Hypothetical- If you could add any one Former Uconn Player to this Teams Roster who would you Pick?

[RayRay19]

Jim Calhoun!


How about Charlie V?....help our rebounding/post/and 3 point shooting

 

[auror]

Jim Calhoun!


How about Charlie V?....help our rebounding/post/and 3 point shooting

Not bad, but if I'm picking between him and Donyell I go Donyell.

 

[Matt (Chicago)]

I'm torn between Caron and Rip. Could really use Rip's ability to score at will, especially in key situations as well as his ballhandling skills, but at the same time could use the guy who can bang bodies down low and also provide offense like Caron.

 

[WhereistheDove?]

Andre Drummond

If we could have current Andre Drummond..... good lord yes.

 

[CallMeBruce]

I'll throw out Donny Marshall into this debate. Plays the 3 and his ability to get out on the break and score easy buckets would also make our offense work better. I'm not sure he'd be my choice, but it's a good name for discussion. I think I'd need a few more games to decide. Maybe Calhoun can give us 3 point shooting and then I look at the 4 or 5 positions. Not sure yet.

Wouldn't adding one of the many players who are staggeringly better than Donny Marshall improve the offense more?

 

[Jluc]

Okafor or Adrien

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Scottie Haralson, that kid was lights out from three!

 

[Yankees32123]

Khalid El-Amin

 

[Dooley]

Emeka. Our defense would be impenetrable with the quickness of our guards and shot blocking ability of Brimah/Okafor. Maybe play Okafor at the 4, Brimah at 5, then you have a UCONN-customary 3 in D-Ham with solid guard play. Rebounding would be dominant. Facey is the 6th man and Calhoun is the first guard sub to give Boat and Purvis a blow.

Holy , this is a good question. I feel nauseous for not picking Ray, Kemba, Bazz, Donyell, Rip, Rashad (I agree that we need 3's), Rudy or Gordon. Would love any of those guys!

 

[James]

Mwill ( passing, we are currently a terrible passing team with no pure point guard...) or ADRIEN no doubt. i would most likely go with adrien though, he could add some next level toughness up front. and leadership

 

[Hoophound]

Taking Ray over Shabazz would be tough. Ray was good and he's a personal favorite but Shabazz has onions and a will to win stronger than any player we've ever had.

I loved Bazz, Kemba and Caron because they were warriors that could carry a team not just most of the game, but at the very end of the game as well. I think Boat can be like that but it will tougher for him because he isn't quite the long range shooter that Bazz was and he he isn't quite the player Kemba was. The nice thing is that I didn't think Kemba or Shabazz were so great at this point in their final seasons. Lots of games to play for Boat, he may surprise us like those guys did.

 

[amory]

Bazz

 

[TheRogers]

Okafor

 

[mauconnfan]

Diamond Stone

 

[TheChamps990411]

Donyell or Mek. Likely id go with `Yell

 

[UChusky916]

Ray or Bazz. Need another outside 3-pt threat and ball-handler.

 

[David 76]

I think if you add Shabazz (or Kemba) you minus something from Boat, so I'm improving our outside shooting with Ray,
But I'd love to see Nadav be the glue that pulls this team together. He would add range, passing and become that glue guy.

 

[Kitaman]

Come on guys, Ben Gordon should not be forgotten. Opens the floor for the team, hits the big shot, inside/outside game and can take any game over.

 

[8893]

Diamond Stone

Former UConn "player," not "playa."

 

[Yankees32123]

NIELS GIFFEY

 

[UconnOhNiner]

Ed Nelson

 

[champs99and04]

I don't get how anybody can watch these last two games and not conclude that three point shooting is this teams biggest weakness right now. With that in mind, I need to take somebody who can shoot the three at a 40%+ clip. I'd also like this player to be able to pass and defend at a high level. Adding another strong perimeter defender to the fold alongside Boatright would probably vault this defense from really good to incredible, and if we could supplement Boatright's quickness with an additional shooter and creator, it would obviously make us very difficult to guard.

To me, this narrows it down to four choices:

Caron Butler - 20 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 40% from three (but only on two attempts per game)

Ben Gordon - 19 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 43% from three

Ray Allen - 23 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 47% from three

Shabazz Napier - 18 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 41% from three

When you adjust for pace (last years UConn team played at a far slower tempo than the '96 team, for instance, leading to inflated statistics), the choice becomes obvious to me. Butler is a very appealing option due to his versatility and pure scoring ability, but perimeter shooting wasn't his forte, and we're still searching for somebody to fill the void left by Daniels and Giffey on the wing. Allen and Gordon are relatively obvious choices. Allen was superior in virtually every category aside from assists, which I value a lot on a team that struggles to pass the basketball. Neither of them were more than break-even defenders, though, and this program has always started and ended with defense.

Napier's 41% mark from three is probably slightly lower than it would have been on prior UConn teams. Last season he was obviously forced to chuck a lot of threes late in the shot cluck (which he converted in stunning efficiency), whereas Ray was predominantly a catch-and-shoot guy (though he could shoot off the dribble). Napier was a gifted floor general who rarely turned it over relative to his high usage rate.

But what makes the decision easy for me is what Napier could do defensively. Not only was he an occasionally dominant on-ball defender, he played help defense as well as I've ever seen from a UConn guard. Between him and Boatright, it was basically like playing 5 on 6 on offense for opposing teams. Go re-watch some of those games from March and tell me you don't want to see a Napier/Boatright reunion.

 

[pj]

I don't get how anybody can watch these last two games and not conclude that three point shooting is this teams biggest weakness right now. With that in mind, I need to take somebody who can shoot the three at a 40%+ clip. I'd also like this player to be able to pass and defend at a high level. Adding another strong perimeter defender to the fold alongside Boatright would probably vault this defense from really good to incredible, and if we could supplement Boatright's quickness with an additional shooter and creator, it would obviously make us very difficult to guard.

To me, this narrows it down to four choices:

Caron Butler - 20 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 40% from three (but only on two attempts per game)

Ben Gordon - 19 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 43% from three

Ray Allen - 23 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 47% from three

Shabazz Napier - 18 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 41% from three

When you adjust for pace (last years UConn team played at a far slower tempo than the '96 team, for instance, leading to inflated statistics), the choice becomes obvious to me. Butler is a very appealing option due to his versatility and pure scoring ability, but perimeter shooting wasn't his forte, and we're still searching for somebody to fill the void left by Daniels and Giffey on the wing. Allen and Gordon are relatively obvious choices. Allen was superior in virtually every category aside from assists, which I value a lot on a team that struggles to pass the basketball. Neither of them were more than break-even defenders, though, and this program has always started and ended with defense.

Napier's 41% mark from three is probably slightly lower than it would have been on prior UConn teams. Last season he was obviously forced to chuck a lot of threes late in the shot cluck (which he converted in stunning efficiency), whereas Ray was predominantly a catch-and-shoot guy (though he could shoot off the dribble). Napier was a gifted floor general who rarely turned it over relative to his high usage rate.

But what makes the decision easy for me is what Napier could do defensively. Not only was he an occasionally dominant on-ball defender, he played help defense as well as I've ever seen from a UConn guard. Between him and Boatright, it was basically like playing 5 on 6 on offense for opposing teams. Go re-watch some of those games from March and tell me you don't want to see a Napier/Boatright reunion.

1, you have to include kemba walker in this comparison. 2, we just had Napier and Boatright. I think Boat needs his chance to lead. You can't go home again and you can't repeat what they had in 2014. Have to mix up the players a bit. Kemba or Ray, unless you think Purvis becomes an elite scorer, in which case you can go for interior help with Donyell, Cliff Robinson, Okafor, or Andre Drummond.

 

[auror]

I don't get how anybody can watch these last two games and not conclude that three point shooting is this teams biggest weakness right now.

That's true. But we have much more talent on the perimeter than we do on the inside, and we have ball handlers/dominators. An ideal would be a stretch 4, which is why Daniels, Donyell, or Charvlie V are the only correct answers.

 

[Inyatkin]

Make it more interesting -- which non-all-American former player would you add. No Okafor, no Ray or Kemba.
Then you really might take a specialist, a Rashad or Giffey.