1 of 1- Gwmayhem
- Buff & Blue Club
Offline - Registered: 7/22/2019
- Posts: 2,987
Not Sure We've Had This For A While
If you can remember those successful Karl Hobbs teams, you may also remember that arguably the most important key to those teams was the luxury of having so many different players be able to beat you. Try to take away Pops's low post game and surrender threes to Hall, Rice, Elliott and to a lesser extent, Pinnock. Taking away the perimeter meant JR having clear paths to the whole. Have the guy guarding Omar help with a double team and Omar would make you pay with a great drive or assist. There was plenty of clutch shooting from Carl, Mo and Mike, but the point is that it was so difficult to defensively key on any one or two guys because there were almost always 5 guys on the court who could make you pay.
The best of the Lonergan teams shared this similarity. Joe was a pass-first point guard but made one gigantic shot after the next. KevLar could not be ignored. Kethan became a go-to guy following in Mo Creek's footsteps. Tyler followed in Zeke's footsteps...different games but each had to occupy much of an opponent's defensive gameplan. And all of this without even mentioning Pato or Yuta.
The MoJo teams lacked ample talent once the ML recruits were gone. The Jamion Christian teams more or less started and ended with James Bishop. JB was an unstoppable at times force who like almost all basketball players, could not single handedly win games. He became a bit less ball-dominant in his one season playing for CC, largely due to the emergence of Jun Buchanan. That offense became a two-headed monster...five guys assigned to stop Jun's powerful drives and JB in general. With JB moving on, the offense was again going to be to put the ball in Jun's hands only Garrett Johnson was lost for the season, Jun had some injuries, and Slim Castro emerged as a legitimate threat. What became best for all concerned was for Jun to move on.
This season, it would be understandable to predict the offense to run through Castro who will undoubtedly become a 20/10 player. However, I don't see it this way for a number of reasons. First, as talented and valuable as Slim is, his effectiveness came largely as an offensive rebounder/putback specialist with some post moves. Now, he's had a full off-season to develop a wide array of post moves so maybe he turns into a dominant low post center. Second, I'm not sure that Slim is interested in anything aside from winning as a team. I don't think his nature is to be the guy that carries the team on his back. That's not to say this will never happen but as a general rule, I'd think he would be more delighted to find Garrett for an open 3 or pass to a driving guard than take a shot every time he sees the ball in the post.
What we have not had for a while are teams where all five guys on the court can beat you. Where it becomes difficult for defenses to double team. Where many different players are the heroes from game to game. While I think there will be candidates for "go-to" types of players who can create their own shot (Tre Dinkens comes to mind), we honestly don't know who some or all of those guys might be as of today. CC has not had anywhere close to this level of depth at GW. My guess is that he will continue to "script" minutes in the first halves of games and then play the hot hands or combinations based on matchups during most second halves. Players will need to understand that they may be on the floor when the game is on the line one night but not the next (I'd call out Slim and a healthy Garrett as exceptions.). Keeping everyone happy, focused and motivated will be crucial.
- dmvpiranha
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- Registered: 7/23/2019
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Re: Not Sure We've Had This For A While
Good post! Totally agree that the depth that this year's squad has is reminiscent of those KH and ML teams. Sometimes there were 6 guys on the court who could make you pay.
The only time I really felt that GW was really lacking in talent was the MoJo era. Of course, not all of that was his fault as he was trying to recruit during incredibly tough circumstances but CC's recent success recruiting in Canada reminded me of the disappointment that we didn't do that enough during the MoJo era.
JC's third year had a backcourt of James Bishop, Joe Bamisile, Brendan Adams, and Brayon Freeman with Hunter Dean/Noel Brown up front (which I think was decent by A10 standards) and Ricky Lindo at the 4. I guess on paper the one thing that was lacking was shooting at the 4, since neither Ricky nor Qwanzi Samuels really provided that (and the roster was top heavy) but there was enough that GW really should have finished over .500 in conference. Jamion had challenges of his own + COVID, but there was way too much isolation ball and "your turn my turn" which prevented the talent from being maximized.
JB actually played under CC for two years (I also forget that sometimes). While James shot a career best from 3 in his final year, his 2P% took a massive hit partly due to the youth around him but also because CC was insistent on the rim & 3 offense which effectively cut out his patented midrange, his trademark shot. That carried over to last year, where GW ranked once again high in that metric but didn't have the shooting to justify having that kind of shot diet. The Revs got to the FT line a lot and CC wisely pounded it inside to Slim and Jun often with the front court being the strength of the team but there was little room to work with due to a lack of shooting. I actually wouldn't have minded seeing Jun back this year given the construction of the roster (aka more shooting). Injuries hurt him, but he really needed more spacing around him which he had in a lot more abundance in year 1 compared to 2. In a slightly lower usage role, I think he could have been a good piece. On a side note, him going to Rutgers where there isn't much shooting doesn't seem like a great idea but maybe a clean bill of health will do wonders.
Going into this year, I am expecting GW to once again be a "Rim & 3" focused offense. Without Jun though does this become more of a "3 and a bit of Slim at the Rim" style system? Slim will have a lot more room to operate, but the guards will also have to take advantage of the open lanes to cut to the rim/get downhill. Case in point is Tricky, who ranked in the 95th percentile at field goal percentage in the paint (61.5%) but in just the 8th percentile in FGA% in that region (5.4% of attempts). Some nights the three ball will not fall and we don't want to end up like a Billy Lange St. Joe's team that is jumper happy. CJ did that at times, but hopefully will do more of that with better ball security. The same goes for Tre Dinkins, otherwise Moss will still warrant some minutes from off the bench. Ultimately, I hope CJ does tighten his handle because I think he's easily the best defensively of the trio (although I know Dinkins will win a couple games with his shot making).
I agree with Gwmayhem that I don't see Castro as a 20/10 guy. At times, I do think it makes sense to utilize him as a passer and play a little inside-out but CC strikes me as a guy who wants to emphasize the backcourt/guards first, not play through the post with Slim. Rafael has mentioned a couple times about letting it fly from deep a bit more this season, but I'm skeptical that we'll see a lot of that.
Equally as important is the "10" part of Rafael's stat line. Specifically, that he needs a lot more help on the boards than Jun and Sean gave him last season. This is especially true on the defensive side of the ball. GW's ability to generate steals at a borderline top 25 rate nationally boosted the defense (as did Slim's presence at the rim) but this team was very poor at finishing defensive possessions with a rebound (309th in DR%). The improved depth should allow GW to press more, but it also needs to allow more players to be in position and help Slim out on the boards defensively. Games against South Florida and Florida will be very tough if this doesn't improve. I think the Gators will probably crush GW on the glass anyways, but Hodgson's USF group will be a challenge there as well.