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While posting in an other thread about Drummond and Daniels, I began to think, how in the world can this team with so much talent not end up one of the top teams this coming season. Other than the questions surrounding how to replace what Kemba gave us, which was substantial, they seem poised to improve in just about every area. Where to start? How about the D...
Perimeter Defense - I'd say Kemba was solid defensively, but not great. He was rarely put on one of the top perimeter scorers, but he rarely made mistakes during the final stretch of his senior season. During that tough stretch leading into the BE, Napier and Lamb really struggled keeping quick physical guards out of the paint, which opened up some deep shots for the opposition. UL in particular shredded our perimeter D. Once the BET began, our guards and bigs played some of the best help D I've seen in years. A stronger Lamb and Napier, along with the speedy Boatright and long Daniels, has most of the parts to be just as effective, if not better.
I see two possible weaknesses, though like last season, I think they'll find ways to make up for both. The first is, they still don't have a big physical guard. Georgetown's Wright gave them a little trouble in the first meeting but he was not the same player coming back from injury when we faced them in the BET. Lamb & Deandre have the length to make up for the lack of bulk and Bazz and Boat have the quickness as well to pressure bigger guards as they cross half-court to prevent them from getting them into their offense right away.
The second possible back-court weakness is with depth. As long as the 3 guards stay healthy and collectively out of foul trouble they'll be fine. I do wonder, with Bazz needing to stay on the floor throughout the game, if he'll still be as aggressive defensively as he was last season. I would not be shocked if he plays a tad more conservatively in the first half but step it up in the second once he sees he's got plenty of fouls to play with. I really couldn't tell what type of defender Boatshow was in high school. I'm hoping he's cut from the same mode as Bazz, having good quick feet, hands and good instincts and toughness. As for Lamb, he and Roscoe were the most improved defensively during that 11 game stretch. Lamb went from a player who seemed to lack lateral movement to a pretty darn good defender who has surprising close out speed. He altered a lot of big shots during that NCAA run. Possibly one of the biggest impacts to plugging this possible weakness will be the ability of Daniels and/or Giffey to give them 5 to whatever minutes that are needed of 2G play. Both have skills that will help on the offensive end of the floor. The question is can they hold their own defensively or even come in and lock down a big guard that might be causing some match-up problems for us. All it takes is facing a team with a big guard who's on fire to knock you right out of BET or NCAAs. Hopefully by the time post season play begins, they have a line-up or two that can counter such.
Wing Defense - Yeah, not a common category. But since we have lots of wings that can play either inside or out, I thought I'd separate them. Not only do just about all our wings return (Jamal Coombs-McDaniel, who I often seem to forget has moved on), but we are adding another very good long one to the mix. Last season, Lamb, Roscoe and Giffey more than held their own. I don't recall many wings going off on us. I'm sure there were a few games, but during that 11 game run, those three closed out on opposing wings giving up very little ground. With Daniels in the mix, that position will be well manned at all times with a talented player who can both defend and rebound that position well.
Interior D - All but Chuck are back. Up until the post season they were an inconsistent unit. Alex would not always throw a body on his man when rebounding. Chuck seemed a step slow at times. Olander always played hard, but was sometimes out-muscled. But by the time the BET was over, the front-court which was boltered by the addition of Roscoe at the 4 at times, was among the best defensive front-courts in the nation. They struggled with the high screen during the BE season, but as if they flipped a switch, played textbook help D putting up some impressive stingy defensive numbers throughout the NCAA tournament. With a stronger Oriakhi, Olander and Roscoe, plus the addition of Drummond, Bradley and Wolf, our front-court D has the chance to be the best we've ever seen at UConn. I have a good idea of what we'll get out of the first 3. JC will have to light a fire under AD, who has the makings of being an absolute monster on both ends of the floor. He and the other two inexperienced bigs will need to learn how to hedge on screens, when to come over and help, when to stay home and when to re-engage back to their man when helping. I'm sure we're going to see some ugly mistakes early on with the newbies but I expect by the midpoint of the BE season, our front-court to be scary good! No depth weakness there.
Rebounding - UConn was a pretty good rebounding team last year, though they did have the tendencies to have some scary stretches on the boards. But as they were in other areas, they all but owned the boards during the post season. I'm guessing we could count the number of offensive rebounds the Zags had in that final game on just one hand. And consider how many rebounds there were to be had with all their missed shots. Maybe they had more than 5, but for the most part, our bigs and guards did a very good job on the glass. Kemba will be missed in this area. I can remember countless time Kemba coming out of the pack with the rebound and racing back down the other end of the court. He seemed to track down some key rebounds late in games. For a li'l guy he was a very good rebounder. As long as all the players commit to boxing out and getting after the ball, I see this as being a likely strength. We're plenty big up front now, and plenty quick on the perimeter where speed more than bulk gets you rebounds out there.
Now for the offense:
3 point shooting - Kemba was enough of an 3 point/drive by threat that it kept teams honest and even drew a ton of double and triple teams. That will be missed. But I think this team will have more deep threats than it did last season. Bazz was a mixed bag. Like Kemba early in his career, I think Bazz is a much better shooter than most think. He's going to get better in this area though with many deep threats likely on the floor with him, they won't need him to jack up many 3s. Lamb, Daniels, Boatright and Roscoe are all very good 3 point shooters. I expect Jeremy and Roscoe to improve this season and Daniels & Boatright both come in with a big time reps as good deep shooters and slashers. Last season, the team struggled at times to find a reliable scorer when Lamb and/or Kemba were on the bench. Albeit inexperienced, Daniels & Boatright should be able to give the team more perimeter scoring options. More importantly, Lamb seems poised to pick up much of Kemba's slack and Giffey apparently improved greatly over the summer in all aspects of his game playing for the German national team. Left open he can nail the 3 ball as well.
Scoring off the dribble - All three guards plus Daniels can all put the ball on the floor and create for themselves. It's rare when you have that many players on one team that have that skill set. I hope that over time Roscoe and Giffey improve their handles and ability to score off the bounce. Roscoe hit a real nice baseline stop-and-pop late in one of the F4 games. He has the length, but needs to add a better handle and more confidence in his shotmaking to be added to the mix in this area. Other than Lamb, I'm not sure how the others are with their midrange game. Lamb is so dangerous once he gets inside of 10 feet with his length and that killer floater. Having 4 players who can carve up defenses via dribble penetration makes this team extremely dangerous when you add the skilled bigs to the mix.
Interior Offense - This was by far the biggest weakness with last season's team. They were wildly inefficient in the post. FGs/Attempt and FGs inside the paint by our bigs in general was really bad. Although they're adding AD, Bradley & Wolf and losing only Chuck, I'm still a tad concerned about this. The combination of Alex and Drummond should be deadly when they get the ball within dunking distance. The two should be able to clean up on the offensive glass if they work hard at it. It's their back to the basket type offense that I'm most concerned about. With so many other ways to score, I'm not overly concerned though. I'd like to see Alex improve his balance and post moves. He'll need both if he wants to get some serious NBA first round consideration. AD is a man-child, but tends to chuck the ball up in the vicinity of the rim. I hope he's a quick study and can learn a couple simple moves where he's well balanced and square the basket to maximize his scoring chances. I hear that Tyler is a lot stronger. He's got good skill including a nice mid-range J. Hopefully he and Alex can take advantage when teams try to double down on AD by being reach to catch and shoot that elbow J. If AD attracts a lot of attention, the other big on the floor should find that shot available a great deal this up coming season.
Transition offense - The team seems stacked with athletic players at all positions and plenty of handlers on the floor to bring it up quickly. Rarely do you see a team that has the personnel to play all styles of play. I expect JC to give Bazz and Boatright the green light to run when they can. A lot will depend on how well our bigs rebound the execute the outlet pass, as well as their ability to finish in transition. If the get to the rim to only squander a lot of easy chances, JC will throttle this down some, especially if the opposing team gets easy baskets the other way. I see this team as a well balanced team that will score in may ways; transition, grinding it out in the half-court set, and taking early open shots when the right people have the ball in certain instances before the D is set.
Half-court Execution - The words that comes to mind is floor general. All good half-court executing teams usually have a very good PG or two. Bazz returns with a lot of experience running the team and he's only going to get better. He doesn't get rattled much, though he was prone to have some bad stretches occasionally, giving the ball up via the dribble or poor pass. For the most part he has the right mental and emotional make-up, good court vision and passing. Although Boatright was called upon to score for his HS team, some say he's a very good floor general as well. I think he's going to be very good in this area. We often fear that the next guard will be another Cup Cormier who plays too fast for their own good and can't handle the pressure and speed of the college game. Like Napier, Boat seems to have that same quality where he plays fast though effortlessly and under control...well except for dribbling the ball of a defender foot, but I digress. I think Ryan will be fine, though expect some shaky moments throughout the season. Hopefully he'll get it out of his system well before post season play. Lamb showed last season that the can fill in and run the offense. Like Bazz, he has the right mental make-up to handle the pressure and has a very good handle. I think we'll be fine once the new and inexperience players learn the half-court offense. Last year's team, for such a young one, picked up the offense so much quicker than any young UConn team I can ever remember. Hopefully the young guys will come along quickly as the returning ones did last season.
FT shooting - I think the team will be good to very good in this area. Alex was much improved at at the end of last season. I hear that AD struggles at the line, which could result with him on the bench late in games, which is something you would prefer not to do because of the other things he can do on the floor. I don't have a clue about Bradley or Wolf. Bradley seems to have a nice stroke, so I think he won't be a complete nail-biter for the fans and coaches. Although Bazz had a few scrary moments last post season, he came up huge at the line late in a few big games. Lamb is solid at the line as well. Since Boatright and Daniels will likely be on the floor late in games when they need ball handlers, hopefully they'll be steady at the line. I guess we'll find out soon.
Leadership - Bazz is a born leader. Boatright also seems cut from the same mold. Alex is beginning to be more vocal. There are a few quiet guys on the team, but all in all, there is plenty of bravado and leadership to keep this team on their toes throughout the season. Kemba will be missed in this area. Rarely do you have a player who's as fearless and shows so little fear-of-failure as we saw in Kemba. I think Bazz is that type of player...sometimes too much. Hum...thing reminds me of another category...
Shot Selection - Granted a strange category, but one that can make or break a team. The Dyson/Sticks team was an example of not only poor shooting, but poor shot selection. Napier seemed to throw up at least one WTF shots just about every game. He's got to learn to stay aggressive, but cut down on those this season since he's going to be on the floor with the ball a great deal more. With a lot of players on the team with new offensive roles due to the departure of Kemba, they will need to learn when to shoot, create or look for someone else who has a better opportunity. Kemba will no longer be there to bail them out. Bazz, Boat and Lamb will have a lot of say in how this area goes. I think they'll be fine, but we've seen some very poor decision making with our young guards over the years. I think both Napier and Boatright are mature for their age, but until we get to see how they play in their new roles under pressure, we won't know for sure.
I think that more than covers it. Until they begin to play we won't know for sure what they're good at and what they struggle with. Based on what we think the personnel is capable of, I'd say they have a lot of strengths, and few weaknesses. I hope that's the case.
Perimeter Defense - I'd say Kemba was solid defensively, but not great. He was rarely put on one of the top perimeter scorers, but he rarely made mistakes during the final stretch of his senior season. During that tough stretch leading into the BE, Napier and Lamb really struggled keeping quick physical guards out of the paint, which opened up some deep shots for the opposition. UL in particular shredded our perimeter D. Once the BET began, our guards and bigs played some of the best help D I've seen in years. A stronger Lamb and Napier, along with the speedy Boatright and long Daniels, has most of the parts to be just as effective, if not better.
I see two possible weaknesses, though like last season, I think they'll find ways to make up for both. The first is, they still don't have a big physical guard. Georgetown's Wright gave them a little trouble in the first meeting but he was not the same player coming back from injury when we faced them in the BET. Lamb & Deandre have the length to make up for the lack of bulk and Bazz and Boat have the quickness as well to pressure bigger guards as they cross half-court to prevent them from getting them into their offense right away.
The second possible back-court weakness is with depth. As long as the 3 guards stay healthy and collectively out of foul trouble they'll be fine. I do wonder, with Bazz needing to stay on the floor throughout the game, if he'll still be as aggressive defensively as he was last season. I would not be shocked if he plays a tad more conservatively in the first half but step it up in the second once he sees he's got plenty of fouls to play with. I really couldn't tell what type of defender Boatshow was in high school. I'm hoping he's cut from the same mode as Bazz, having good quick feet, hands and good instincts and toughness. As for Lamb, he and Roscoe were the most improved defensively during that 11 game stretch. Lamb went from a player who seemed to lack lateral movement to a pretty darn good defender who has surprising close out speed. He altered a lot of big shots during that NCAA run. Possibly one of the biggest impacts to plugging this possible weakness will be the ability of Daniels and/or Giffey to give them 5 to whatever minutes that are needed of 2G play. Both have skills that will help on the offensive end of the floor. The question is can they hold their own defensively or even come in and lock down a big guard that might be causing some match-up problems for us. All it takes is facing a team with a big guard who's on fire to knock you right out of BET or NCAAs. Hopefully by the time post season play begins, they have a line-up or two that can counter such.
Wing Defense - Yeah, not a common category. But since we have lots of wings that can play either inside or out, I thought I'd separate them. Not only do just about all our wings return (Jamal Coombs-McDaniel, who I often seem to forget has moved on), but we are adding another very good long one to the mix. Last season, Lamb, Roscoe and Giffey more than held their own. I don't recall many wings going off on us. I'm sure there were a few games, but during that 11 game run, those three closed out on opposing wings giving up very little ground. With Daniels in the mix, that position will be well manned at all times with a talented player who can both defend and rebound that position well.
Interior D - All but Chuck are back. Up until the post season they were an inconsistent unit. Alex would not always throw a body on his man when rebounding. Chuck seemed a step slow at times. Olander always played hard, but was sometimes out-muscled. But by the time the BET was over, the front-court which was boltered by the addition of Roscoe at the 4 at times, was among the best defensive front-courts in the nation. They struggled with the high screen during the BE season, but as if they flipped a switch, played textbook help D putting up some impressive stingy defensive numbers throughout the NCAA tournament. With a stronger Oriakhi, Olander and Roscoe, plus the addition of Drummond, Bradley and Wolf, our front-court D has the chance to be the best we've ever seen at UConn. I have a good idea of what we'll get out of the first 3. JC will have to light a fire under AD, who has the makings of being an absolute monster on both ends of the floor. He and the other two inexperienced bigs will need to learn how to hedge on screens, when to come over and help, when to stay home and when to re-engage back to their man when helping. I'm sure we're going to see some ugly mistakes early on with the newbies but I expect by the midpoint of the BE season, our front-court to be scary good! No depth weakness there.
Rebounding - UConn was a pretty good rebounding team last year, though they did have the tendencies to have some scary stretches on the boards. But as they were in other areas, they all but owned the boards during the post season. I'm guessing we could count the number of offensive rebounds the Zags had in that final game on just one hand. And consider how many rebounds there were to be had with all their missed shots. Maybe they had more than 5, but for the most part, our bigs and guards did a very good job on the glass. Kemba will be missed in this area. I can remember countless time Kemba coming out of the pack with the rebound and racing back down the other end of the court. He seemed to track down some key rebounds late in games. For a li'l guy he was a very good rebounder. As long as all the players commit to boxing out and getting after the ball, I see this as being a likely strength. We're plenty big up front now, and plenty quick on the perimeter where speed more than bulk gets you rebounds out there.
Now for the offense:
3 point shooting - Kemba was enough of an 3 point/drive by threat that it kept teams honest and even drew a ton of double and triple teams. That will be missed. But I think this team will have more deep threats than it did last season. Bazz was a mixed bag. Like Kemba early in his career, I think Bazz is a much better shooter than most think. He's going to get better in this area though with many deep threats likely on the floor with him, they won't need him to jack up many 3s. Lamb, Daniels, Boatright and Roscoe are all very good 3 point shooters. I expect Jeremy and Roscoe to improve this season and Daniels & Boatright both come in with a big time reps as good deep shooters and slashers. Last season, the team struggled at times to find a reliable scorer when Lamb and/or Kemba were on the bench. Albeit inexperienced, Daniels & Boatright should be able to give the team more perimeter scoring options. More importantly, Lamb seems poised to pick up much of Kemba's slack and Giffey apparently improved greatly over the summer in all aspects of his game playing for the German national team. Left open he can nail the 3 ball as well.
Scoring off the dribble - All three guards plus Daniels can all put the ball on the floor and create for themselves. It's rare when you have that many players on one team that have that skill set. I hope that over time Roscoe and Giffey improve their handles and ability to score off the bounce. Roscoe hit a real nice baseline stop-and-pop late in one of the F4 games. He has the length, but needs to add a better handle and more confidence in his shotmaking to be added to the mix in this area. Other than Lamb, I'm not sure how the others are with their midrange game. Lamb is so dangerous once he gets inside of 10 feet with his length and that killer floater. Having 4 players who can carve up defenses via dribble penetration makes this team extremely dangerous when you add the skilled bigs to the mix.
Interior Offense - This was by far the biggest weakness with last season's team. They were wildly inefficient in the post. FGs/Attempt and FGs inside the paint by our bigs in general was really bad. Although they're adding AD, Bradley & Wolf and losing only Chuck, I'm still a tad concerned about this. The combination of Alex and Drummond should be deadly when they get the ball within dunking distance. The two should be able to clean up on the offensive glass if they work hard at it. It's their back to the basket type offense that I'm most concerned about. With so many other ways to score, I'm not overly concerned though. I'd like to see Alex improve his balance and post moves. He'll need both if he wants to get some serious NBA first round consideration. AD is a man-child, but tends to chuck the ball up in the vicinity of the rim. I hope he's a quick study and can learn a couple simple moves where he's well balanced and square the basket to maximize his scoring chances. I hear that Tyler is a lot stronger. He's got good skill including a nice mid-range J. Hopefully he and Alex can take advantage when teams try to double down on AD by being reach to catch and shoot that elbow J. If AD attracts a lot of attention, the other big on the floor should find that shot available a great deal this up coming season.
Transition offense - The team seems stacked with athletic players at all positions and plenty of handlers on the floor to bring it up quickly. Rarely do you see a team that has the personnel to play all styles of play. I expect JC to give Bazz and Boatright the green light to run when they can. A lot will depend on how well our bigs rebound the execute the outlet pass, as well as their ability to finish in transition. If the get to the rim to only squander a lot of easy chances, JC will throttle this down some, especially if the opposing team gets easy baskets the other way. I see this team as a well balanced team that will score in may ways; transition, grinding it out in the half-court set, and taking early open shots when the right people have the ball in certain instances before the D is set.
Half-court Execution - The words that comes to mind is floor general. All good half-court executing teams usually have a very good PG or two. Bazz returns with a lot of experience running the team and he's only going to get better. He doesn't get rattled much, though he was prone to have some bad stretches occasionally, giving the ball up via the dribble or poor pass. For the most part he has the right mental and emotional make-up, good court vision and passing. Although Boatright was called upon to score for his HS team, some say he's a very good floor general as well. I think he's going to be very good in this area. We often fear that the next guard will be another Cup Cormier who plays too fast for their own good and can't handle the pressure and speed of the college game. Like Napier, Boat seems to have that same quality where he plays fast though effortlessly and under control...well except for dribbling the ball of a defender foot, but I digress. I think Ryan will be fine, though expect some shaky moments throughout the season. Hopefully he'll get it out of his system well before post season play. Lamb showed last season that the can fill in and run the offense. Like Bazz, he has the right mental make-up to handle the pressure and has a very good handle. I think we'll be fine once the new and inexperience players learn the half-court offense. Last year's team, for such a young one, picked up the offense so much quicker than any young UConn team I can ever remember. Hopefully the young guys will come along quickly as the returning ones did last season.
FT shooting - I think the team will be good to very good in this area. Alex was much improved at at the end of last season. I hear that AD struggles at the line, which could result with him on the bench late in games, which is something you would prefer not to do because of the other things he can do on the floor. I don't have a clue about Bradley or Wolf. Bradley seems to have a nice stroke, so I think he won't be a complete nail-biter for the fans and coaches. Although Bazz had a few scrary moments last post season, he came up huge at the line late in a few big games. Lamb is solid at the line as well. Since Boatright and Daniels will likely be on the floor late in games when they need ball handlers, hopefully they'll be steady at the line. I guess we'll find out soon.
Leadership - Bazz is a born leader. Boatright also seems cut from the same mold. Alex is beginning to be more vocal. There are a few quiet guys on the team, but all in all, there is plenty of bravado and leadership to keep this team on their toes throughout the season. Kemba will be missed in this area. Rarely do you have a player who's as fearless and shows so little fear-of-failure as we saw in Kemba. I think Bazz is that type of player...sometimes too much. Hum...thing reminds me of another category...
Shot Selection - Granted a strange category, but one that can make or break a team. The Dyson/Sticks team was an example of not only poor shooting, but poor shot selection. Napier seemed to throw up at least one WTF shots just about every game. He's got to learn to stay aggressive, but cut down on those this season since he's going to be on the floor with the ball a great deal more. With a lot of players on the team with new offensive roles due to the departure of Kemba, they will need to learn when to shoot, create or look for someone else who has a better opportunity. Kemba will no longer be there to bail them out. Bazz, Boat and Lamb will have a lot of say in how this area goes. I think they'll be fine, but we've seen some very poor decision making with our young guards over the years. I think both Napier and Boatright are mature for their age, but until we get to see how they play in their new roles under pressure, we won't know for sure.
I think that more than covers it. Until they begin to play we won't know for sure what they're good at and what they struggle with. Based on what we think the personnel is capable of, I'd say they have a lot of strengths, and few weaknesses. I hope that's the case.
