04-28-2022, 09:55 AM | #241 |
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I'm with whoever (sedzjobs maybe) said a while back that it's hard to really understand what Wes is trying to do.
We got worse at three point shooting, worse at penetrating, worse at shot selection and worse at playing above the rim. Ezikpe, Phinisee and Nolley combined last year for 9 dunks. It seems like Wes looked at the areas fans thought we had problems and said, those aren't issues I care about. All three are good at passing (which may have been Wes's focus), two are upgrades on defense, one (Phinisee) is an upgrade at rebounding, one (Nolley) adds length/athleticism. It may just be that it's hard to get transfers and you kind of have to take what you can get. Still there's quite a bit of reason for concern and if Phinisee/Ezikpe start I think we are in trouble. I'm sticking to hoping for the 5 relative unknowns (Vik, Ody, Hensley, Skillings and Reed) to be upgrades and Davenport to develop off the dribble. I imagine posting up is going to be hard this year given our lack of threats from 3 (unless one of the unknowns steps up). |
04-28-2022, 10:29 AM | #242 | |
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04-28-2022, 10:33 AM | #243 | |
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04-28-2022, 10:38 AM | #244 | |
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04-28-2022, 10:47 AM | #245 | |
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Overall I think we upgraded the roster after the portal movements. I disagree that we got worse at penetrating. Saunders could get to the rim in transition and Mason showed some flashes of creativity, but none of the 5 departing players were giving us much of anything penetrating in the half court. Phinisee and Nolley might not be great either, but I expect them to be better than what we lost. And who knows if Skilings or Reed can give us anything this year. Phinisee and Ezikpe can create their own shot. That's different than what Saunders and Ado/Koval gave us. I wouldn't jump straight to the negative side if they both start. It could mean that your mobility/pnr defense fears for Ezikpe are overblown, or that a healthy Phinisee is able to be a more efficient creator against lesser competition. We just need to wait and see. |
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04-28-2022, 11:15 AM | #246 | |
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Wes seems both a little stubborn but also a bit pliable. He's going to take advantage where he can when he can. He's not as stubborn as some coaches on their own philosophy. He's more of a work in progress IMO but he has to be stubborn on certain things I guess. |
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04-28-2022, 11:37 AM | #247 |
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And Ezikpe was a 74% FT shooter on 129 attempts last year - more than 3 ppg from the stripe. He made more free throws than Ody, Vik, Ado, and Koval combined. It's a big part of being a scorer, and I consider it a form of shot selection. That's why I prefer true shooting to effective field goal percentage because it includes free throws.
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04-28-2022, 12:47 PM | #248 |
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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. |
04-28-2022, 03:23 PM | #249 | |
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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. |
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04-28-2022, 04:17 PM | #250 |
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Yeah, I say pretty much every year that fans overestimate the impact transfers will have and how good they are or will be. As you say there just aren't that many good transfers.
My preferred site for transfer rankings (mostly because I can't find another free site that does it well) is EvanMiya.com, they have Nolley at #21, Phinisee #105 and Ezikpe #140. I said early on the for a guy to have a major impact they probably had to be top 60-80. Fans don't seem to care that much about stats or what a guy actually did, they look at a transfer, see a shiny new player and think that player will be a major upgrade. Even Nolley who I'd say is an A+ addition has a number of fans expecting him to be a point-forward, which I can't see him being good at. Phinisee has fans loving him (and expecting him to start) for his defense, despite the fact that MAW is arguably just as good if not better defensively. Fans think Ezikpe will be great at rebounding (despite putting up worse rebound percentage numbers than Ody/Lakhin in a worse conference) and defensively (which I doubt). That's not accounting for the fact that even good transfers can struggle because they are coming into a new environment and learning a new system. I feel like a pessimist, but on the other hand I'm an optimist on returning players (especially Lakhin, Ody and Hensley) so I guess it evens out. Player development in my opinion is quite a bit more reliable than transfers, but many fans seem to think it's the other way around. |
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