging far less minutes than I would.

For the record I view success for Muhl as a starting PG to involve at least 25 mpg and she would need to average 8-10 ppg, which I don’t know will happen. I have hope it will, but I don’t know. I understand why other people have doubts about Muhl as PG because of her scoring potential, but I do not understand the view that this and other factors means Fudd would be a superior one.

Let’s get to the heart of the PG role, which is to be able to make decisions and get the others to abide by those decisions with a minimum of mistakes. That quality takes precedence overall others. An indicator of such is not so much who brings the ball up or shoots, but more like the hand signals we witnessed Bueckers giving. If a team is sparse on talent, and the PG is a good scorer, then a lot of those decisions that the team has to abide by is the PG shooting. If the team has the potential for balanced scoring, then you want the PG decisions to respect that.

Fudd had a A/T ratio last year under 1.0 and her apm was very small. Even the scorer Ducharme was better at assists per minute, though worse at A/T. Regardless of Fudd’s immense talent, that does not reflect the type of decision making or execution you want from your PG heading up a balanced offense. I doubt any UConn FF team had a person directing the offense with a A/T ratio less than 1.0, and I wonder if any championship by any team was won with the director of the offense having anA/T ratio under 1.0. Maybe one of the Tennessee teams that focused on defense and rebounding? I don’t know. That’s a serious inquiry, if any enterprising BYer wants to provide stats on that I’d be curious.

Now I have hope that Fudd could learn to be better at directing an offense with balanced scoring, just as I have hope that Muhl could learn to be better at scoring for the sake of a balanced offense, but this leads me to a comparison with Collier. She played an undersized center for us. For the most part she did a terrific job, an immense talent that deserved the AA awards she got playing center. But her worst games came against the best teams with big, elite centers. ONO in fact, though less of a talent, did better against big, elite centers than Collier. Once Collier got to the WNBA and had a teammate like Fowles to handle the big, elite centers she became even more of a superstar.

If we were to go all in on Fudd as a PG I do not doubt her ability to achieve AA status at that position, just like Collier did at center, but I do doubt her ability to make and execute decisions against elite teams with elite perimeter defenses challenging and rushing the PG decisions. If I had a choice of hopes for this team it would be for the person who has trained her whole career to make PG decisions to continue doing so while improving her scoring.

Last year I made a pizza bet with @oldude that technically I won, though did not follow up because of the injury plagued season. I am willing to bet the first taker that if we win a championship this year, Muhl will have averaged at least 25 mpg as our starting PG. PM me with the bet, as I may not post again.

Injuries or not, I’m happy to make good on our bet.

 

[sun]

Geno has planted a seed in Azzi's head that she needs to become an attacker of the basket.
She makes her foul shots and has a lot of earlier experience as a PG.
Nika has not learned to effectively attack the basket in 2 years except when feeding Paige with assists as a freshman, even though Nika had a history of attacking in Croatia.
I don't care if Nika is the PG for 40 mpg if that basically requires that she dribbles the ball upcourt on offense.& play PG defense.
However once she gets upcourt, it's most likely that the ball will end up in Azzi's hands because she will indeed become the quarterback whether Azzi's the PG or not.
There are vocal leaders and then there's Azzi who will lead with a consistent attack on the basket utilizing all of the team's moving parts.
That doesn't mean that Nika won't play a role. it's just that Azzi will probably be the primary director of UConn's 1/2 court attack.
That's not coming from me, that's coming from Geno & Azzi during multiple articles & interviews.
UConn is not "who's your PG?" because Azzi will most likely be playing the quarterback position instead.
One way or another she's been asked to be the one to help UConn manufacture points by directing the attack.
She'll need the ball in her hands one way or another whether it's to shoot, pass it off, draw a foul or whatever's needed.
That's the only way that she can be more like Paige as Geno has directed.
Maybe Azzi will get some tips from Stephen Curry & Paige if she needs some.
It's not Azzi's fault or a reason to discriminate against her just b/c she's the best overall player on the team this year.

 

[TCC Kid]

Geno has planted a seed in Azzi's head that she needs to become an attacker of the basket.
She makes her foul shots and has a lot of earlier experience as a PG.
Nika has not learned to effectively attack the basket in 2 years except when feeding Paige with assists as a freshman, even though Nika had a history of attacking in Croatia.
I don't care if Nika is the PG for 40 mpg if that basically requires that she dribbles the ball upcourt on offense.& play PG defense.
However once she gets upcourt, it's most likely that the ball will end up in Azzi's hands because she will indeed become the quarterback whether Azzi's the PG or not.
There are vocal leaders and then there's Azzi who will lead with a consistent attack on the basket utilizing all of the team's moving parts.
That doesn't mean that Nika won't play a role. it's just that Azzi will probably be the primary director of UConn's 1/2 court attack.
That's not coming from me, that's coming from Geno & Azzi during multiple articles & interviews.
UConn is not "who's your PG?" because Azzi will most likely be playing the quarterback position instead.
One way or another she's been asked to be the one to help UConn manufacture points by directing the attack.
She'll need the ball in her hands one way or another whether it's to shoot, pass it off, draw a foul or whatever's needed.
That's the only way that she can be more like Paige as Geno has directed.
Maybe Azzi will get some tips from Stephen Curry & Paige if she needs some.
It's not Azzi's fault or a reason to discriminate against her just b/c she's the best overall player on the team this year.

Nika with her home team she more than normal attacked the basket and regularly(in video's) made layups. If that wasn't excessively selective, then she can actually attack and score. We can speak about differences in there and Div One, but I'm a believer a very good BB player can contribute at levels up to, but not including, Wnba. I like Nikas chances at Point. If she can take over at times and score a bit (everyone can't be the 24 point/game guard) she'll do her job.

 

[CocoHusky]

@diggerfoot your apology is unnecessary and your exile is hopefully a very short one. You and I have had dialogues and divergent POVs and agreements about far more important things than our last exchange. I clearly recall that one of our very first exchanges was regarding whether an athlete had an obligation to use their platform beyond their sport. At its best BY is occasionally a place of enjoyable basketball rhetoric. Divergent POVs are an essential ingredient in this. Your POVs will be deeply missed for as long as you choose to stay away.

 

[BRS24]

This is a perfect example of what happens when folks disagree, debate, and discuss, with an honest eye for when they think or may have gone out of bounds on topics. Respect to all y'all as we need more of this in everyday life. I love the three Ds on this board and it's always interesting to see how topics pan out.