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Originally Posted by skyblade
It's true that Nolley 5.3 fta per 40 minutes and Ezikpe 6.1 fta per 40 minutes got fouled quite a bit more than anyone on our team (DDJ led us at 3.3 FTA per 40 minutes). So that's a positive.
I'd agree a large factor is going to be if Wes can get shot selection under control. I think Nolley can be really good (though lower volume) if he doesn't take bad shots and tries to get to the rim more.
Nolley is a good shooter, but we lost Mason and Saunders who shot better though on lower volume. I guess that could be a wash since Nolley will probably shoot a similar volume as the of them combined.
I'm not really convinced Phinisee can create his own shot. If he does he's probably going to miss it.
I'll wait to see what happens before getting too negative/positive. But if Phinisee/Ezikpe start I'll definitely be concerned. Hopefully my concerns are wrong if that does happen.
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We put a lot of emphasis on portal players but I do agree with you that it should be tempered. That being said last year we were one of 5 teams to get 3 top 100 portal guys (according to I can't remember which service or tweet). This year we did the same again (again according to which service you use to rank them).
Bottom line is unless we got 3 top 25 dudes we are going to question what the lower ranked guys can do. They just aren't great at #75 etc. And I think that is reasonable. But Nolley is a home run for what we needed with the last spot IMO. He may not shoot a great % from three but it's good enough on volume and he's a 3 level scorer which we lacked. His length also adds another dimension.
Nolley was mired in a talented lineup at Memphis that had multiple egos to feed whether they deserved it or not. His frosh year at VT was insane for a frosh. He will be inserted into a role MUCH different than at Memphis and likely much more like VT. He will put a large amount of pressure on opposing D's which is what we needed for DDJ and JD. Our bigs should help even things out even more as Ado and Koval were not post scorers at all. The two guys we have returning (along with Kalu) will add another dimension to help DDJ and JD.
We likely get better on D as well with the caveat of rim protection. But hopefully we need less of that with better perimeter D.