Improves more in off-season, Clingan or Karaban?

[AZHuskiePop]

That’s an easy one
Future growth for Karaban will be nuance and difficult for the casual fan to ascertain. Plus he was a key starter on a NC team
that with departures will focus more on him as a higher perimeter option.
it might even appear at times to the unknowing like he regressed
Clingan simply has to improve stamina to go 25-26 minutes
and get stronger which usually accompanies maturity and he is a top 5 pick.

 

[JonnyRI]

Pssh, just half time buzzers.

Hard to hit game winners when you are up 15 at final buzzer.

 

[Palatine]

For our sake it better be DC. Sanogo left a lot of scoring that needs to be picked up.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Since the question is who will improve more, it's somewhere between possible and probable that Karaban has better overall numbers, especially scoring, than Clingan, but Clingan improved more. OP's question is really a question of rate of change of improvement.

 

[Stew Crew]

Karaban has the opportunity to bring the most value to this team with his leadership abilities, assuming Jackson stays in the draft. He seemed to have a connection with Jackson and always seemed to say the right thing at the right moment. With a presumably very young team next year, he can fill the leadership void that might be present if Jackson leaves.

 

[XLCenterFan]

Cling has more room to grow. Alex came early and advanced tremendously by working with the team prior to playing.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Our success next year it is much more dependent on Clingan, Samson , or even Diarra making a jump than Karaban.
Karaban’s gift is taking pressure off the post by his shooting and providing leadership.
We desperately need another shooter or two to compliment Karaban. To give Clingan the advantage Sanogo enjoyed this year . Even if Newton comes back I still want another shooter. We may not win a NC but will be in the discussion and just as importantly a fun team to watch.

 

[superjohn]

This answer should be easy. Clingan was a 6th man who averaged 13 minutes per game and Karaban was a starter who averaged 29 minutes per game and led the team in minutes played. Karaban has been with the program longer and is older than Clingan. They will both improve but Clingan will improve by leaps and bounds.

It's one thing when someone on a message board thinks Clingan will be a candidate for national player of the year next season, it's another thing entirely when the coach says he thinks Clingan has national player of the year potential next season.

It's no knock on Karaban, he's great and will obviously improve next season but the coach thinks the other guy has national player of the year potential next season.

 

[Rocktheworld]

Now this is a meaty off-season conversation.

I'll go with Clingan.

Karabab already has played 28 mpg. He will get a few more minutes and his numbers will improve. 15 ppg and 6.5 rebounds in 31 minutes is a reasonable stretch goal. I think he will be closer to 13-14 ppg but I won't push back on anyone saying he's going to get to 15 ppg.

Clingan is going to go from 10-15 mpg to 25mpg+. Expect his scoring and rebounding to double.

Bottom line is Karaban has higher baseline numbers going in to this season making it more likely Clingan has a higher rate of improvement.

Will be interesting to see how Karaban does when he’s not the 4th option on offense and nobody like Hawk flying around the court. We’ll see what Jackson and Newton do.

 

[HuskyHawk]

It's an easy call. Karaban doesn't need to do much but get stronger, maybe improve attacking the basket. He's a pretty complete player now. I'm not sure how much room he has to improve, in part because he improved a lot during the season, especially on defense, but also cutting and attacking the basket on close outs.

DC is loaded with potential, but has to improve conditioning, FT shooting, outside shooting, touch around the rim, avoiding fouls, defending people in space and some other things. He has a lot to work on. I'm sure he will work tirelessly on all of it. So the improvement should be significant. I don't get the NPOY projections, but if he's in that conversation (and we all hope he is) the improvement would probably be the most I can recall from any UConn player in one season.