Shooters…very concerned.

[AUreo 753]

1 hour ago, ellitor said:

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

 

Lol... I mean the next one-and-done NBA prospect. This is important for landing the top 2023 kids. Cooper/Thor -> Jabari -> Phillips(?) -> ?

 

[ellitor 33,082]

2 minutes ago, AUreo said:

Lol... I mean the next one-and-done NBA prospect. This is important for landing the top 2023 kids. Cooper/Thor -> Jabari -> Phillips(?) -> ?

 

Have you looked at 2023 mock drafts? I've seen Traore mocked higher than Phillips & in the 1st round.

[steeleagle 2,945]

10 hours 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. Zep will never be elite as a shooter, but he's solid at least, and he's elite defensively.
 

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.

What I meant w Westry like Okoro is he struggled early in his freshmen year then as the season wore on got better and better. Okeke waited until his sophomore year to break out. 
 

I just see an adjustment for Westry and hopefully he will take off as the season rolls on. 

[steeleagle 2,945]

10 hours ago, Rednilla said:

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.

Wendell is much better at creating offense for his teammates w his dribbling ability. 
 

im not really impressed w Zeps pg ability other than he’s safe w the ball. But when he ran the point he simply seemed to dribble around the perimeter. He can dribble drive and he has nice midrange jump shot but he just didn’t seem to want to do that. 

[Rednilla 5,383]

27 minutes ago, steeleagle said:

Wendell is much better at creating offense for his teammates w his dribbling ability. 

Dribbling oneself into better passing position is part of being a better passer. He needs to become a better distributor to get himself more, and better, shots to take, whether that's drive and dish or what have you.

And it's not that he's bad at it, it's that he has to get better at it to be able to give elite guard play like we'll need.

[ellitor 33,082]

8 hours ago, steeleagle said:

im not really impressed w Zeps pg ability other than he’s safe w the ball. But when he ran the point he simply seemed to dribble around the perimeter. He can dribble drive and he has nice midrange jump shot but he just didn’t seem to want to do that. 

All that and his 37% 3 point percentage for the season & his college career is why he is expected to move to shooting guard this coming season.

[ellitor 33,082]

7 hours ago, Rednilla said:

Dribbling oneself into better passing position is part of being a better passer. He needs to become a better distributor to get himself more, and better, shots to take, whether that's drive and dish or what have you.

And sheer concentration & focus in a lot of cases for him.

[AUGoo 2,659]

On 5/1/2022 at 12:47 PM, ellitor said:

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

Do the incoming players get to go to that?

[steeleagle 2,945]

28 minutes ago, AUGoo said:

Do the incoming players get to go to that?

If they enrolled for summer then They would be able to go. 
 

I think they leave July 31st for Israel. 

[Rednilla 5,383]

On 5/3/2022 at 8:34 AM, steeleagle said:

If they enrolled for summer then They would be able to go. 
 

I think they leave July 31st for Israel. 

Which means they might even be able to get in for the second minimester (assuming Auburn still does Summer minimesters) and qualify for going to Israel.

[cole256 17,043]

The shooting will all depend on how well they move the ball. If they decide to make an extra pass or two we may be decent. We really need a complete PG

[Potatooooooes!! 1,375]

18 hours ago, cole256 said:

The shooting will all depend on how well they move the ball. If they decide to make an extra pass or two we may be decent. We really need a complete PG

I was wondering where you’ve been. Great to see you post!

[HAPvsOA 283]

On 5/1/2022 at 8:15 AM, 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. Zep will never be elite as a shooter, but he's solid at least, and he's elite defensively.
 

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.

Good points. I think both Wendell & Zep can be 35+% shooters and I'm hoping Chance is at that level. I get the impression that he is more of a distributor and shooter than Okoro was. 247 compares him to Rodney Hood which would be closer to a scoring point guard or shooting guard. https://247sports.com/player/chance-westry-46093860/. 

KD is always going to be streaky, but hopefully, he can be better than last year. As long as people have to guard him beyond the 3 pt line, he'll should continue to improve overall. His shooting dropped so significantly at one point last year that it makes me think it was partially due to injury. 

[ellitor 33,082]

2 minutes ago, HAPvsOA said:

Zep can be 35+% shooters

Zep already is. 37% for the season & his career.

3 minutes ago, HAPvsOA said:

His shooting dropped so significantly at one point last year that it makes me think it was partially due to injury.

Had a death in the family. Affected at least 1 game. The O fer game if memory serves me.

[Rednilla 5,383]

20 hours ago, HAPvsOA said:

Good points. I think both Wendell & Zep can be 35+% shooters and I'm hoping Chance is at that level. I get the impression that he is more of a distributor and shooter than Okoro was. 247 compares him to Rodney Hood which would be closer to a scoring point guard or shooting guard. https://247sports.com/player/chance-westry-46093860/. 

KD is always going to be streaky, but hopefully, he can be better than last year. As long as people have to guard him beyond the 3 pt line, he'll should continue to improve overall. His shooting dropped so significantly at one point last year that it makes me think it was partially due to injury. 

Isaac was a wing. He never played the point, even in high school because he was playing with Sharife Cooper.

Chance is most certainly a point guard--or at least, he can be--and I'm looking forward to seeing what he'll do as an Auburn Tiger. My point was that he can be a game changer immediately, like Okoro was.

[Rednilla 5,383]

20 hours ago, ellitor said:

Had a death in the family. Affected at least 1 game. The O fer game if memory serves me.

That's horrible to hear! I never knew about that...but I guess he wouldn't have wanted the information to get out, anyway.

[cole256 17,043]

On 5/5/2022 at 2:41 PM, Potatooooooes!! said:

I was wondering where you’ve been. Great to see you post!

Thanks my guy. Good seeing your posts on here as well

[AuburnNTexas 7,140]

Based on how poor our team shot the three last year especially since our best 3 point shooter Jabari is going to NBA this is a legitimate concern.  The question is how much of it was bad shooting as opposed to bad shot selection. Assuming with Broome we have a very strong inside game (this requires our guards to feed Broome on time and in position) it should also help the guards get better looks when Broome passes back out when he gets doubled down low.  Sadly a lot of our missed 3's last year were contested 3's with a bigger man contesting the 3.  Green and Zep both have nice strokes with better passing and better ball movement we could be a much better 3 point shooting team this year.  

It is a big IF because as much as I like Bruce (By far the best Basketball coach I have seen at Auburn) my one beef with him is allowing to much freedom on the 3.  I don't want him to totally change is philosophy but it should be if you have a good shot you can take it but not just jack it up for the sake of jacking it up. and only certain shooters should be given that leeway.

[autan 737]

Also several times I remember our guys passing up good shots (maybe because they missed their last 3 or 4 and lost a little confidence) only to force up a bad shot as clock ran down.

[HAPvsOA 283]

On 5/1/2022 at 12:22 PM, AUreo said:

Lol... I mean the next one-and-done NBA prospect. This is important for landing the top 2023 kids. Cooper/Thor -> Jabari -> Phillips(?) -> ?

 

We've had great success when we get the No.1 rated recruit in GA, so I'm putting Isaiah Collier on the top of the list to replace Zep after he graduates. Ja'Kobe Walter (same school as Phillips) and Justin Edwards also look the part. And it sounds like Wesley Yates is high on our board, so I wouldn't be surprised if he's a bit underrated. 

[MaxCohen216 514]

On 5/1/2022 at 9:31 AM, steeleagle said:

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. 

I have the same thoughts.  Our poor guard play bounced us out of the NCAA tournament after one game.  Then we lost the best front court in the country.

Bruce has done a nice job of replacing the front court, but we have the same guards as last season.

Unless Zep can develop some offense, and Wendell can learn to play under control and distribute well, I'm not expecting much of a serious run in March next season.  As someone mentioned previously in this thread, March and April are all about elite guard play.

[Rednilla 5,383]

3 hours ago, MaxCohen216 said:

I have the same thoughts.  Our poor guard play bounced us out of the NCAA tournament after one game.  Then we lost the best front court in the country.

Bruce has done a nice job of replacing the front court, but we have the same guards as last season.

Unless Zep can develop some offense, and Wendell can learn to play under control and distribute well, I'm not expecting much of a serious run in March next season.  As someone mentioned previously in this thread, March and April are all about elite guard play.

Chance Westry is a point guard who will also play some wing. Zep shot over 36% from 3 last year, so he's got some offense. And Wendell is poised to break out after a huge analytics year last season. We'll be fine at guard this year, I promise.

[AuburnNTexas 7,140]

19 hours ago, MaxCohen216 said:

I have the same thoughts.  Our poor guard play bounced us out of the NCAA tournament after one game.  Then we lost the best front court in the country.

Bruce has done a nice job of replacing the front court, but we have the same guards as last season.

Unless Zep can develop some offense, and Wendell can learn to play under control and distribute well, I'm not expecting much of a serious run in March next season.  As someone mentioned previously in this thread, March and April are all about elite guard play.

We have added a big guard in Westry who can play both SG and PG so we are better at guard already. Flanigan will be better then last year whether he is completely back we won't know but he has had more time to get back to 100% physically and also to get back in to basketball shape.  Broome will not be as good a shot blocker as Kessler but is still strong there and will be more of a down low scoring presence so is at least as good as Kessler for our team but may actually help us more with down low presence. Traore will be good but will not be as good as Jabari.  Because of better guard play with Westry and Flanigan (SG &SF) we should be a little better than last year.  Team chemistry has a lot to do with that and going to Israel and playing there will help a good bit with both chemistry and getting in a few extra practices assuming our freshman are on campus and able to go.

[gravejd 3,270]

I don't know if i'm ready to say "we'll be just fine" next year in regards to guard play but i do think its reasonable to expect big improvements in that area. Westry i think fits a big need that we had and thats having a bigger guard who can handle the ball well. He shot around 35% from 3 in highschool so i don't expect him to come in a light it up from 3 initially he should be a threat from deep. 

I know KD was a liability at times this season but he was also a dynamic player at times as well. He has a lot of areas where he can improve his game but its also true he has a lot of areas where he is already really good. If he can learn to distribute the ball a little more and then be under better control when driving and understand that he won't get many calls by going in and flailing around then he can take a big step forward. Hopefully he can also improve that shooting percentage some more as well. 

I also expect a big improvement from Wendell in year 2. He took a big step up in competition from his Freshman to Sophmore years and he handled it very well. He was way ahead of what i was expecting of him to start the season. I think having another year in the system and another year of a Div 1 strength and conditioning program will do him wonders. We also have a few more guys this year that can give him a break with Zep, Westry, and Donaldson all able to handle the ball a little bit. 

Speaking of Zep i want to see him take some more shots on offense. Maybe playing some more 2 guard will allow him to be more assertive on the offensive end. He is a reliable ball handler but the offense seems pretty stagnant when he was running it. Not sure he has the handle and first step to get around people in the SEC. It would be a big help if Westry and Donaldson can give us PG minutes and allow Zep to play off the ball more. 

Then we have Flan and Moore. These are both wildcards imo. I thought Moore should have gotten more playing time last season so i don't know what the coaches were holding him back for. As such its not clear to me what area of his game he needs to improve. He is a bit of tweener with a PF skill set but a SF body and thats not going to change so i was kind of expecting a transfer here but looks like he is sticking around. Hope the coaches figure out how to use him. Then Flan has been discussed at length so not going deep here. If he can be 100% healthy to start the season and regain his explosiveness then he can be a really great asset. 

Finally i hope the coaches can do a little more to help out the guards. Last season i was not a fan of how much we shrunk the rotation once we got in SEC play. Our bench was a huge asset to start the season and we went to basically a 7 or 8 man rotation to finish the season. I thought the coaches just expected Flan to get back to normal and we were left scrambling when that did not happen. I'd also like to see better ball movement all the way around. Maybe this year not having Jabari will actually help with that ball movement. I know Pearl likes to let his guys play but i think he can do more to control the play while not stifling his guys. 

[ellitor 33,082]

On 5/9/2022 at 12:39 PM, MaxCohen216 said:

Unless Zep can develop some offense

@MaxCohen216 He has some O. Shot 37% from 3 for the season & his career. That's why moving him to the 2G is being heavily considered for next season.