Buff&BlueBandit wrote:
Extremely excited by the offers, rankings, and pedigrees of these three young men. My only question is are any of these three true PGs or should we expect one more in the mix? All three have been described as combo guards in write ups but most of the sites list them as SGs. In todays game of positionless basketball we may not need a true PG but has anyone heard of any in the pipeline or should we expect one of these three to be a main ball handler.
I would trust any of them to handle the point for stretches. They have all spent time playing off the ball at one point or another so combo guard is probably technically most accurate but they are all PGs first. All three are very good on-ball defenders, have great vision finding the open man, and are unselfish players (they aren't looking for their shot first - not knocking Brayon by any means, but he is more of a "scoring PG" compared to the three guys coming in). The only real knock on these guys going into next year is that they will be young. I wouldn't be opposed to bringing in a veteran from the transfer portal as a "security blanket" but these guys have all played against good competition which might lessen the learning curve coming into college.
I think Hutchinson is the best passer of the three (nitpicking), and would probably start him at the point with one of Autry or Jones flanking him along the perimeter. Autry/Jones are better shooters, but would also be able to serve as a secondary ball handler on the court. Some of the high majors cooled on Jacoi in the past year because he is somewhat inconsistent of a shooter, although things started to come together for him during the final live period when he shot 35% from distance (which happened to coincide with cold shooting from Trey who otherwise was really shooting the ball well during AAU play).
Autry definitely looked for his shot more playing with the Albany City Rocks, but is more of a true PG at Western Reserve Academy in Ohio. He has a really good feel for the game, makes good decisions, and knows when he needs to look for his shot. He scored in double figures in all three of WRA's games this past weekend, including 19 in the first half alone in game #2. He is also physically ready to contribute on day 1. Check out one of his games here from Saturday. He is #0 in white. Came away very impressed overall.
Jones is probably the most efficient of the three from a shooting standpoint, but will probably need to add a bit more strength coming into college. From the games I've watched, he has a high basketball IQ but I wish he would be more aggressive sometimes because he's a good scorer when he gets the opportunity. It might be a product of playing with a number of other "alphas" at Our Savior Lutheran and NH Lightning but he usually makes winning plays overall. It would make sense to pair him with Max on the floor since they've played together in the past.
Overall, I think we probably add another guard at some point for depth purposes, but the backcourt looks really good in the years to come. Next up is addressing the frontcourt. It will be interesting to see how CC tackles that. Marqus Marion is a primary target, and I wouldn't mind getting Eemeli Yalaho either who is Trey's teammate at WRA. Yalaho had a strong game yesterday with 20 points and 10 rebounds. We probably leverage the transfer portal more for the frontcourt since frontcourt players take longer to come along.
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