Shooters…very concerned.

[War to the Eagle 362]

I am so psyched about the talent we have coming in. Bruce has done an amazing job getting just about the best talent available in a short period of time. Man is he opportunistic.

My concern is still our shooting. I think it just is what it is right now. No one coming in seems to be an elite shooter. My read is we’re just going to have to get better with the guys we’ve got.

Give me a reason to be optimistic here. 

[Cardin Drake 1,825]

Everybody is still underestimating Chance Westry.  Potential 1 and done NBA guard.  Sure right now it's all potential, but he's mid-30's on 3's in high school with lots of room to get better.  Relax, Bruce has got this.  And If we land Phillips, I think we will actually be improved from this year.

 

 

[Rednilla 5,390]

Phillips looked to be pretty danged good from downtown in his highlight reel, but then it was just highlights. Of course, we don't have him in the bag yet, but...

[AUinMS9528 1,086]

Looks like we’ll get a lot of offense from the 3, 4, and 5 next year.   
KD and Wendell were too inconsistent last year.  I think with Wendell and Zep we can develop more consistency (shooting as well as other aspects of play).  Not sure how many minutes Tre will get next year.  
With KD, I think it’s a matter of you know what you’ve got and you live with the results.   He’s a high energy spark plug.   He’ll make some great plays and win you some games.   But he can also lose a couple of games for you.  I still have nightmares about his 0-17 game.  😱

[AUinMS9528 1,086]

Another fun scenario….

Suppose we get Phillips, and AF is fully healthy and back to his 2020-21 form.  
And let’s say Westry is as good as advertised, or even better.  
How do we get all 3 of them good minutes? Who starts at the 3?   One of them should become our starting 2, right?  In that scenario, who loses the most amount of minutes? Wendell or KD?  

My guess is Zep and Wendell split the PG minutes, and KD becomes backup 2.  

[ellitor 33,087]

10 hours ago, War to the Eagle said:

Give me a reason to be optimistic here. 

@War to the Eagle Broome is a high quality back to the basket guy on offense who is also a good passer. That should have the D funneling down to him and creating easier, less contested shots for our shooters.

[roe4christ 940]

Good problem to have.  A lot of talent at all five positions.  Also will be helpful should we have someone go down with an injury.  So many players that can play multiple positions if needed.

Zep & Wendell - Point Guard

Chance & KD - Shooting Guards

Flanigan & Phillips (if we can snag him) - Small Forward

Treore & Jaylin - Power Forward

Broome & Cardwell - Center

Don't know how much time Donalson, Moore, and Stretch will get.  Honestly, was hoping Stretch would have transferred and we could have filled that spot with another shooter but beggers can't be choosers.  I like this team, especially if we can get Phillips.

[ellitor 33,087]

8 hours ago, Cardin Drake said:

Potential 1 and done

Haven't seen this from anyone connected to that process or the team FWIW.

 

[Rednilla 5,390]

13 minutes ago, roe4christ said:

Good problem to have.  A lot of talent at all five positions.  Also will be helpful should we have someone go down with an injury.  So many players that can play multiple positions if needed.

Zep & Wendell - Point Guard

Chance & KD - Shooting Guards

Flanigan & Phillips (if we can snag him) - Small Forward

Treore & Jaylin - Power Forward

Broome & Cardwell - Center

Don't know how much time Donalson, Moore, and Stretch will get.  Honestly, was hoping Stretch would have transferred and we could have filled that spot with another shooter but beggers can't be choosers.  I like this team, especially if we can get Phillips.

I think a lot of people are undervaluing Stretch, whether he plays on game day or not.

[AUreo 753]

3 hours ago, roe4christ said:

Good problem to have.  A lot of talent at all five positions.  Also will be helpful should we have someone go down with an injury.  So many players that can play multiple positions if needed.

Zep & Wendell - Point Guard

Chance & KD - Shooting Guards

Flanigan & Phillips (if we can snag him) - Small Forward

Treore & Jaylin - Power Forward

Broome & Cardwell - Center

Don't know how much time Donalson, Moore, and Stretch will get.  Honestly, was hoping Stretch would have transferred and we could have filled that spot with another shooter but beggers can't be choosers.  I like this team, especially if we can get Phillips.

I like this team better than this year’s team. It seems like we won’t have to rely too much on two players (Jabari&Kessler) and occasionally KD or Wendell. Now, we have more weapons. Hopefully, both Chance and Phillips (fingers crossed) will develop into shooters.

However, we still don’t have elite guards even though our guards should be more experienced next season. This could be a Sweet16 team (maybe Elite8?) but I am not sure we have the guards to proceed further… we should be another SEC Championship contender with this team though.

2023 recruiting: I really hope we can land Isaiah Collier later this year. His recruiting is getting into the next phase now (USC, UCLA, Auburn, Alabama, Michigan, Cincinnati) and he is planning to commit sometime late summer/early fall.

 

Edited May 1, 2022 by AUreo

[steeleagle 2,945]

10 minutes ago, AUreo said:

I like this team better than this year’s team. It seems like we won’t have to rely on two players (Jabari&Kessler) and occasionally KD or Wendell. Now, we have more weapons. Hopefully, both Chance and Phillips (fingers crossed) will develop into shooters.

However, we still don’t have elite guards even though our guards should be more experienced next season. This could be a Sweet16 team (maybe Elite8?) but I am not sure we have the guards to proceed further… we should be another SEC Championship contender with this team.

2023 recruiting: I really hope we can land Isaiah Collier later this year. His recruiting is getting into the next phase now (USC, UCLA, Auburn, Alabama, Michigan, Cincinnati) and he is planning to commit sometime late summer/early fall.

 

Exactly. 
 

we keep noticing elite guard play gets you deep into the NCAAs. 
 

I don’t care how much zep, Wendell and Kd improve, they are not elite shooters. 
 

they all have flaws. Another year will ‘maybe’ help some but their height or lack of first step speed will tend to minimize their outside shooting. 
 

we need that elite guard and Westry is going to need t8me to develop.  He’s a freshman. 
 

but the roster is filling up so don’t know how they will get one. 

[Rednilla 5,390]

42 minutes ago, AUreo said:

I like this team better than this year’s team. It seems like we won’t have to rely on two players (Jabari&Kessler) and occasionally KD or Wendell. Now, we have more weapons. Hopefully, both Chance and Phillips (fingers crossed) will develop into shooters.

However, we still don’t have elite guards even though our guards should be more experienced next season. This could be a Sweet16 team (maybe Elite8?) but I am not sure we have the guards to proceed further… we should be another SEC Championship contender with this team.

2023 recruiting: I really hope we can land Isaiah Collier later this year. His recruiting is getting into the next phase now (USC, UCLA, Auburn, Alabama, Michigan, Cincinnati) and he is planning to commit sometime late summer/early fall.

 

I think Wendell is going to make a jump to a point at least close enough to elite not to matter too much. There's a reason why the analytics liked him so much last season.

[Rednilla 5,390]

31 minutes ago, steeleagle said:

I don’t care how much zep, Wendell and Kd improve, they are not elite shooters. 

You weren't watching the range from which Wendell Green was shooting 3s, were you? Little better shot selection skills and he's a 40% shooter. Zep will never be elite as a shooter, but he's solid at least, and he's elite defensively.
 

38 minutes ago, steeleagle said:

Westry is going to need t8me to develop.  He’s a freshman. 

So was Isaac Okoro, and he was ranked #36 in the country out of high school by 247. Westry is #33.

This is basketball, and it's not as difficult to change a team's dynamics even as a freshman.

[ellitor 33,087]

45 minutes ago, steeleagle said:

lack of first step speed will tend to minimize their outside shooting. 
 

That's where Broome's offense should come into play creating better & more open looks from outside for the shooters.

[AUreo 753]

Man, I am really excited about this team. Adding Broome, Yohan, Westry - that’s top level recruiting. However, we still need a “superstar” to attract media hype. This past season we had Jabari and this upcoming season JPhillips could be our “media darling”… the sports media loves to cover one-and-dones. Arkansas and Alabama added N.Smith/Black and Miller/Bradley, respectively. We need to counter with J.Phillips…

Edited May 1, 2022 by AUreo

[Rednilla 5,390]

5 minutes ago, AUreo said:

Man, I am really excited about this team. Adding Broome, Yohan, Westry - that’s top level recruiting. However, we still need a “superstar” to attract media hype. This past season season we had Jabari and this upcoming season JPhillips could be our “media darling”… the sports media loves to cover one-and-dones. Arkansas and Alabama added N.Smith/Black and Miller/Bradley, respectively. We need to counter with J.Phillips…

As much as I want Julian Phillips to come to Auburn, and as much as I think he is going to, I don't think it would be such a let down for Yohan Traore to be the "superstar" of the team. He currently stands as the second highest signee in Auburn basketball history, after all.

[Rednilla 5,390]

13 minutes ago, ellitor said:

That's where Broome's offense should come into play creating better & more open looks from outside for the shooters.

I do hope the guards will continue to improve as passers, though. I was disappointed that we didn't see as much ball movement as I'm sure Bruce wanted from the guards, so hopefully that will change.

[BigBlueWDE 1,136]

1 hour ago, Rednilla said:

You weren't watching the range from which Wendell Green was shooting 3s, were you? Little better shot selection skills and he's a 40% shooter.

Wendell has two big issues...lazy shot selection and insane lack of urgency in late clock situations. Both are mental. Don't know how to practice that.

[AUBwins 10,075]

4 hours ago, roe4christ said:

Don't know how much time Donalson, Moore, and Stretch will get.  Honestly, was hoping Stretch would have transferred and we could have filled that spot with another shooter but beggers can't be choosers.  I like this team, especially if we can get Phillips.

Donaldson will get play.  Having him allows us to run sets with 2 or even 3 of Zep, KD, and Wendell in a 3 guard lineup. We have quality depth at 1 and 2 now (actually all 5 positions)  where we could interchange depending on matchup or pace of play.  Options galore for Bruce to experiment with.  So is this a year we can take our boys abroad again? 

[BigBlueWDE 1,136]

1 minute ago, AUBwins said:

 So is this a year we can take our boys abroad again? 

Does Seattle count? :-)

[ellitor 33,087]

2 hours ago, AUreo said:

However, we still need a “superstar” to attract media hype.

Umm we always have said superstar for that until he retires...

[ellitor 33,087]

1 hour ago, BigBlueWDE said:

Wendell has two big issues...lazy shot selection and insane lack of urgency in late clock situations. Both are mental. Don't know how to practice that.

Whether it clicks or not is on Wendell but it very easily can be practiced on.

[ellitor 33,087]

1 hour ago, AUBwins said:

Donaldson will get play.

Sparing minutes year 1 is expected. Remember even Westry could get minutes over him at the point.

1 hour ago, AUBwins said:

Having him allows us to run sets with 2 or even 3 of Zep, KD, and Wendell in a 3 guard lineup.

So does Westry.

1 hour ago, AUBwins said:

So is this a year we can take our boys abroad again? 

Yes. Bruce announced a day or so ago they are going to Israel this Summer.

[ellitor 33,087]

1 hour ago, BigBlueWDE said:

Does Seattle count? 🙂

lol no.

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,662]

Offensive identity should play a huge part into it. Just gotta have a system and ideology in place to demand that we play inside outside more. I thought our guards were good open shooters. Flanigan wasn’t from what I remember, but he didn’t shoot too many 3s either way. The most open threes probably ended up coming from Cambridge…which is non-ideal obviously 

Wendell was a good open shooter in the few instances I remember that occurring. Zep got a few more looks towards the end of the season and he usually drilled them. KD was fine too. Pearl just needs to adjust the allocation of shots b/t the forwards and guards and type of shots he’s allowing.