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Brown or Purifoy at the 3


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16 hours ago, WarEagle1983 said:

I just wish they'd hurry up and settle the issue whatever the decision will be and we're not going into camp and the season continuing to ask if Purifoy will be an option. Stop hold these players and teams hostage. 

This should have been decided on a long time ago, what is the hold up? I have followed it off and on since the issue came to be. I believe that all is well with Coach Pearl being the man long term and love his coaching ability and prowess.  We have the chance to be really good in 2018-19. We have the makings of a fine team no doubt.

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If I remember correctly there was a lot of preseason talk last year about moving Purifoy back to his natural position at the 3 and how much more effective he would be there.  In that scenario, I'm thinking Heron would have been the 2 and Brown would be coming off the bench.  What about this lineup?  Granted, I'm not sure you can put a second team All-SEC guard on the bench, but think about the energy Brown could bring as the 6th man.  This lineup would give us some real size as well.

1 - Harper/Mitchell/Doughty

2 - Heron/Brown/Murray/Doughty

3 - Purifoy/Heron/Murray

4 - Mac/Okeke/Purifoy

5 - Wiley/Spencer

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I think if we’ve got to 13 to work with, it becomes a puzzle of minutes, not necessarily who starts. You want 5 guys who will give you and good, solid start to a game, which means you want experience and you want shot making ability. I don’t think it’s going to matter who starts next year with the exception of Austin Wiley at 5, and Harper at 1. You’ve got guy in there who can play 2 of the 3 remaining positions and even have some who can rotate out with Harper and Wiley for breathers. I think Bruce has something cooking for next season if we can just get through this dern off-season! 

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I think Mitchell provided more energy to the line up late in the season as opposed to Harper.   As good as Harper was early really struggled late in the season and did not QB the offense like we needed him too. 

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I think people are severely overlooking Doughty. From all accounts, even within the team, we was the best guard on the floor in practice, including Staph. He’s a versatile 2/3, so if he doesn’t find a starting job, I suspect he comes in at both positions to spell Brown/Heron.

Unlike Brice, Doughty is a slasher with a good outside shot. He’s also from Philly like Horace, so he brings some swag and toughness.

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3 minutes ago, au_bsci_04 said:

I think people are severely overlooking Doughty. From all accounts, even within the team, we was the best guard on the floor in practice, including Staph. He’s a versatile 2/3, so if he doesn’t find a starting job, I suspect he comes in at both positions to spell Brown/Heron.

Unlike Brice, Doughty is a slasher with a good outside shot. He’s also from Philly like Horace, so he brings some swag and toughness.

Thanks.....have seen the name but know nothing about him.   

 

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1 hour ago, au_bsci_04 said:

I think people are severely overlooking Doughty. From all accounts, even within the team, we was the best guard on the floor in practice, including Staph. He’s a versatile 2/3, so if he doesn’t find a starting job, I suspect he comes in at both positions to spell Brown/Heron.

Unlike Brice, Doughty is a slasher with a good outside shot. He’s also from Philly like Horace, so he brings some swag and toughness.

I'm very excited about adding somebody with his apparent skillset into our O. Any insight on his ability as a defender?

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I don't see Bryce playing the 3, but I could see Purifoy playing some SG to spell Bryce since Purifoy was a pretty good spot-up shooter.

 

I have no idea how Bruce will balance out this team if Purifoy, Wiley, and Heron all return. A bunch of players will lose minutes. But the likelihood of this entire roster returning plus Wiley and Purifoy is probably really small. If both Wiley and Purifoy return, it's likely we will see a transfer or two. If they can all somehow come together and understand that group is capable of some amazingly big things, then it might work. But I see too many guys who will want their time and their shots. I don't think we really have any super selfish guys, but I do think we have a lot of guys who have been relied upon to be the guy at some point in their collegiate basketball careers. Having 6-8 guys all take a step back and accept a lesser role seems like an impossibility. IMO that would be a greater challenge to Bruce than just about anything we would encounter on the court. One luxury Bruce would have this year with the competition is use that depth to force the best out of everyone or take away their minutes. He's never really been able to do that, but he'd have the depth next year to sit guys who didn't give max effort defensively. That would be the biggest benefit to that amount of depth.

My rotation if we return everyone and sign Akingbola:

PG: Harper/Mitchell

SG: Brown/Doughty

SF: Heron/Purifoy/Dunbar

PF: Okeke/Murray

C: Wiley/Mac/Spencer/Akingbola (I'd consider RSing him or maybe bringing him in around December if we have everyone else on the roster)

 

So much hangs on the decisions of Heron and Wiley and the clearance and eligibility of Purifoy (which I feel decently confident he will get back). It has impacts on the roster for next year, recruiting for the next 2-3 years, and how we operate in the transfer market. 

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I'll take this situation over us having to figure out how we're going to run a full scrimmage because we don't have enough bodies. Chemistry may take a little longer to develop but if we are going 10-11 deep people may have a harder time finding an offensive rhythm. I think it's damn near impossible to maximize your ability if you're running 12 deep. Guys will have a hard time finding their grooves and whatnot, but it's a massive luxury if injury hits.

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31 minutes ago, Tiger said:

I'll take this situation over us having to figure out how we're going to run a full scrimmage because we don't have enough bodies. Chemistry may take a little longer to develop but if we are going 10-11 deep people may have a harder time finding an offensive rhythm. I think it's damn near impossible to maximize your ability if you're running 12 deep. Guys will have a hard time finding their grooves and whatnot, but it's a massive luxury if injury hits.

I don't know how schools like Duke and UK do it....they have a small cadre of guys who are the stars and get the serious playing time...often 7 or so...but a bench full of walk-ons who were probably second team all state somewhere and provide pretty good opposition for practice.  I read that Syracuse basically played 6 guys this season so it can be done if you have the right six. 

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34 minutes ago, Tiger said:

I'll take this situation over us having to figure out how we're going to run a full scrimmage because we don't have enough bodies. Chemistry may take a little longer to develop but if we are going 10-11 deep people may have a harder time finding an offensive rhythm. I think it's damn near impossible to maximize your ability if you're running 12 deep. Guys will have a hard time finding their grooves and whatnot, but it's a massive luxury if injury hits.

Agreed. Generally, when you’re 11-12 deep, those last 2 guys off the bench are freshmen who probably need a year to develop. In our case, we’d be 12 deep with upperclassmen and 2 sophomores who played a ton of minutes this year. That’s probably a blessing and a curse. I’d love to see it though. I think every guy we’re talking about can bring value and production to this team. It would have to take an incredible amount of trust and commitment from all 12 to pull it off. 

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23 hours ago, aujeff11 said:

What are the sources saying as far as Pearl and Wiley/Purifoy. Amazing how there are so many recruiting sources within the paranoid football coach’s program.

Things are very quiet, new regime has taken control.  JJ was the source or reason much was leaked out.

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1 minute ago, boomstick said:

Agreed. Generally, when you’re 11-12 deep, those last 2 guys off the bench are freshmen who probably need a year to develop. In our case, we’d be 12 deep with upperclassmen and 2 sophomores who played a ton of minutes this year. That’s probably a blessing and a curse. I’d love to see it though. I think every guy we’re talking about can bring value and production to this team. It would have to take an incredible amount of trust and commitment from all 12 to pull it off. 

Exactly, with ultra deep teams those last few know they're get the smaller number of minutes whereas we would have to ask our guys to take a "playing time cut". For it to work everybody has to be on the same page and compared to this year everyone would have to accept some type of lesser-role. We cannot have any TJ Dunans bad apple-type of attitude breakdowns - smh he was still getting major and critical minutes just wasn't starting and he allowed that to ruin chemistry.

One good thing about this potential issue is that we are only bringing 1 new player into the program. Everyone else went on the Italy trip (minus Doughty who has been with the team all season) so just 1 new guy being injected into the program and unless Babatunde thinks too highly of himself, there is probably enough good energy between all of our players to help combat any type of playing time related discord. Of course I'm being optimistic here.

 

Also I had read on another board that Heron was considering transferring after last season because he didn't agree with how Bruce was holding players accountable for actions on and off the court and player discipline was concerning for Mustapha. Bruce apparently heard him out and vowed to change that, and I think this also was big in our team's turnaround, and I hope Bruce continues to implement proper accountability and discipline. Maybe him not quite having enough bodies in the past made him have to let certain things slide, but now we have enough talent that he hopefully feels like he can afford to do this more.

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5 hours ago, boomstick said:

I don't see Bryce playing the 3, but I could see Purifoy playing some SG to spell Bryce since Purifoy was a pretty good spot-up shooter.

 

I have no idea how Bruce will balance out this team if Purifoy, Wiley, and Heron all return. A bunch of players will lose minutes. But the likelihood of this entire roster returning plus Wiley and Purifoy is probably really small. If both Wiley and Purifoy return, it's likely we will see a transfer or two. If they can all somehow come together and understand that group is capable of some amazingly big things, then it might work. But I see too many guys who will want their time and their shots. I don't think we really have any super selfish guys, but I do think we have a lot of guys who have been relied upon to be the guy at some point in their collegiate basketball careers. Having 6-8 guys all take a step back and accept a lesser role seems like an impossibility. IMO that would be a greater challenge to Bruce than just about anything we would encounter on the court. One luxury Bruce would have this year with the competition is use that depth to force the best out of everyone or take away their minutes. He's never really been able to do that, but he'd have the depth next year to sit guys who didn't give max effort defensively. That would be the biggest benefit to that amount of depth.

My rotation if we return everyone and sign Akingbola:

PG: Harper/Mitchell

SG: Brown/Doughty

SF: Heron/Purifoy/Dunbar

PF: Okeke/Murray

C: Wiley/Mac/Spencer/Akingbola (I'd consider RSing him or maybe bringing him in around December if we have everyone else on the roster)

 

So much hangs on the decisions of Heron and Wiley and the clearance and eligibility of Purifoy (which I feel decently confident he will get back). It has impacts on the roster for next year, recruiting for the next 2-3 years, and how we operate in the transfer market. 

I just dont see any hype behind Heron being a real draft pick, much less an early second low first type of guy. Hes like right outside of draft worthy, which isnt worth leaving IMO. Wiley is a completely diff situation, but, and I hate using this trope, he seems like AN AUBURN GUY. He seems like even tho he couldve sat out freshman year and been set, he just wants to play for Auburn, and the way we went and got curb stomped without a big man, I feel thats somewhat on his conscious. 

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3 hours ago, boomstick said:

Changing my confidence level of Purifoy being cleared to very confident.

Did you get a sneak preview of Leath's note today?    If not, this is a well timed post. 

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2 hours ago, AU64 said:

Did you get a sneak preview of Leath's note today?    If not, this is a well timed post. 

I didn’t know that was going to get released today. I have a couple of friends that have no connection to each other but have connections to people in the basketball program and boosters. Both told me this afternoon after my first post ITT that he was coming back. That’s when I posted what you quoted. 

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2 hours ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

I just dont see any hype behind Heron being a real draft pick, much less an early second low first type of guy. Hes like right outside of draft worthy, which isnt worth leaving IMO. Wiley is a completely diff situation, but, and I hate using this trope, he seems like AN AUBURN GUY. He seems like even tho he couldve sat out freshman year and been set, he just wants to play for Auburn, and the way we went and got curb stomped without a big man, I feel thats somewhat on his conscious. 

Yeah, I don’t personally see Heron as an NBA guy right now, although I think he has some skills to get to that level. I think he’s an intelligent guy and will make the best decision for himself. With Purifoy returning and Samir coming into the fold, he may see the G-League as his next step rather than another year at Auburn. Just not sure where he is mentally and how he sees his development continuing here. 

With Wiley, I’m more concerned with the pressures and forces around him. I think, if it were totally his decision, he’d play here at least next year because, like you said, he’s an Auburn guy and loves his teammates and coaches. Don’t know if that wins out over making money playing basketball though. 

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1 minute ago, alexava said:

Ok. It’s settled. We have too many talented players. We are going to suck. 

It is always too few....except when there are too many....:)

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