What to make of Gaffney? | Page 2 | The Boneyard

What to make of Gaffney?

August_West said:
Thats's OK.

I have to ask though. Who would be better than Alterique? Cole or Gaffney?
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Think all three of them are about the same. All bad once they get in the lane. Gilbert and Cole play faster than Gaffney so a little more turnover prone. All streaky from deep with bad percentages, I think Cole is probably the best shooter.
 
At the moment, I'd describe Gaff as a KO guy. Someone who doesn't improve or put in the work in the offseason. He earned a starting job last year. Looked like someone who would help anchor the team with Bouk. Then we recruit a pretty average PG in Cole and Gaff is sitting. Justifiably so.

My assumption is he didn't put in proper summer work.
 
LIuconn said:
Look at his body last year compared to this season. He 100% put work in. His ceiling looks lower than what we were hoping for
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I guess.... His shot is obviously off. To me that looks like rust. A sign that someone hasn't been playing a ton. I'd also add he lost his starting job to a pretty average player. Another sign he didn't put in the work. But I guess he's bigger. That's cool
 
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In hindsight, Gilbert would have been the best PG now. Hurley wanted to develop Gaffney and Cole and thought they would fill the bill.

With the current roster construction, their best chance is to play ugly and if they can keep the game in the 60-70 range, and Polley can shoot around 40% off the bench, and Gaffney can make an incremental increase in his 3 point shooting (even to 25 to 30%), they can win some games.

However, with Bouk scoring at a normal clip in the 20's, only if they play like they played against USC, can they be successful.

Creighton was a better team than most. But, most of the other teams in the BE are on par with USC, so there is not much of a margin of error.

When will Akok be back? His shotblocking and shot altering, even without a lot of scoring should help.
 
I think people are overthinking things. It is early season and the team hasn't really played with each other much this year. Give it time for the PG play to jell.

As for 3 point shooting, many young players take time to develop their shot in high level college basketball. Here are some UConn players first year in college 3 point shooting:

Marcus Williams 0.176
Brendan Adams 0.235
Donyell Marshall 0.242
Taliek Brown 0.250
Akok Akok 0.261
Jalen Gaffney 0.264
Kemba Walker 0.271
Jalen Adams 0.273
AJ Price 0.273
Craig Austrie 0.303
Tyrese Martin 0.311
Jerome Dyson 0.326
Shabazz Napier 0.326
John Gwynn 0.333
James Bouknight 0.347
RJ Cole 0.359
Christian Vital 0.366
Richard Hamilton 0.376
Ryan Boatright 0.377
Chris Smith 0.385
Ray Allen 0.402
Tyler Polley 0.417

The list tells me that players will improve their 3 point shooting over time and that the current roster has 3 or 4 potential shooters: Polley, Cole, Bouknight, and maybe Martin.
 
He's good.

Alterique Gilbert was awful - he's still awful.

Nice kid, blah, blah, but he can't throw the ball in the ocean and he's the only person who doesn't realize that.

There's a reason he left and that reason was that he's not as good as Gaffney.
 
Fishy said:
He's good.

Alterique Gilbert was awful - he's still awful.

Nice kid, blah, blah, but he can't throw the ball in the ocean and he's the only person who doesn't realize that.

There's a reason he left and that reason was that he's not as good as Gaffney.
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Gilbert could take over games. Gaffney has shown nothing close to that.
 
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Fishy said:
He's good.

Alterique Gilbert was awful - he's still awful.

Nice kid, blah, blah, but he can't throw the ball in the ocean and he's the only person who doesn't realize that.

There's a reason he left and that reason was that he's not as good as Gaffney.
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This take is what’s awful. Literally every word of it is inaccurate except for when you typed “Nice kid”
 
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MuchoDogYears said:
It’s odd to say, but RJ being brought into the program carrying the stamp of “grestness” from senior Hurley has disrupted rather than improved the team. At leader for the beginning of the season while he’s finding his way.

ifRJ hadn’t been signed, thus team would’ve had a carryover of Gaffney running the point from last year. The starting five, and sub rotation, would’ve been cemented and the play of everyone improved.

Now they’re a team with a scoring guard playing PG, and shooting like a scorer , but not putting the ball in the basket like a scorer.

If RJ ever plays like advertised then the plan will work. But right now, his taking a starting position has been disruptive to what should’ve been great chemistry on the floor.
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This is completely wrong. Stop posting.
 
NDakotaHusky said:
At the moment, I'd describe Gaff as a KO guy. Someone who doesn't improve or put in the work in the offseason. He earned a starting job last year. Looked like someone who would help anchor the team with Bouk. Then we recruit a pretty average PG in Cole and Gaff is sitting. Justifiably so.

My assumption is he didn't put in proper summer work.
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Wow! Quite an assumption. You know what they say about assuming. LOL
 
Isn’t it ironic that everyone thought AG wud of been our third best point guard this year if he stayed but the way things are starting , Ag is averaging 15 a game /Gaffney’s remained the same (actually regressed) and the jury is still out on Cole -wouldnt we love to have this years AG? Especially his defense and break down ability. Little bit of a hot take because it’s so early in the season but always loved AG
 
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Imo what to make of any of these players outside of Bouknight is that it’s been 4 games in a season with 2, 14 days pauses. The fan base has been a little unreasonable. UConn needs to get into a groove. Need to play like 5 uninterrupted games to make even a remote judgment call on progress.
 
NDakotaHusky said:
No... what do they say?

You and the other guy with the same sweet joke should hang out.
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at least we wont be hanging out in north dakota. and re my second post, can you seriously not think of a reason why gaff looks like he hasn't been able to play "A TON" in the past 10 months?
 
bendm said:
at least we wont be hanging out in north dakota. and re my second post, can you seriously not think of a reason why gaff looks like he hasn't been able to play "A TON" in the past 10 months?
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Yes. I understood. I suppose you have a point.
 
bendm said:
at least we wont be hanging out in north dakota. and re my second post, can you seriously not think of a reason why gaff looks like he hasn't been able to play "A TON" in the past 10 months?
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It also doesn't mean I'm wrong. It just means I'm insensitive for not recognizing extenuating circumstances. It may mean I'm more right.

In fact, I think you've helped me recognize one of my biggest questions about the season thus far. What's up with Gaff. I expected more growth. Maybe it's all due to Covid. Seems possible. Cancelled camps, summer leagues, etc.. What's left? Lifting weights i suppose.

I'm not sure this has been discussed. Covid's impact on player growth. Everyone is very aware of its impact on schedule. Recent practice time. What about the sophomore bump?
 
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If the defender crowds Gaffney he's toast right now. It's why when he's facing pressure, he often turns his back to his defender. He struggles to get past quick defenders off the bounce and can't get his shot off unless he has a lot of space which he has trouble creating. His athleticism seems to be very good in a straight line and when he has space in the open floor and he can leap. He would do much better if we were more of a running fastbreak team. Quickness side to side and quick twitch first step explosion is not his forte and it's preventing him from being able to create offense for himself and others in the halfcourt. He's a combo guard in my mind. I would love it if his jumper became more consistent. It looks nice and soft enough. Just needs to see it go in a few more times.
 
Huskyforlife said:
I think we should wait more than 4 games before deciding who sucks. Pretty sure Whaley wasn't even in the rotation 4 games into last year.

But Gaffney is obviously better than Gilbert, and Cole probably is too.
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Through 4 games last year Carlton was averaging 15 and 9 in 22 minutes and Whaley was averaging 4 and 3 in 11 minutes. Way too early to draw conclusions about players or rotations but it's what the BY does best
 
superjohn said:
It's still early in his career but it doesn't look like he's made the jump many of us expected. I watched several of his games in high school and thought we were getting a different player. This is a kid who would take his man off the dribble and make acrobatic finishes at the rim, a guy who was in national dunk contests and would put it through his legs...

Last year I understood it because of the ankle injury and easing into his role as a freshman but we are still seeing a player who plays slowly/tentatively and looks like he's in a shell. He deferred earlier in high school when he played with higher ranked kids but in his senior year he didn't. I still think there is so much more in there but he seems like he's holding himself back. Hurley talked him up a bunch in the preseason about his explosiveness and above the rim athleticism but when the lights come on it just isn't happening.
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What is the rush as far as coming to conclusions with these players- it’s been 4 games & the team has been going through COVID-19 practices & play this year. Can we at least give the kid a dozen games before we say he’s not what we expected, lol. You usually are pretty practical when it comes to this stuff- surprised by this thread.
 
Chin Diesel said:
What to make? He came off the bench as the back up PG and had 4 points, 3 assists, 7 rebounds and 2 steals.

He also shot terribly. He also hit his two FT's at the end of regulation.

View attachment 62732

This board is going to go insane this year picking apart who needs to be the starting PG.

Gaff and Cole are different players but both have the same weaknesses. Not good shooters and aren't high level athletes. They'll both struggle to defend and neither one can shoot.

Cole is 13-41 on FG's for the season. He is at least shooting .360 from deep. Gaff is even worse. 8-26 from the floor and 3-12 from 3. At least they are both really good FT shooters.
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Except for RJ last 2 pressure is something else so I think that’s what’s going on with Gaffney. He’s playing like he did the beginning of last season but it’s only 4 games in with no preseason and a off and on season. I think he’ll be fine once we realize we do t need Bouknight to hold us down every game
 
I’m not sold on this kid just yet. Last year we contributed his play to being a freshman and minor injuries. This year he’s playing about the same. He’s playing timid and with no confidence. Until he proves himself to be a solid contributor, he’s definitely not the guy. I know I know decent D but we need some type of offense from him as well. 28 mins,4 pts, 1/8fg, while posting a minus 11. Wth
 
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