In an alternate timeline we take Bonzie Colson & Bruce Brown's commits, land Bamba and keep MAL.
And guess what? We'd still underachieve.
The players aren't the problem.
I mean, maybe, but what would that underachievement look like? A top ten team? Because, as far as I can tell, for all of the weaknesses that Ollie has as a coach, our problem is still the fact that we don't land kids who can play right away. That doesn't mean they're superstars day one, but Colson at Notre Dame was good right away. Waters at LSU was good right away. The kid from Auburn was good right away. I don't think that's because of anything their respective coaches did, I think they just knew how to take coaching, knew how to play basketball, and were self-driven to do it. Boatright, Shabazz, Giffey, etc. were all that way. Most of the guys that play in the NBA are that way. At a certain point, the players are the problem because they're the ones playing. Granted that ultimately falls on the coach, but I don't get the sense from watching us that KO couldn't take over a team like, say, Arizona and figure out how to win a lot of games. Maybe he isn't great at spotting them or developing them, but once he has them he seems to know what to do.
The roster right now, without Gilbert, is really thin. I'm not breaking news there and they should still be a lot better than they are, but right now we have about three or four guys on the roster who look like they can contribute at this level. Polley, Whaley, Carlton, and Diarra are just so raw. Jalen should be better, sure, but it isn't like we'd be in bad shape if he were our third best player. Larrier is about where I thought he'd be at this point given the injury.
If I were the coach of this team, I don't know what I'd run on offense to get baskets. We're hard capped. I actually think going under .500 last season was far more egregious and indicative of some of his real flaws as an x's and o's guy. Put Purvis, D-Ham, Facey, and Brimah back on this team and I think you'd see his flaws much more so than you are now. The '16 team could have done some real damage and did not, last years team even with the injuries could have been good, and this years team if all the seniors had returned with Gilbert + Jalen + Larrier would have been a terror under the right coach. Not sure he's that guy.