2021 5* UNC Transfer C Walker Kessler (4/12/21: Commits To AU!)

[CameronCrazy 1,059]

1 hour ago, 1TexasTiger said:

Bryce Thompson Fr Guard from Kansas just entered the transfer portal and has a good relationship with our incoming freshman Trey Alexander

 

I think we need a Alpha shooting guard to complete this lineup and THIS is the guy that I would choose!

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,652]

4 hours ago, mcgufcm said:

Interesting note on Flanigan. Last year, he posted a higher true shooting percentage (which factors in shooting from FT, 2, and 3) than Cooper or Powell or Zep Jasper or Wendell Green. Even with playing out of position, he was really good.

on a college level, dude is a pretty great off the dribble shooter. huge boost at the FT stripe too

[cole256 17,042]

Flannigan can easily play the 2. Tried to explain this a long time ago.  It doesn't make any sense to believe Powell could be a great 2 but think Flannigan can't play it. No sense at all. 

The NBA isn't looking at him thinking he's a 3. He was the only guy that could score against a quality team most of the year. He went from hardly playing to being the guy that was targeted by every team. If Thor comes back watch what happens. 

I don't understand why our fan base can't seem to identify who our great players are. Every year we seem to down the guys who really put in work and hype a guy who is a marginal talent. Mind boggling to me

[cole256 17,042]

On 4/13/2021 at 4:47 AM, ellitor said:

@Rednilla Will be interesting to see how it works out now that we have so much talent on the roster but Pearl had been pretty adamant on not playing Flan at the two anymore.

Is there a link you can share with me to read this?

[toddc 13,194]

2 hours ago, cole256 said:

Is there a link you can share with me to read this?

I remember CBP wanted him more at the 3 but I don’t remember this specific thing not to play the 2 guard spot. I thought he might have said he didn’t want him at the 1. 

[cole256 17,042]

4 minutes ago, toddc said:

I remember CBP wanted him more at the 3 but I don’t remember this specific thing not to play the 2 guard spot. I thought he might have said he didn’t want him at the 1. 

I can see him saying about the 1 but the 2?? I'd like to see the entire quote and what he is talking about because it doesn't really make sense basketball wise. 2 and 3 is basically the same position. If you can't play one then you probably can't play the other. 

[ellitor 33,080]

19 hours ago, chizhead said:

Hooks has insinuated that Thor is not coming back, so that is a bit of a downer there.

@chizhead The one I saw from Hooks was over a week old. There’s newer info from insiders on the bunker that expect him to come back. The post from Hooks you’re talking about was made in the last day or two or is it the one I saw from a week or so ago?

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,652]

5 hours ago, cole256 said:

I don't understand why our fan base can't seem to identify who our great players are. Every year we seem to down the guys who really put in work and hype a guy who is a marginal talent. Mind boggling to me

I suppose in the past you're referencing Wiley, I think the dislike for him almost entirely stems around his hands. I know you have 100 posts around that topic, so I won't beat the drum again, but he's definitely overhated 

I think how you value Flanagan (as an Auburn fan) goes in how much you understand about the difficulty of being a lead guard. I can't put a new spin onto that subject, but I challenge people to think about how few wing options they've seen (anywhere) on this level that lead the charge in scoring AND are responsible for setting up the table for others. 

Outside of Samir, who was decisively worse in the same role, Pearl hasn't even asked a pure 2 guard to handle that role here. You can count Tyrell if you'd like, but that'd just make it worse

[cole256 17,042]

13 minutes ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

I suppose in the past you're referencing Wiley, I think the dislike for him almost entirely stems around his hands. I know you have 100 posts around that topic, so I won't beat the drum again, but he's definitely overhated 

I think how you value Flanagan (as an Auburn fan) goes in how much you understand about the difficulty of being a lead guard. I can't put a new spin onto that subject, but I challenge people to think about how few wing options they've seen (anywhere) on this level that lead the charge in scoring AND are responsible for setting up the table for others. 

Outside of Samir, who was decisively worse in the same role, Pearl hasn't even asked a pure 2 guard to handle that role here. You can count Tyrell if you'd like, but that'd just make it worse

It goes as far back as C Bowers, T harris, T dunnans, Purifoy, Heron, Dunbar, okeke, like you said Wiley. 

But yeah I guess it's what you said. If you don't know how difficult it is being the guy I guess it would be hard to see it. But damn, I don't know if I've seen a lead guy be more underappreciated than this dude here. I mean no respect 

 

Have you seen Pearl talk about not wanting him to play at the 2?

Edited April 14, 2021 by cole256

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,652]

29 minutes ago, cole256 said:

It goes as far back as C Bowers, T harris, T dunnans, Purifoy, Heron, Dunbar, okeke, like you said Wiley. 

But yeah I guess it's what you said. If you don't know how difficult it is being the guy I guess it would be hard to see it. But damn, I don't know if I've seen a lead guy be more underappreciated than this dude here. I mean no respect 

 

Have you seen Pearl talk about not wanting him to play at the 2?

I wish I read this section back during those mid 2010s, it’d be interesting to see how many folks were disappointed in those high 4 star and 5 star guys their first year! 
I personally believe Flan will be a top ~14 guy if his trajectory continues, and at that moment, you’ll see that same level of emotion, just in the form of love. Some people enjoy being late to the party 

And no, I don’t know of that quote. I’ve seen him say multiple times that he wants him “off the ball” but as far as a positional restriction, I can’t find it on Twitter or Google rn. In a world where Thor returns, it would only make sense to me to go BPA with your line up and have him at the 2 so Jabari and Thor can be ur two forwards

[AuburnNTexas 7,134]

There is no doubt that Flanagan was the most complete player we had last year. He was our best on ball defender a solid rebounder could score around the basket drive to the hoop and shoot the outside shot. Why were people down on him one he like Powell were out of position when playing the 1 but when Powell played the 1 he had Flanagan as the wing that he could rely on. Flanagan didn't have another Flanagan on the wing when he was the 1. That put Flanagan is a bad position. When Cooper first joined the team he opened the lane and Flanagan was deadly driving. Once teams realized how inconsistent Cooper's outside shot was they clogged the lane which led to some charges and other turnovers by Flanagan as the year went on Flanagan adjusted and that issue went away bit most didn't notice it.

Those charges and turnovers hurt people's perception of Flanagan. The knowledgeable fan knew the reason for those charges and turnovers.    Bowers also got a bad rap more because of what he was having to do then because of how good he was.  Wiley I also agree with you most fans didn't understand how much he did and only looked at the dropped passes. He set a mean pick. he manhandled people down low both when on O and on D. He protected the rim, he was strong on the boards he had a down low game that kept teams honest and opened up other players for open three's. Cole I don't disagree with you on a lot but I think some of your other examples are wrong. Dunbar was a crowd favorite from the second he made one of his end to end jams. Dunbar was instant energy sometimes good sometimes he was to hyped but we all loved him. Herron was another fan favorite. Purifoy was an enigma at times he shined and at others it was like he was lost. Some of that was because Pearl asked him to do things that didn't fit his game some was the layoff because of the scandal but some was just Purifoy.  I loved the guy and really respected how he stuck with Auburn but I never knew from game to game which Purifoy we were going to get. I know you always thought the fans thought to highly of Brown but to me he was a shining example of a solid but not elite player who worked his backend off and got better every year. he was an example of what can be accomplished with hard work and a great coach. Your analyses of Brown was spot on but I don't think you gave him enough credit for the intangibles he brought to the team and his mentality to be willing to take and make the big shot despite his limitations. He started out as a shooter weak ball skills, didn't drive not tall enough to be a true 2 not slow but by no imagination could you say he had elite quickness. His dribble improved year to year, he added a pull up jumper and he added going to the basket. His man on man defense was good but not great but his team defense was better he had the ability to cheat off his man at the right time and get a hand on a ball to cause a turnover that Harper, Dunbar, Herron etc, would take advantage of. Brown found a way to impact the game.

Edited April 15, 2021 by AuburnNTexas

[mcgufcm 4,096]

I could see Pearl wanting Thor off the bench as a front court Swiss Army knife, but that depends on the Guard options. If Scoota reclassifies and signs, I could see playing him with Jasper or Green to lighten the load on the freshman. Then Flanigan at 3 with Jabari and Kessler (assuming he starts over Jaylin). Thor and Jaylin could essentially sub in for either/both front court spots. Then, you’d have the nonstarter among Jasper/Green, Alexander, and Cambridge as Guard/Wing subs. 

If we add a guy like Sills or McClung (haven’t heard anything of the sort), that guy likely slots in as an off ball Guard. 

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,652]

20 minutes ago, mcgufcm said:

I could see Pearl wanting Thor off the bench as a front court Swiss Army knife, but that depends on the Guard options. If Scoota reclassifies and signs, I could see playing him with Jasper or Green to lighten the load on the freshman. Then Flanigan at 3 with Jabari and Kessler (assuming he starts over Jaylin). Thor and Jaylin could essentially sub in for either/both front court spots. Then, you’d have the nonstarter among Jasper/Green, Alexander, and Cambridge as Guard/Wing subs. 

If we add a guy like Sills or McClung (haven’t heard anything of the sort), that guy likely slots in as an off ball Guard. 

supposedly Pearl promised Kessler the starting job

[gravejd 3,270]

54 minutes ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

supposedly Pearl promised Kessler the starting job

Ha yeah i bet that was not a hard promise to make. I think we could have been successful without Kessler in the fold and going with our current big men but there is just no one that brings to the table everything that Kessler does right now. Hell he will be the best scoring option at the 5 that we've ever had under Pearl. It'll be interesting to see how the roster shapes up over the next few months. I think we now have more clearly defined roles that can be filled with the current group of guys. 

At the 5 spot you have Kessler, Cardwell, and Stretch. 

At the 4 you have Williams, Jabari, and Thor if he returns. 

Even if Thor does not return that is a really good depth chart. There is the ability to play good offense and defense for the first time in a while in our front court. We need Cardwell and Stretch to keep developing their games on the offensive side. I have higher hope for Cardwell then Stretch in that department but all Stretch needs to do is get the easy ones and anything else is gravy. And Cardwell gets another year of developing before he has to worry about playing starter minutes. He can continue to be an energy plug off the bench and bang down low with the larger SEC bodies. 

[AuburnArch13 185]

11 hours ago, cole256 said:

Flannigan can easily play the 2. Tried to explain this a long time ago.  It doesn't make any sense to believe Powell could be a great 2 but think Flannigan can't play it. No sense at all. 

The NBA isn't looking at him thinking he's a 3. He was the only guy that could score against a quality team most of the year. He went from hardly playing to being the guy that was targeted by every team. If Thor comes back watch what happens. 

I don't understand why our fan base can't seem to identify who our great players are. Every year we seem to down the guys who really put in work and hype a guy who is a marginal talent. Mind boggling to me

Like you, I haven’t seen a Bruce quote stating that he’d want Flannigan at the 3 rather than the 2 that I can recall. But when I’ve seen the claim that he has on this board, I’ve always taken it to be more of a reflection of the lineup that Bruce wants around Flannigan at any given time than a reflection of Flannigan’s individual skill set. I.e. Bruce would ideally rather have two guards and two bigs on the court at the same time as Flannigan rather than have 1 guard and three bigs. But I have to imagine that regardless of that possible preference,  Bruce is gonna start the most talented folks we’ve got on the roster, which if Thor returns would almost certainly be Kessler, Thor, Smith, Flannigan, and TBD point guard.

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,652]

30 minutes ago, gravejd said:

Ha yeah i bet that was not a hard promise to make. I think we could have been successful without Kessler in the fold and going with our current big men but there is just no one that brings to the table everything that Kessler does right now. Hell he will be the best scoring option at the 5 that we've ever had under Pearl. It'll be interesting to see how the roster shapes up over the next few months. I think we now have more clearly defined roles that can be filled with the current group of guys. 

At the 5 spot you have Kessler, Cardwell, and Stretch. 

At the 4 you have Williams, Jabari, and Thor if he returns. 

Even if Thor does not return that is a really good depth chart. There is the ability to play good offense and defense for the first time in a while in our front court. We need Cardwell and Stretch to keep developing their games on the offensive side. I have higher hope for Cardwell then Stretch in that department but all Stretch needs to do is get the easy ones and anything else is gravy. And Cardwell gets another year of developing before he has to worry about playing starter minutes. He can continue to be an energy plug off the bench and bang down low with the larger SEC bodies. 

should be a dominant front court certainly. I was just saying the earlier quote to say that the starting 4 and 5 are pretty much locked down. I just hope that doesn't go to anyone's head, both in an egotistical or depressing way.

[cole256 17,042]

The strongest line up would be scoot, Flannigan, Thor, jabari, Kessler.

We're switching everything on defense and we are going to out athletic you in all phases of the game

[AUBwins 10,074]

6 minutes ago, cole256 said:

The strongest line up would be scoot, Flannigan, Thor, jabari, Kessler.

We're switching everything on defense and we are going to out athletic you in all phases of the game

Have you seen enough of Trey Alexander to see him as the off the bench guard like we wanted Bryce to be?  Focusing on later in season after he gets acclimated to the college speed. 

[chizhead 618]

9 hours ago, ellitor said:

a week or so ago?

 

[mustache eagle 2,397]

10 hours ago, cole256 said:

It goes as far back as C Bowers, T harris, T dunnans, Purifoy, Heron, Dunbar, okeke, like you said Wiley. 

But yeah I guess it's what you said. If you don't know how difficult it is being the guy I guess it would be hard to see it. But damn, I don't know if I've seen a lead guy be more underappreciated than this dude here. I mean no respect 

 

Have you seen Pearl talk about not wanting him to play at the 2?

Add a pg to that list and I’ll take that group of players any day.  Bowers may be my favorite cbp era player.  He was a double double machine on very average at best teams.  Heron was an automatic 15-6 guy every night.

[AURex 1,992]

Okay, all the way back to the OP, the guy has a hundred options for top teams. I WANT to believe he will actually come to AU.

BUT there's a long way to go and ya know, and as the old saying goes -- "If Candy & Nuts were and and & nuts ....

 

[cole256 17,042]

14 hours ago, AUBwins said:

Have you seen enough of Trey Alexander to see him as the off the bench guard like we wanted Bryce to be?  Focusing on later in season after he gets acclimated to the college speed. 

I could definitely see him being able to do that role but I'd be lying if I told you I know that's how he'll be used. As far as NBA players he reminds me of it's Jamaal Murray and Jordan Clarkson. He has all the tools needed to be an efficient scorer 

[Rednilla 5,383]

12 hours ago, AURex said:

Okay, all the way back to the OP, the guy has a hundred options for top teams. I WANT to believe he will actually come to AU.

BUT there's a long way to go and ya know, and as the old saying goes -- "If Candy & Nuts were and and & nuts ....

 

I haven't seen a whole lot of flips in basketball recruiting, much less in the transfer portal...don't be putting that negative energy out there, Rex.

[AuburnNTexas 7,134]

1 hour ago, cole256 said:

I could definitely see him being able to do that role but I'd be lying if I told you I know that's how he'll be used. As far as NBA players he reminds me of it's Jamaal Murray and Jordan Clarkson. He has all the tools needed to be an efficient scorer 

Just from watching Alexander's  highlight film which is always an incomplete picture . Alexander is the best Pure shooter coming out of HS I have scene at Auburn in recent years. His HS shooting is better than Brown's plus he has a lot of skills in HS that Brown didn't initially have. If he can carry that over to the College game he will be a scoring machine when he is on the floor.  Based on what appears to be the talent we will have on this team next years getting PT will be the hardest part for him.  Even though he is a 4* I think he is even better than his rating. I am hoping he gets enough PT next year to both show what he is capable of and also enough so he doesn't hit the transfer Portal because I believe next year will be Flanagan's last year as his draft stock will be as high as it will get and he will go NBA after next year.

I believe Flanagam will be gone after next year and that Alexander will be a star the following year,

[Rednilla 5,383]

1 minute ago, AuburnNTexas said:

Just from watching Alexander's  highlight film which is always an incomplete picture . Alexander is the best Pure shooter coming out of HS I have scene at Auburn in recent years. His HS shooting is better than Brown's plus he has a lot of skills in HS that Brown didn't initially have. If he can carry that over to the College game he will be a scoring machine when he is on the floor.  Based on what appears to be the talent we will have on this team next years getting PT will be the hardest part for him.  Even though he is a 4* I think he is even better than his rating. I am hoping he gets enough PT next year to both show what he is capable of and also enough so he doesn't hit the transfer Portal because I believe next year will be Flanagan's last year as his draft stock will be as high as it will get and he will go NBA after next year.

I believe Flanagam will be gone after next year and that Alexander will be a star the following year,

I could dig that.