I think Turner comes to Lawrence, unless he wants to stay closer to home. We develop big men and Turner needs some development, especially with strength. We have several guys to show as examples of Hudy’s work. And with Embiid potentially becoming the #1 pick over all the other talented players, it solidifies our position as a big man developer.
@jaybate - You mentioned Selden’s issue with foot speed. Good point. I’ve noticed all year he seems to be a bit slow off that first step. Didn’t know if he was just thinking too much or what, but as time goes by it appears he needs to still adjust to D1 speed. I find it completely unlikely he’ll go OAD. He isn’t even burning up the game at the D1 level. That kid needs to stay in school.
I’m bummed out about Cobbins going down for OSU. It tilts the scales in our favor, but I’d rather see us fight it out with both sides healthy. OSU will have to make some compensations for a loss like that. They do have what it takes to go all small.
@TheDrunkenJhawk - Wow… that’s quite a list of post players we might have next year. If it does work out that we sign Turner and the list is what you posted I see it like Ellis, Alexander and Turner would be 3 rotating in for 2 positions, and the other 3 would pick up the scraps after that. With that much depth and diversity PT would often be determined by what match-ups work best against our opponents. Fun to think about having all those guys next year. It will help ease the blow of losing JoJo.
@HighEliteMajor - I’m glad you keep mentioning our low steal numbers. Keep doing it! Steal stats don’t always tell the story if a defense is good. Sometimes bad defenses make up for a lot of their issues by having good anticipation and posting good steal numbers. Some outstanding defenses that play up real tight don’t have so many steals because they are so good at denying the ball. Self said it best when he compared it to defensive backs in football and how they use deception.
But we aren’t good in either area; tight, denial defense or “Grand Theft Auto” defense.
So what is the strategy moving forward? Do we take our best on-ball defender (Wiggins) and shift him over to guarding the worst players and focus him on anticipation to get steals? I don’t believe Selden has a quick enough first step to do much, and I’m not certain Tharpe is the guy to do it, either. I’d almost say I like Greene as the guy to become the theftmaster. He’s quick (fast first step), long arms, seems to be sneaky, and would love to take on any role that could help this team, but that means taking minutes away from Selden.
As Greene improves, there is going to be more pressure on Selden to earn all those minutes.
And where is AW3? I thought he was 100% now?
Personally, I don’t think we can easily teach this team to create more steals. It is an organic process where several things have to happen together. First… we have ZERO pressure on the ball passer. Second… we don’t have enough movement on defense to make that end of the court chaotic enough. Third… we don’t have guys who know how to be deceptive with spacing and timing to encourage the pass and then anticipate it for the steal.
Another huge part of creating steals is having the ability to speed up opposing offenses. Heck… we are having problems making our own offense fast enough! That’s the reason Self gives for playing 2 PGs! How are we going to speed up the other team’s offense?!
I think I’d just forget about steals, and try to improve the defense around playing tight, denying passes, team defense, contesting shots and blocking out for rebounds. If we can learn to do that, it will help lift our steal stats some, too.
If we do want to put some energy into lifting our steal numbers we can work on a secondary plan… meaning… we separate Greene and Traylor… two guys with good speed and arm length… Traylor has already worked on the concept of being the energy guy. Make both of these guys “energy guys” by first having them watch video tape of Kevin Young. Young created plenty of steals because of his energy. High energy alone can create TOs. The fact that both Greene and Traylor are bench players, and one front court and one back court player, we can lull teams asleep with our starting rotation, making them feel comfortable to make any kind of pass… then we throw in these two to be disrupting forces, perhaps at the same time so we have front and back covered by theftmasters. They can work a bit on being deceptive and knowing floor positions that will help create more steals.
As I think of this more… maybe add Mason into the mix. Mason, Greene and Traylor. Maybe separate the 3 and see if they can create some synergy together. If they can, put the 3 in at the same time after our starting 5 has lulled teams asleep.
We could make a total blunder out of this by wasting too much practice time trying to make this team get more steals… meanwhile, we play poor fundamentals on defense and give up huge FG%s… The most I would focus on is having Traylor and Greene work on it apart.
The two guys with the most potential for steals are Wiggins and Embiid. Wiggins, because of his speed and arm length… but we need one guy who can learn to be a lock down defender, and Wiggins is the clear choice. Embiid has long arms, good anticipation and speed, and most important, he is so gifted with his feet, including a fast first step. I can easily see him lead this team in steals all year. Yes… it may reflect poorly on our perimeter players to get bet out for steal stats by a 5, but it also reflects on just how explosive Embiid is! I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t snag the #1 spot in the draft!
