22-23 Team Discussion

[waterhead]

Originally Posted by sedziobs

There's been a lot of debate about Davenport's role and the more I think about it the more I prefer him at the 3. He's supposed to be a "matchup problem" at the 4 but I don't think that's true. He doesn't have a good enough handle to get by most PFs when driving. And he doesn't finish very well either. So really he's just a shooter, which would create a matchup problem at the 5 but not so much the 4. Most PFs in the modern game can follow a guy who isn't that quick around the perimeter, especially if they don't need to be too worried about the drive.

We want three point shooting from Davenport. He can give us that just as well from the 3 spot. Defense I think is a wash. He's going to have issues whether he's guarding a bigger guy or a quicker guy. The benefit in moving him to the 3 is rebounding. It lets us play two bigs who can rebound and potentially score inside, and I think Davenport would be a good rebounder for a 3.

Although the positions are nominally switched, Skyblade's rotation actually hints at that. He has Hensley playing 20 minutes at the 3 and Davenport 25 minutes at the 4. Playing those two together gives us more size and rebounding. It doesn't really matter which positions they are assigned. That will be something to consider if we don't bring in a wing.

I agree. You are hiding JD on the easiest guy to defend no matter where he plays on offense. I like him at the 3 as well. We will be hedging towards JD on help defense whether he guards a 3 or 4. Can we do that with Ody or Kalu at the 4 or Hensley? I would hope so. It would be nice if one of those bigs could develop a 3 point shot. Vik, Ody, Kalu, Hensley etc or maybe even Reed? So we can keep one in the paint and one on the perimeter.

[waterhead]

Originally Posted by skyblade

Rob could be a good addition on the right sort of team, a team with a lot of scorers that he can distribute to. The big problem with our team is the lack of well rounded players who are good on offense, defense and at rebounding.

We have one guy who is good on both sides of the ball in DDJ and there's some reason to debate that claim (he's undersized defensively and not a good three point shooter).

We've got two guys who are scorers, but poor at defense and/or rebounding: Davenport and Ezikpe.

We've have three guys who are excellent at defense, but bad shooters: MAW, Phinisee and Newman (though Newman has some offensive potential).

Then we've got 5 guys who have the potential to be effective on both sides of the ball, but thus far haven't proven it on either side of the ball for long stretches: Ody, Hensley, Vik, Skillings and Reed.

A team can manage with a couple of one skill guys on the court at the same time, but usually no more than 2. We need at least 3/4 guys who are effective on both ends of the court.

I think we have to file this under "it is what it is" right now. I mean it's not going to change because we want it to. Sure we have one more portal to add and hopefully that is a shooter/scorer who can also defend but what are the odds of getting both right now? Let's get a scorer IMO. Slasher/shooter I don't care. Then let the chips fall where they may.

[skyblade]

Originally Posted by sedziobs

There's been a lot of debate about Davenport's role and the more I think about it the more I prefer him at the 3. He's supposed to be a "matchup problem" at the 4 but I don't think that's true. He doesn't have a good enough handle to get by most PFs when driving. And he doesn't finish very well either. So really he's just a shooter, which would create a matchup problem at the 5 but not so much the 4. Most PFs in the modern game can follow a guy who isn't that quick around the perimeter, especially if they don't need to be too worried about the drive.

We want three point shooting from Davenport. He can give us that just as well from the 3 spot. Defense I think is a wash. He's going to have issues whether he's guarding a bigger guy or a quicker guy. The benefit in moving him to the 3 is rebounding. It lets us play two bigs who can rebound and potentially score inside, and I think Davenport would be a good rebounder for a 3.

Although the positions are nominally switched, Skyblade's rotation actually hints at that. He has Hensley playing 20 minutes at the 3 and Davenport 25 minutes at the 4. Playing those two together gives us more size and rebounding. It doesn't really matter which positions they are assigned. That will be something to consider if we don't bring in a wing.

On the offensive end the "matchup problem" doesn't really exist either. Miller said as much at some point near the end of last season, teams put their better defenders on Davenport and DDJ and the worse defenders on Newman, MAW and Ado. It doesn't matter if it's a smaller defender, because Davenport doesn't have much of a post-up game (hopefully that will change next year).

For mismatches to matter we need enough skilled offensive players that teams can't pretty much ignore certain guys. As I've already said, it all comes down to having guys who are good on both ends of the court.

I had the same nominally switched concept with Newman at SG and Skillings at SF (hopefully Skillings will bring offense off the bench). I think they will play together a fair amount, but Newman will always take the tougher defensive assignment.

The big questions will be is DDJ willing to play PG at times and does a two bigs lineup make us better than a line-up with a true PG and DDJ at SG. The answer is unclear and is really going to depend on how well Ody/Lakhin/Hensley develop.

[waterhead]

Originally Posted by skyblade

On the offensive end the "matchup problem" doesn't really exist either. Miller said as much at some point near the end of last season, teams put their better defenders on Davenport and DDJ and the worse defenders on Newman, MAW and Ado. It doesn't matter if it's a smaller defender, because Davenport doesn't have much of a post-up game (hopefully that will change next year).

For mismatches to matter we need enough skilled offensive players that teams can't pretty much ignore certain guys. As I've already said, it all comes down to having guys who are good on both ends of the court.

I had the same nominally switched concept with Newman at SG and Skillings at SF (hopefully Skillings will bring offense off the bench). I think they will play together a fair amount, but Newman will always take the tougher defensive assignment.

The big questions will be is DDJ willing to play PG at times and does a two bigs lineup make us better than a line-up with a true PG and DDJ at SG. The answer is unclear and is really going to depend on how well Ody/Lakhin/Hensley develop.

I agree with your point about JD posting up more on smaller guards. I actually think he is pretty decent at it. He has a decent short and mid range 2 game. His main threat is shooting 3's of course but if other teams are taking that away we need to change that up a bit.

If we had enough options on offense that would not be necessary. We shall see what happens with the last portal add. If we don't get McNeil it's hard to imagine getting enough fire power to address the issue.

[skyblade]

Cincy Slangin put out a podcast with a long time IU fan. The comparison they made for Phinisee is Justin Jenifer without the jumper. Did say that Archie Miller destroyed any confidence Rob may have had in his 3 and a new environment may help.

[sedziobs]

Originally Posted by skyblade

Cincy Slangin put out a podcast with a long time IU fan. The comparison they made for Phinisee is Justin Jenifer without the jumper. Did say that Archie Miller destroyed any confidence Rob may have had in his 3 and a new environment may help.

I was thinking Jamual Warren. He was a great on ball defender and decent distributor who couldn't shoot at all. And he played alongside a 6' scorer in Deonta Vaughn.

[waterhead]

Originally Posted by skyblade

Cincy Slangin put out a podcast with a long time IU fan. The comparison they made for Phinisee is Justin Jenifer without the jumper. Did say that Archie Miller destroyed any confidence Rob may have had in his 3 and a new environment may help.

I don’t recall JJ being elite on ball defender.

[cincrulz11]

I just don't see what the plan is. I have no idea what type of roster we're trying to build, outside of one without any scorers.


This was a worry I had about Wes. When looking at his coaching history, he didn't really have a pattern of what his teams did well (outside of not turning the ball over, and not getting to the FT line). EFGD was all over the place, EFGO was just bad, even tempo was all over the place.

There doesn't seem to be a system.

[skyblade]

Originally Posted by cincrulz11

I just don't see what the plan is. I have no idea what type of roster we're trying to build, outside of one without any scorers.


This was a worry I had about Wes. When looking at his coaching history, he didn't really have a pattern of what his teams did well (outside of not turning the ball over, and not getting to the FT line). EFGD was all over the place, EFGO was just bad, even tempo was all over the place.

There doesn't seem to be a system.

If you look at just the multi-year guys he has brought in there does seem to be a theme of size, length and athleticism, much like Cronin used to do. Skillings, Reed, Tolentino, Ody, Newman, Hensley and McGinnis (who is the one exception).

But it seems Wes is much more willing to compromise for short term guys or guys he inherited from the previous roster than Cronin probably would have been. I think the transfer portal simply did not provide that many options. Wes seems set on playing 10 deep and that means he had to add some guys who can play immediately, even if they aren't perfect fits. At least that's my guess.

I like Wes and hope he does well here, but I definitely find some of his personnel choices questionable as well. I would have preferred Saunders stayed (even if it meant DDJ leaving), I think we need some youth at guard to develop coming into 2023 and 2024.

[sirthought]

I cringed most of the Jennifer was on the floor, except for his senior year when he finally started to produce something/anything.



As far as the Davenport position. He's a 3. He's a 3. He's a 3. Speed be damned. Let's get the power forward-sized guys on the floor and teach them all to play defense TOGETHER, so any deficiencies can be made up for. The team's physical attributes are what they are.

I'd love to see more Syracuse style zone employed and let the guys exert energy, but also save more for offense.