No more softball
-
All right @Texas-Hawk-10, @ParisHawk, and @Lulufulu? You three are raining on my parade.
Just kidding love the different point of views. However lets talk about and break this down. Embiid is a stud we can all agree. Comparing Dallio to Embiid at least on the surface is well just crazy. Yet stop and take a deep breath. I donāt remember the blue bloods breaking down the front door to recruit Embiid. In fact Embiid really got no run as a top player until HCBS offered him a scholarship. In fact Embiid wasnāt even the top recruit off his own high school team. So where was this canāt miss talent you speak of? This for sure NBA HOFamer? Was Embiid a diamond or a diamond in the rough? In fact Embiid really got no run until after playing a full semester at KU and claiming a starting spot at KU.
So did Embiid always have it, or did HCBS unlock the potential of the Embiid? I really donāt have the answer. I just donāt know. Yet to dismiss Diallo and his potential is premature. Sure I agree he will be no Embiid. Just like nobody will be Jordan, or the Bird, or the Magic, or LeBron, or even Wilt. Diallo will be who he decides to be.
The fact is Embiid was a rare find, and he didnāt live up to the expectations in the college game. Yes I said it. Embiid didnāt live up to the expectations in the college game. As for Dallio all I can say is he played against the best of his class twice and walked away with the MVP twice. That says something. Once you can make the argument it was a fluke but twice you have to acknowledge the kid has something.
I would agree that Embiid has the potential to be great no doubt, but whose to say Dallio wonāt be great too. Just in his own way? You guys are making a big mistake on this one.
I will also say Mister Bragg is going to shock you too. Mark it, save it, you heard it here first.
-
@DoubleDD You are replying to 3 folks at once, so Iām not sure which parts are addressed to me.
I donāt see the point of comparing Diallo and Embiid. If you do, then remember Embiidās footwork, offensive moves and outlet passes among other things - plus what his absence meant to the team at the end of the season.
Oh, I guess I do see the point: Embiid was one of the very few bigs to impact a Self team in his freshman season, and you say Diallo will have a significant impact this season.
Weāll see. If he does, you will have been proven right and I will have a pleasant surprise. If he has the usual year of a highly ranked freshman big in Selfās system, I will not be disappointed.
-
Regarding Dialloās motor, letās none of us forget the Kevin Young exciting impact. The first time I saw Kevin Young on the court in a Kansas uniform, my enjoyment in KU hoops soared. Diallo already has that aura, and with greater wingspan. My current fear is that his game might be impaired by the quick yank. Can the coaching staff adjust to his potential brilliance and freeflow? The only task tougher for Bill Self this season might be the harnessing of Selden to the pine if his play is still so woefully mercurial.
-
@REHawk I could be wrong, but in my memory the āquick yankā is a bit more prevalent for wing players - although Cliff did get yanked someā¦
Maybe the biggest factor in pushing a Big off the court is foul trouble. If Diallo picks up two quick fouls heās going to the bench no matter how terrific his motor is. TRob had just as big a motor his freshman year but fouled a lot and played very little.
Kevin Young was a transfer with college experience, so he knew how to channel his energy.
Whether we like it or not, Self will use the bench as a teaching tool and will not hesitate to play experienced Bigs with limited talent who have bought into his system.
-
Frank seems to have the leadership role iced after last season. He was an absolute man that lead the Marauders through Burma Bad Ball.
My Q is: Can Perry resume his pre injury peak and get mean enough to keep opponents from treading on him?
-
Wow! take another look at the 08 final 4 game with NC and then tell me which one of these new recruits can play defense like those studs. I forgot how we won in 08 and it was about defense and experienced players on the court.
BS will play the new kids on the block sparingly and we will win the conference and then he will plug them in like he has tried to do the last two years after a season of experience injury permitting. The bigs will have to learn how to block and position without fouling as Cliff was trying to master. The guards will have to learn how to guard their man to keep them from getting the ball. If you watch the NC game there were times when NC had no one to pass the ball to because they were covered up with blue. We have not had that type of defense for a long time and Iām not sure we will have it this year as our upper class does not seem to understand it and therefore it may not transfer to the new kids on the block.
The one thing that could break this cycle would be two months of practices and several games that we would not normally get. This is a game changer. This team has the potential to be better than the 08 team barring any maturity, injury, or parental problems. Issues we cannot control. Self has done a tremendous job of recruiting and will have two months of extra practice and games. If he does not kill them in the process the basketball world will see what a real platoon looks like. Roooock Chaaaaalk!
-
āIām not joking about Embiid being once in a generational offensive talent.ā
Well, Iām not laughing!
I think JoJo has the capacity, and Iām extremely anxious to see him perform at the next level. Just hope his body holds up to the challenge.
You are right about footwork. JoJo has extremely good footwork for a man his size, and he was quickly picking up Olajuwon-style, āshake and bakeā moves. I look at him and see a guy who could even surpass Olajuwon. And that says plenty because Iām a monster Olajuwon fan.
My entire point about Cheick is that we have to look at what he can help us with this year. Frankly, we shouldnāt need his scoring, and that should all be considered a ācherry on top.ā What we need is his defense and rebounding. He appears to be very capable of being a good rebounder this year. And Iām betting the same for his defense. He will first have to figure out how to defend without foulingā¦ something all young players have to learn in D1.
Beyond that, he is a great combo with Perry. Iām sure he can do well enough with finishing right under the basket (throwing it down) and that is all the threat we need from him offensively, so his man canāt just hawk on over to double-team Perry without paying a price.
It isnāt fair that we compare Cheick with JoJoā¦ They are built totally different and one is a 4 the other a 5. Two different offerings, but both are quality.
My biggest optimism with Cheick is his motor. Motor is a huge part of college basketballā¦ and the guys that maintain a fast motor the entire time they are on the court ALWAYS build good stats because college ball LACKS good motor players.
Cheick will have to work on his skill set, and with every skill he picks up, every new move to the hole to add to his toolbox, it will show up on his stat sheet because high-rev motor players do everything in quantity!
-
A lot of good points about Cheick & Graham coming in. As a fan of Diallo, its hard for me to come into this discussion without some bias towards him because to me I think we landed the best big man in the class. How he impacts the game, and not just the all-star setting games that I watched was what I saw as the potential for a great player.
Is he the B2B player, No he is not. He may never be that guy because he is so much better at other things. I think if the KU staff does give him 1 post move to work with that it would really help him if he is stuck in a ISO situation. But he will clean up missed shots like no other big weāve had, and heās so athletic that its going to make a difference from what we had last year.
The biggest thing about Diallo especially if he starts from day 1, is that he makes Ellis better.
Diallo is basically the exact opposite of Ellis offensively and defensively. He gets a lot of his baskets on pure hustle āmotorā plays as you may call it. Itās infectious, it could potentially be a cancer that spreads to the rest of the team watching him play with such effort. At least that is what I can hope happens. I donāt think teams will be able to double Ellis because KU can lob to Diallo anytime they want if that is the case. Having a 5 star post player with Ellis changes how teams are going to scout KU. Teams werenāt scared of Traylor, Lucas, Mickelson but they will be by Diallo & Bragg.
Defensively he becomes one of our top 3 rebounders, easily our best shot-blocker and those are 2 things we lacked all last season in any shape of consistency.
Now before I go too far, Diallo will have to learn the system and wonāt be here until 2nd session of the summer so it looks as if he will be behind Bragg in that regards. How easy he learns the system, and how to place himself on the court will go a long way to determining how much time he gets early. Will he be foul prone as a lot of bigs tend to be until the game slows down? Will he hold up to the rigors of a long season?
-
I feel like I have to chime in on Embiid. Coach Self was extremely lucky to lock in Embiid early (November). By the time he played in the Jordan Classic, many coaches such as Pitino and Fraschilla were calling him the best center in a long time; he finished rated 5-star in all rating services and #6 overall in the ESPN rankings and #1 Center; pretty much the textbook definition of ācanāt missā prospect. Had Coach Self not locked him early, he would have had every elite team knocking on his door. By the time he got to KU he was not an unknown but potential waiting to explodeā¦and he didā¦until he got injured.
-
Iām not sure I agree on the canāt miss tag. Though I would agree some started to see Embiid as having great potential. However there wasnāt a plethora of schools knocking down his door. To say other wise is pure speculation. Itās not like nobody had seen Embiid play. After all he wasnāt even the the top recruit off his own High School team. Plenty of scouts had watched Embiid play, yet no interest was really there. I remember the tag on Embiid when he signed with KU was āhigh pontential, but a project playerā. Embiid didnāt make his jump until he signed with KU.
Back on point here to say that KU wouldnāt be as good with Diallo as it would be with Embiid, would be like me saying āwell KU wouldnāt be as good with Embiid as it would be with Wiltā. It just doesnāt make any sense.
-
@JayHawkFanToo Kurtis Townsend discovered Embiid almost by accident. He was down there recruiting Chris Walker (thank you that didnāt work out), saw his back up and was impressed enough with the footwork of the back up that Townsend told Self about this kid, and Self was able to get on this kid who transferred to a HS in Gainsville, Fl before Billy Donovan got involved.
-
I have to agree with @JayHawkFanToo on Embiid here. Remember when we had the discussion after seeing his videos? The footwork, the touch, how he ran the floor, his ball handling, the use of both hands, and the overall skill set? It was amazing. In June of 2013, Rick Pitino commented that Kansas might have the top two picks in the draft, referring to Wiggins and Embiid. That was before Embiid played on game here. He knew. Although some tossed around the project thing, Iām quite confident that everyone inside the game thought otherwise (as Pitinoās comment suggests). @DoubleDD is right. Embiid did not make his ratings jump until he signed with Kansas. But that was when folks got to see him. Embiid was nowhere near raw. In reality, he was the most ready as a freshman of any post player weāve had at Kansas since Danny Manning.
But Iāll toss in that Diallo is a much different player. He has nowhere near the skills right now that Embiid had. He scores and makes plays in different ways. It will really be hard to judge Dialloās impact until we see him in Selfās system. Iām cautiously optimistic ā as I always am with freshmen under Self.
-
@HighEliteMajor Hit the nail squarely on the head vis a vis Embiid/Diallo. If Diallo has an impact at KU anything like what Embiid did, it wonāt be because heās the second coming of Hakeem the Dream, it will be because heās the second coming of Blake Griffin: Athletic and relentless, with a knack for making good things happen.
-
Blake Griffin ā¦ that would be nice. 14+ ppg and 9+ rpg as a freshman. If Diallo is active, the only thing stopping him from 9 rpg will be minutes. Griffin averaged over 28 his freshman season. Griffin averaged .32 rebounds per minute ā approaching TRob territory (.34+). Dwight Coleby was .29 last season. Cliff was .30. So .32 seems plausible if this guy is what we think he is ā¦ AND ā¦ he gets the minutes.
Getting minutes will be the challenge. It is our greatest frustration.
When we see Cliff be as productive as he was, in the minutes he played, and then sit, I think most are willing to forgive his indiscretions ā particularly when others on the court do the same things.
But if Traylorās playing more than Diallo, I might make a quick drive to @VailHawk territory and jump off the Royal Gorge bridge.
-
It seems I maybe outnumbered on this issue of JoJo.
JoJo is a special player no doubt and has a very high ceiling. Yet the topic of JoJo seems to have this tone of somehow KU won a championship with him stalking the paint? I wish JoJo wouldāve followed his heart and stayed another year at KU. Getting a second year of watching JoJo grow would have been nice to see. Alas the money it seems is to much to pass.
Iām not sure how we got to this place of Diallo vs Embiid or why itās even important. All I know is some say Embiid was and is a canāt miss. When the fact is we not only as KU fans, but basketball fans in general have only really seen JoJo play one lone season in College and the NBA. A season that took a semester before Embiid could wrestle the starting job away. There is a lot projecting going on so little evidence.
As for Embiid sometimes itās easy to look back and say Oh yea JoJo was a canāt miss just look at those skills sets and moves. However nobody was recruiting Embiid out of high school. It was only after KU and HCBS got his hands on Embiid that the college world took notice of JoJo. Also donāt forget it was after late night that HCBS lit into Embiid, almost causing the kid to leave. Plus I donāt think JoJo ever really blossomed until HCBS had him in the gym and was kicking his butt.
Diallo is no Embiid, and Embiid is no Diallo. To compare the two isnāt really fair to either one. Now as fans comparing backgrounds, skills sets, and athletic ability it is what we do. Embiid is great and has more upside on paper versus Diallo.
Yet if KU and Diallo win a National Championship who are we going to remember as the greatest?
-
@DoubleDD Definitely Diallo. No doubt.
Like you, I"ve been outnumbered a few times here on a some topics. I can assure you, though, that doesnāt mean youāre wrong ā¦
-
Since I started this Embiid/ Diallo diatribe, I went back and watched Embiid highlights from his year with us. And JoJo did things on the offensive end that Diallo will never be able to do. A few of his moves Iām not sure even Hakkem could do. Funny that I remember him being somewhat clumsy with the ball, and somewhat limited. Memories can play tricks on you that way. But, that doesnāt disprove what I said originally, which was Diallo is our Embiid. A fierce rim protector we can throw the ball into, and he can dunk, dunk, dunk. I think he handles himself well when driving to the hoop, which will add a mobility we havenāt seen in the paint since TROB. So, Iām excited about Diallo.
I am prone to hyperbolations of massive sizes when it comes to KU basketball ā¦ so, I am GUILTY AS CHARGED. I havenāt thought we were going to lose a game since Ted Owens was coach ( back then I was surprised when we did win a game). I make no apologies for loving my team, or thinking the very best about them. I will be wrong, but then again, so will you. Predicting the future is such a hit or miss proposition. When I went totally nuts over a guy named Devonte, I was told on here " he would redshirt", or he might get a few āmop up minutesā. Remember??? So, if you think Diallo is just some slug, then we will agree to disagree. But your doubt is not going to dampen my enthusiasm one iota.
RCJHGKU
-
Again, we are talking abut different times during Embiidās recruitment. You are talking about before KU ādiscoveredā him and I am talking about the time between when KU signed him (November) and the time when he actually made it to KU. The reason you did not see a lot of school recruiting him, none actually, is because he had already signed with KU and other schools were no longer able to approach him, as per NCAA rules. Had he not signed, he would have had every major program in the country after him. Again he was ranked #6 overall and #1 Center in the final ESPN rankingā¦before he ever made it to KU, and by that time most everybody and his dog knew he would be a special player.
As far as contribution, Embiidās contribution, and as I mentioned before, was limited because by the time he was starting to really dominate he got (re)injured and did not play again. Had he stayed healthy and led KU to a Final Four or better yet, a NC, his contribution would have been remembered for a long time. As it stands now, I believe Withey contributed considerably more on his Senior year than Embiid did in his partial season. Just my opinion.
-
Big time conversation for the second week of June when the only thing typically biting are the mosquitoesā¦
Goshā¦ weāve been so spoiled with quality bigs over the years. It has come to the point where we put a kid on trial for not bringing enough post offense with him to Lawrenceā¦ but he may be THE top hustling post player in college basketball over the past decade! Yepā¦ you heard it here first. THE top hustling post player in college basketball over the past decade!
For that reason alone, I think the only possibility Self pulls him over to the bench is if he gets into foul trouble. Otherwise, I expect him to be the spark for the rest of the team, similar to Kevin Young.
I sense this kid will quickly surpass our dear friend TRob in the hustle department pretty much the first time we see him clothed in crimson/blue.
Cheick needs tons of polishingā¦ but the young man knows how to funnel his energy. Like others have said, he considers every rebound a pass to him. I wouldnāt even say that about a young TRob. He had lots of energy as a freshman, but it took him quite a while before he knew how to use it properly.
It is way too early to grade Cheick on his freshman year. We all know he must progress substantially in some areas to be capable of making an impact in those areas. So we canāt expect to know how fast he will learn. I believe he will be a fast learnerā¦ but it is nothing more than my own hunch.
-
And that is my point. Before KU signed JoJo there was no offers. These top kids are recruited way before they hit their senior season in high school. Yet nobody heard of Embiid. It wasnāt until after KU signed him that he became a player everybody acknowledged as having great potential. There was plenty of time for other schools to pursue Embiid long before KU signed him. Yet his canāt miss skills and ability didnāt show up on the radar.
The real question is did HCBS find a diamond or did he take a piece of coal and put so much pressure on it that it became a diamond? Lets not forget we have indeed only seen one season of Embiid playing. The potential is high but there is still a lot of ??? marks regarding his future.
-
JamTray may not be a great shot blocker but at least heās in great position to take the ball out of the net to inbound it quickly!
-
We are still not on the same page. Other players are recruited earlier because scouts and coaches see them playing for while, many since elementary school. Embiid came to this country when he was 16 and he was playing only in his second year (the first was pretty nondescript) when he was discovered by KU and of course no one had hear of himā¦yet. He was way too new in the scene to be noticed and as I indicated, KU was lucky to sign him when it did. As someone else posted, he was ādiscoveredā quite by accident and quickly signedā¦a masterful move. By the time he actually got to KU he was a ābona fide canāt missā prospect that would have developed anywhere he went.
I guess we will just have to agree to disagree on this issue as we cannot seem to get on the same page.
-
@drgnslayr said:
ā¦ but he may be THE top hustling post player in college basketball over the past decade! Yepā¦ you heard it here first. THE top hustling post player in college basketball over the past decade!
I am really really happy to have Diallo. I expect him to be my favorite all-time OAD, for what thatās worth. He made the Jordan Brand Classic and Mcdonaldās All-American games his personal highlight reels, for what thatās worth
He just wants it more, every play. And itās not just hustle, itās focus. Heās an intense dude. I watched those joke all-star games several times, and thoroughly appreciated him whooping up on kids playing half speed protecting the supposed goods. They looked stunned. WTF is this guy doing?Winning.
-
-
@approxinfinity he has what Self wanted from Cliff!
-
Well put.
Iām right there with you, the All-Star games showed that he was already light years ahead in the effort department from the rest. That to me translates immediately, and gives me optimism that he will grasp the system like we want him to. Hopefully we are not disappointed.
Great point on the foul trouble. That will be the one thing that stands in his way, much like it did with Cliff last year. Diallo is much quicker and a better defender so I think he will be better at knowing defensive positioning and moving his feet. Heās like a Gazelle out there. We all know Cliffās defense left a lot to be desired, he just needed more PT than he ended up getting.
Diallo did tend to foul a lot in the HS games that I watched last year and this year but his team was not great. They lacked a good back-court & relied so much on Yakwe (2016 recruit) & Dillard (signed with Cal) at the SF/post spots that it placed a lot of pressure on Diallo down low. I think having Mason, Graham, Svi & Selden as capable passers is a major upgrade from anything Diallo has seen in his life.
Iād be jumping out of my shorts if he gets enough minutes for 9 rebounds a game. That would be beasting numbers from a freshman. Heās capable but as you said will Self give him the PT to get it
-
āhe has what Self wanted from Cliff!ā
Right on! Self rewards hustle and team play. I know Cheick will bring the hustle and Iām confident heāll pick up his assignments better than Cliff did.
Cliff committed too many Self cardinal sins. His biggest being that he couldnāt read defensive switches and would get burned with an easy basket at the rim because he either left his man or he didnāt make the switch. Doing that will guarantee a player bench time on Selfās team, and I agree with Self on that one! It only takes a couple of those to lose the defensive team spirit. Pretty soon other players give in and soften up because the other team scores too easily with them hustling.
Unless Cheick has a real flaw to deal with, I see him getting 25+ minutes in conference play. We have to give some good PT to our bench if we want to be our best in March. Bragg, Lucas, BamBam and sometimes Mickelson will surely get some minutes.
āBragg, Lucas, BamBam and sometimes Mickelson will surely get some minutes.ā
Goshā¦ how is that going to work? How are all those guys going to get minutes? Seems like Mickelson would be best to do a grad transfer, if he can. I donāt see him developing much this coming year with so little PT. BamBam is in his path, and no way Self abandons BamBam. He has āchosen oneā minutes guaranteed. He is another player, like Wayne, that needs to be pushed into real improvements. The only way to do that is to make him compete for his minutes.
-
The more I watch Dialloās videos, the more he reminds me of T-Rob. Dialloās minutes will be largely dependant upon his ability to stay out of foul trouble as others have said. I would expect him to be around 20 mpg early on while he learns to play D1 defense eventually ending the season in the 25-27 mpg range playing in the 30 mpg range at the end of the season. I donāt remember who compared him to Blake Griffin, I donāt see those offensive numbers because Diallo will be at best the 3rd or 4th option and may be the 5th option. Ellis and Mason will be the top 2, and Graham will likely be third and I think Svi will be 4th and then Diallo.
-
Spot on. Cliff is a very gifted athlete but unfortunately he was hopelessly behind when it came to BBall IQ, the result, no doubt, of a HS system (not much different than playground BBall) where the coach pretty much turns the players lose and they do what their natural talent tells them to do, which in many cases is sufficient in HS but seriously deficient when they get to college. Another year of college will have done wonders for Cliff as he learned the proper way to play basketball.
-
@Texas-Hawk-10 I compared him to Griffin. Youāre right, heās not nearly as good a scorer as Griffin, but I stand by that comparison. Even if heās less offensively talented, they both use high energy, great instincts, and elite athleticism to take over games. Dialloās just going to be doing more of his winning on D, where heās likely to outshine Blake. So even if they arenāt identical players, theyāre cut from the same cloth. Two sides of the same coin, so to speak.
TRob would be another good comparison from a rebounding and energy standpoint, but I think that undersells Dialloās athleticism a bit, and his defense and āfeelā quite a lot. TRob was way more like Cliff as a freshman; often lost on D, and way too much of a foul magnet, but powerful and an exceptional rebounder.
I donāt expect Diallo to put up Griffinās offensive numbers. Heās not going to be a top scoring option, and even if he were, heās just not a natural scorer. But heās a guy who, with decent minutes, could approach double digit rebounds and block 2.5 shots a game. That plus 8-9 ppg would be a fine thing.
-
I did not mention Griffin at all, so you must be thinking of another poster. I did mention that Diallo might have a TRob sophomore but not quite junior-like seasonā¦unlikely that any freshman would have a TRob junior-like season that made him POY candidate.
-
@JayHawkFanToo Sorry, sometimes if I have something highlighted it pulls in part of the text. That was in reply to @Texas-Hawk-10 .
-
@konkeyDong I think Robinson as a sophomore is more where I see Diallo now. T-Rob was a high 4 star recruit and Diallo is a top 10 player so Diallo is entering college further ahead than T-Rob did.
-
āCliff is a very gifted athlete but unfortunately he was hopelessly behind when it came to BBall IQ, the result, no doubt, of a HS system (not much different than playground BBall) where the coach pretty much turns the players lose and they do what their natural talent tells them to do, which in many cases is sufficient in HS but seriously deficient when they get to college.ā
Spot on back to you!
You can say the same thing about academics. Iām sure he didnāt have the proper habits and foundation to jump right into college. The academic overload put on him also had to hurt his ability to grasp Self-ball. Too many things to learn in a short time frame.
Another year of school and he would have adjusted to both the academics and Self-ball. It would all start coming easier (and faster).
-
@Texas-Hawk-10 Sophomore Robinson had to play behind the Morris twins. Who is going to start over Cheick after November? He is closer to Freshman Anthony Davis than Sophomore Robinson!
-
@Statmachine What does starting or coming off the bench have to do with ones skill level? That is determined by the skill level of other players on the team.
Diallo and Davis donāt have much in common with their games. Davis was a vastly superior offensive player because he was a PG until he shot up 8 inches before his senior year. Davis and Embiid are the two most offensively skilled big men in a generation. Diallo is not a highly skilled offensive player, he is a high energy, power player who will get most of his points off of offensive rebounds, lobs, and establishing position under the basket like Robinson did as a sophomore. Similar per 40 min. numbers to what Robinson did as a sophomore arenāt out of the question for what Diallo is capable of.
-
@Texas-Hawk-10 said: Diallo is not a highly skilled offensive player
So how exactly does one score 26 pts and get 11 boards in 20 minutes against the best competition in the country if they are not a highly skilled offensive player? He also went 12-16 in fgās I would say thatās pretty efficient. I am just curious?
-
In this video Cheick has some assists, some great outlet passes, puts the ball on the floor, creats his own shot, and posterizes some High school punks!
-
Just because someone was a PG until their senior year does not make one vastly superior offensively! They may have better handles but vastly superior offensively no!
-
If you have ever had a child in soccer at age 4 or so? You see a BUNCH of kids huddled around the soccer ball. Cheick always has him self in the right spots and in a position to score (around the ball) due to effort and hustle but how is that not offensive effort?
-
@Statmachine Not being a highly skilled player does not mean a player is incapable of being an efficient scorer. Shaq was never considered a highly skilled player, he just over powered people and took the vast majority of his shots from inside 5ā of the basket.
It doesnāt take a lot of skill to score off of offensive rebounds, lobs, and inside of 5ā which is what Diallo is going to be asked to do this year.
-
Oh I was under the impression that scoring points was offense? Scoring a lot of points meant you were good offensively? Doesnāt it take skill to score a lot of points per game? I guess I must be wrong? My bad
-
With all due respect, I donāt think the comparison with Shaq is valid. Yes, Shaq was not the most skilled player but he was 7ā-2" and 325 pounds and very strong so he could run over just about any player; the same cannot be said about Cheick Diallo who is 6 inches shorter and 100 pounds lighter, wouldnāt you agree?
I believe we might be surprised by how much readier than we think Diallo is. If you watched the All-Star games, a few players stood out as being more ready than the rest and Diallo was at the top with Simmons and Trier close behind.
-
@Statmachine What I think is going on here is the terminology Iām using is complicating things. I tend to use the terms skill and finesse interchangeably when describing a players game.
Diallo is not a finesse player just like T-Rob was never a finesse player.
@JayHawkFanToo It is apt comparison at this point because Diallo was almost always the biggest player on the court. The number of 6-9, 220-225 lb. HS players is a very small number. Like I said above, not having the biggest variety of moves does not preclude someone from being a competent, capable scorer. Once Diallo learns how to seal his guy under the basket, it doesnāt take a lot moves to be able to score inside of 5ā.
-
@Texas-Hawk-10 ok we might be able to be friends after all lol. I see what you are saying now.
-
I think your under valuing what a player does in the paint. You make the statement that hey if you can learn to seal your guy then itās easy.
If it was so easy whey do so many big man fail in the NBA and even the college game?
-
@DoubleDD Itās not a hard skill to learn and master, but not everyone is capable of doing it either. Being able to seal a defender off under the basket requires the strength to be able to establish that position and to be able to hold that position. Not every player has the strength to do this. Landen Lucas and Hunter Mickelson both lacked the strength to hold their position under the basket and were regularly pushed out from the basket and had to take more difficult shots.
-
You also said that Diallo isnāt a natural scorer. OK fine, but all I can tell you is the dude played in two star studded events with the best of the best in his class. Walked away with the MVP twice.
Whatever he does I hope he brings it to KU. Iāll take a gamer over a natural scorer any day.
-
@DoubleDD T-Rob wasnāt a natural scorer either. All that means is that Diallo will have to get himself in proper position and be dependent on other players to get him the ball to score.
-
I know as fans we break down a players game and do the whole comparing to the greatest. Yet I have to say Iām a bit taken back by some of the comments Iām reading. It would seem a consensus has been formed that Diallo will be nothing more than a motor guy.
So what if Diallo isnāt on the same level as JoJo talent wise. Last time I checked Embiid didnāt win a championship for KU. Iām not sure he would have even if he didnāt get hurt.
Maybe Diallo isnāt the polished big man you all want? So what if he doesnāt have a plethora of moves under the basket. The kid can play.
This kid played against the best of his class, and I know how you guys put so much stock in the rankings of players and recruiting classes. Yet you canāt give credit where credit is do? He took on the best in not one but two star studded games of the best upcoming talent (OAD) and walked away MVP twice.
Whatever this kid has itās golden. Iām afraid you guys arenāt looking at the big picture here. Um we still have Ellis. Yea you know that kid from Wichita that keeps getting better and better. Now think about it? Starting lineup with Diallo who took on all comers and walked away MVP along side the Designer. Are you kidding me?
Something tells me when Ellis makes a wonderful move and the ball doesnāt quite go down weāre going to hear this thunderous dunk as the crowd goes wild. Weāll look up and Diallo will be hanging on the rim and the announcers will be saying how did he do that.
Diallo is a gamer boys, and so is Bragg. Itās been awhile but I can finally say with out a doubt we have a team that can win it all.
