Pre Season Stat Projections
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@KUSTEVE Either that or he has one very good looking mom.
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Enaruna has played well for the Netherlands at the FIBA U18 Championships. Averaging 19ppg in Group Play. Shooting needs some work. 42% shooting, 15.4% from 3-point range
Game 1: Spain 98, Netherlands 65 • Enaruna played 33 minutes and scored 16 points on 7-of-16 shooting from the floor. He was 1-of-4 from 3-point range and added 7 rebounds, 2 blocks and an assist.
Game 2: Netherlands 98, Croatia 63 • In 32 minutes of the blowout victory, Enaruna exploded for 29 points on 12-of-23 shooting from the floor. He easily could have topped 30 points but shot just 1-of-6 from 3-point range despite being red hot everywhere else. He added 4 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 blocks and 2 assists in the easy victory.
Game 3: Finland 59, Netherlands 53 • In a tourney-high 35 minutes on Monday, Enaruna could not find his offense in a six-point loss to Finland that cost the Dutch in terms of seeding in the Round of 16. He finished 4-of-16 from the floor and 0-of-3 from 3-point range in the loss. Doing his best to make up for the off shooting night, Enaruna ripped down 13 rebounds and dished 3 assists while swiping 2 steals.
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Talk about Enaruna, Braun, Wilson, McBride – it seems apparent that we might just strike gold this season with one of these guys. Meaning, the odds of one of them being a major player quicker than expected is pretty good. Not sure who I’d bet on at this point. I think McBride has the easiest path to playing time, though.
But the nice thing is that it is really likely that we will not need any one of them to be “gold” this season to win a national championship. This is going to be a good season … need a cool “MF” patch to remember our lost friend.
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HighEliteMajor said:
Talk about Enaruna, Braun, Wilson, McBride – it seems apparent that we might just strike gold this season with one of these guys. Meaning, the odds of one of them being a major player quicker than expected is pretty good. Not sure who I’d bet on at this point. I think McBride has the easiest path to playing time, though.
But the nice thing is that it is really likely that we will not need any one of them to be “gold” this season to win a national championship. This is going to be a good season … need a cool “MF” patch to remember our lost friend.
I’m most hopeful about Enaruna. He’s just so athletic. But if I were putting money on it, I’d say Wilson and McBride end up getting more run than him and Braun.
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Are we doing MF patches? I hope so. Maybe we need to send a hint to the AD.
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Enaruna’s team was eliminated so he’ll be in Lawrence in a few weeks when they come back from their break.
Tritan had 21 points, 13 rebounds, 3/6 from 3 and 2 blocks in the losing effort.
He did not shoot the ball very efficiently during the 4 games including some Charlie Moore like FG % from 2, 3 and the FT line…
He finished averaging near a double double 19.8 ppg and 9.3 boards. Tons of long range potential with him. Can’t wait to see how Self uses him
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@BeddieKU23 Svi had similar numbers in his overseas trips if I recall correctly. Part of it is just being the best player on your team and forcing shots because your teammates suck
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BeddieKU23 said:
Enaruna’s team was eliminated so he’ll be in Lawrence in a few weeks when they come back from their break.
Tritan had 21 points, 13 rebounds, 3/6 from 3 and 2 blocks in the losing effort.
He did not shoot the ball very efficiently during the 4 games including some Charlie Moore like FG % from 2, 3 and the FT line…
He finished averaging near a double double 19.8 ppg and 9.3 boards. Tons of long range potential with him. Can’t wait to see how Self uses him
Charlie was the “volume scorer” without the “scorer” part … I wonder at what point coach Self thought to himself, “what was I thinking?”
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HighEliteMajor said:
BeddieKU23 said:
Enaruna’s team was eliminated so he’ll be in Lawrence in a few weeks when they come back from their break.
Tritan had 21 points, 13 rebounds, 3/6 from 3 and 2 blocks in the losing effort.
He did not shoot the ball very efficiently during the 4 games including some Charlie Moore like FG % from 2, 3 and the FT line…
He finished averaging near a double double 19.8 ppg and 9.3 boards. Tons of long range potential with him. Can’t wait to see how Self uses him
Charlie was the “volume scorer” without the “scorer” part … I wonder at what point coach Self thought to himself, “what was I thinking?”
If that moment didn’t occur before the season started last year, oh boy. It seems like Charlie had a lot going on off-the-court that may have impacted him some. Whatever ale’d him it was hard to watch.
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I definitely thought of Svi from years back when he played in the same tournament. Tristan just turned 18 as well and was listed at 6’8 by his home team. Tristan didn’t have any help and yes he was forced to take on a big role, a role he didn’t even have in HS in Utah. Will be interesting to see how he develops. The potential is off the charts
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@drgnslayr If the teams don’t recognize Max significantly this season - I will change my user name (and loyalty) to nuleafwildcat.
Bill Snyder got a stadium and a highway named after him and, although he engineered a major turnaround in Manhattan, he is NOTHING compared to what Max Falkenstein has done for KU.
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@BeddieKU23 It was the New Mexico St. game for me at the Sprint Center with Moore. That’s was my “moment” of clarity.
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To be honest, I’m expecting some national recognition for Max, too.
For one, I know the Big 12 will recognize his departure.
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BeddieKU23 said:
HighEliteMajor said:
BeddieKU23 said:
Enaruna’s team was eliminated so he’ll be in Lawrence in a few weeks when they come back from their break.
Tritan had 21 points, 13 rebounds, 3/6 from 3 and 2 blocks in the losing effort.
He did not shoot the ball very efficiently during the 4 games including some Charlie Moore like FG % from 2, 3 and the FT line…
He finished averaging near a double double 19.8 ppg and 9.3 boards. Tons of long range potential with him. Can’t wait to see how Self uses him
Charlie was the “volume scorer” without the “scorer” part … I wonder at what point coach Self thought to himself, “what was I thinking?”
If that moment didn’t occur before the season started last year, oh boy. It seems like Charlie had a lot going on off-the-court that may have impacted him some. Whatever ale’d him it was hard to watch.
I feel bad for talking bad about Chuck knowing that, now!
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What was Chuck dealing with?
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Crimsonorblue22 said:
BeddieKU23 said:
HighEliteMajor said:
BeddieKU23 said:
Enaruna’s team was eliminated so he’ll be in Lawrence in a few weeks when they come back from their break.
Tritan had 21 points, 13 rebounds, 3/6 from 3 and 2 blocks in the losing effort.
He did not shoot the ball very efficiently during the 4 games including some Charlie Moore like FG % from 2, 3 and the FT line…
He finished averaging near a double double 19.8 ppg and 9.3 boards. Tons of long range potential with him. Can’t wait to see how Self uses him
Charlie was the “volume scorer” without the “scorer” part … I wonder at what point coach Self thought to himself, “what was I thinking?”
If that moment didn’t occur before the season started last year, oh boy. It seems like Charlie had a lot going on off-the-court that may have impacted him some. Whatever ale’d him it was hard to watch.
I feel bad for talking bad about Chuck knowing that, now!
It happens. I’m guilty as well. We want everyone who wears the Jersey to be good. Charlie wasn’t good and possibly the worst rotation player Self has had under his watch. I wish him the best going forward and I hope his personal life improves so he can have an impact at Depaul
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I’m glad you can even remember the game. I’m trying to remember which one it was for me but I know it was one where he took multiple shots in a 1 minute span where he didn’t even look at the hoop before. Those were common so its hard to pinpoint which game it was
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rockchalkwyo said:
What was Chuck dealing with?
I believe his dad has cancer
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@FarmerJayhawk oh I see. That is very sad. Thanks
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BeddieKU23 said:
I’m glad you can even remember the game. I’m trying to remember which one it was for me but I know it was one where he took multiple shots in a 1 minute span where he didn’t even look at the hoop before. Those were common so its hard to pinpoint which game it was
There was one game where he literally shot a 25 footer 3 seconds after he entered the game. The new Self though didn’t yank him or flop around. I always (kind of fondly, kind of not) remember when Anrio Adams got in the game, was all excited, caught the in bounds pass, dribbled it off his foot, out of bounds. Maybe less than 3 seconds and done. Hook and out. Ah, those were the days.
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HighEliteMajor said:
BeddieKU23 said:
I’m glad you can even remember the game. I’m trying to remember which one it was for me but I know it was one where he took multiple shots in a 1 minute span where he didn’t even look at the hoop before. Those were common so its hard to pinpoint which game it was
There was one game where he literally shot a 25 footer 3 seconds after he entered the game. The new Self though didn’t yank him or flop around. I always (kind of fondly, kind of not) remember when Anrio Adams got in the game, was all excited, caught the in bounds pass, dribbled it off his foot, out of bounds. Maybe less than 3 seconds and done. Hook and out. Ah, those were the days.
And crap, I didn’t know Moore’s dad had cancer. Certainly a reasonable cause for distraction.
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Kcmatt7 said:
@BeddieKU23 Svi had similar numbers in his overseas trips if I recall correctly. Part of it is just being the best player on your team and forcing shots because your teammates suck
Disclaimer: I have done zero research on this.
It’s possible that Enaruna is the only potential higher level pro prospect on that roster.
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@BeddieKU23 OMG!!!
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I just don’t see how you can keep an athlete like that on the bench…
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Kcmatt7 said:
I just don’t see how you can keep an athlete like that on the bench…
Enaruna can’t make a shot at this point, that’s why he’s rated as low as he was. He’s a development guy. He appears to have good form on his shot so it appears like it’s something that can be developed, it’s just not developed yet
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Texas Hawk 10 said:
Kcmatt7 said:
I just don’t see how you can keep an athlete like that on the bench…
Enaruna can’t make a shot at this point, that’s why he’s rated as low as he was. He’s a development guy. He appears to have good form on his shot so it appears like it’s something that can be developed, it’s just not developed yet
I was going to more or less post this. Dude can’t shoot, can do just about everything else. Could end up an amazing player later on or wash out, too soon to tell.
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We say this, full well knowing Garrett is going to start lol
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@Kcmatt7 As I have been saying for a while. Oh, he’s going to play no doubt! How much tbd, but it’ll be difficult to not give him atleast 10 mpg.
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How was Enaruna ever projected as a “stretch-4” when he cannot, by definition, stretch since he is a below average shooter?
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Tristan is 17, right? Since shooting is a skill, he could develop that skill, right?
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@justanotherfan because he’s not afraid to shoot. Hopefully those percentages can be coached up.
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KUSTEVE said:
Tristan is 17, right? Since shooting is a skill, he could develop that skill, right?
Absolutely, since he recently switched from shooting left handed to right handed improvement over time should be expected. His ambidextrous ways will surprise fans.
I have no concerns about his shooting touch in time. He can make perimeter shots, its not his primary skill at the moment but that’s not what we need out of him either. There have been events where Tristan has shot the ball well with consistency from the perimeter and games he struggled. I remember Svi struggling years back in the summer when he was forced to be the main facilitator of offense
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I would hesitate to compare Enaruna to Svi. Svi could always shoot when set. He hadn’t rounded out his game when he arrived at KU, but if he got his feet set, his stroke was silky. There was never a “results don’t match the mechanics” issue with Svi. I remember watching early video of him and wondering if he would ever develop the rest of his offensive game, but I never doubted that he could put the ball in the basket.
As @BeddieKU23 says, shooting can be taught. However, I am cautious because he recently switched hands. Almost all good shooters have some naturally good things going. Switching hands at this stage indicates to me that Enaruna doesn’t have some of those natural tendencies even if he does have the athletic ability to repeat motion, etc.
I am not saying that Enaruna won’t develop into a better shooter. He’s young enough that he certainly could. But I don’t think its a given, either.
Ponder it this way. During the Bill Self era, name any player you like that came in as a poor shooter and left as a good one.
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@justanotherfan percentage-wise, Svi. Percentage + mechanics: Releford. To some degree Aaron Miles.
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@justanotherfan Releford.
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@justanotherfan He will shoot, and he can and will make some - that is a stretch 4. Will he be given the green light to shoot at will this season? No. But he can make them, which makes him an outside threat. By the end of next season, watch, there will be some talk of him entering the NBA draft, and he will enter after his junior season after shooting, oh, about 39% from three.
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Poor to good is a really big leap. Poor being just north of Garrett.
Releford was never a poor shooter in my opinion. He landed here as an above average three point shooter. He had great form and made good decisions. Again, just my opinion.
Frank Mason, on the other hand, was a mess. The work done from freshman to sophomore season was amazing. He is the guy that demonstrates that fixing important small items can take a guy with talent and catapult him forward – like not starting his shot while moving laterally or leaning forward, getting a consistent launch point (and from a consistent peak) and launch angle, and having a consistent lower body alignment, etc. Little things like that can really make an impact. And that was coaching.
Contrast Mason to a guy like Devonte Graham who really didn’t appear to change anything. And always seemed good. Or guy like EJ who never really moved the needle.
Now, Chalmers was never a bad shooter. But that guy, as much as Mason, really improved. So that isn’t poor to good. But I loved his improvement from good to assassin.
That all said, we haven’t had too may just “bad” shooters (that were in a position to be shooters – excluding big guys). Miles going from oblivion to 50% was the biggest jump I’d really seen. Crazy.
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Selden with his Freshman above/behind the head launch point turned into a nice shooter as well.
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I’ll clarify a bit more here. I wasn’t comparing Svi and Enaruna as shooters. I was comparing how they struggled shooting in International settings having to be the source of offense for their teams.
Tristan had a game recently where he was 3/6 from 3 and another where he was 0/5. If he got the kind of minutes his freshman year to put up that kind of volume I think we as fans can expect those types of games from him. I don’t believe he gets enough minutes to shoot 5/6 3’s a game but optimistically I think he’ll be around 30% as a freshman on low volume. Some have said he can’t shoot which isn’t true. It’s a developing skill for him. He can make perimeter shots but probably will need some coaching and repetition to get to the point of reliable in games. I can’t imagine we need him for reliability until his Soph year
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Makes sense. The demands on them internationally are actually very similar, as they were pressed into roles that may not have fit their skillsets as well as the roles they eventually occupied (or will occupy) at KU.
Releford was never a poor shooter. He was a big time scorer in HS that adjusted his role in college. He wasn’t asked to score at KU, but he was never a poor shooter.
Miles is an interesting case. I would argue that he never really developed as a shooter. That’s what kept him out of the NBA long term. If you look only at his 3PT% you see a nice progression from 29% as a freshman up to 50% as a senior. That would suggest that he improved. However, you look at his 2PT% and you see that it never really moved, staying more or less right around 43% his entire career (with his sophomore year standing out at 49%). Miles made a few more threes as a senior, but still bricked the same amount of 2s. And indeed, he shot about 30% from three in his European career, with one season around 37% and every other season south of 33%. And his FG% in Europe? 42.3% over 5 seasons. Miles was the same shooter after five years in Europe that he was after four years at KU.
Selden was also never bad as a shooter. Came in at 33% and improved steadily from there. Selden was more plagued by consistency problems (like Vick) than he was by result issues.
Probably one of the most famous improved shooters in the world right now is current Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard. He was a bad 3pt shooter in college. 20% as a freshman, 29% as a sophomore. But the thing was, Kawhi always attempted shots. He shot 78 threes as a freshman, and 86 more as a sophomore. Clearly, there was a belief that he could shoot, despite the results. The Spurs literally re-worked his entire shot from the ground up as a pro. But even then, Leonard was a pretty good 2pt shooter that entire time. He struggled from distance, but his jumpshot overall was not broken, as he shot right around 50% over his college career from 2. You can contrast that to a guy like Ben Simmons, whose shot was always broken, and who didn’t even attempt to shoot in college (just 3 attempts from three point range in his lone college season).
If Enaruna comes in at 33% or so, I think he has a chance to become a pretty good shooter. If he’s at or below 30%, the chances that he ever becomes a good shooter fall dramatically.
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@justanotherfan I disagree with Selden. He was horrid his freshman year. Then they changed his shooting style, and his numbers dramatically improved. If Coach and staff hadn’t changed his technique, he would’ve been the pre-Marcus Garrett.
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Remember what I said about Braun, guys. The guy is going to play - and I mean really play! - for us, starting this season. He will get, atleast, 10-12 mpg and will contribute.
I will even take it a step further, when he finally leaves KU we will miss him but can still watch him play if we decide to follow his NBA team. He is 6’7 and still growing, a great shooter, passer, ball handler and distributor, can defend and play above the rim - that is pro potential.
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KUSTEVE said:
@justanotherfan I disagree with Selden. He was horrid his freshman year. Then they changed his shooting style, and his numbers dramatically improved. If Coach and staff hadn’t changed his technique, he would’ve been the pre-Marcus Garrett.
Selden was quite the disaster, form wise. No way he gets to that 39.2% figure from 3 if there wasn’t a wholesale change in form.
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We all should maybe pump the brakes a bit on Enaruna. From this summer via Jon Givony, "Enaruna’s team was relegated to the B Division, but the Kansas-bound combo forward did demonstrate quite a bit of potential with his combination of physical tools and versatility. Enaruna was one of the most physically gifted players at the event, standing over 6-foot-8 in shoes with a proportioned frame and a wingspan exceeding 7 feet. He made a number of highlight plays over the course of the week showing elite body control and explosiveness creating his own shot, operating above the rim and being a difference-maker defensively when locked in.
But he went through long stretches when he looked disengaged, couldn’t buy a basket from the perimeter (5-of-36 from 3) and demonstrated poor shot selection and decision-making. His jumper looks smooth at times but stiff and unnatural in other moments. He seemed to have some kind of mental block at the free throw line, hitting just 21 of 42 attempts. Enaruna’s ability to generate offense with a powerful first step, long strides and polished footwork is intriguing at his size, but he’ll need to continue to improve his playmaking ability on the move and finish through contact.
Despite the criticism, Enaruna is a tantalizing talent with a skill set not all that dissimilar to Kevin Knox. It will be interesting to see how quickly he can contribute for Bill Self at Kansas."
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@FarmerJayhawk I think his shot selection will improve quickly!🥴
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@Crimsonorblue22 Oh for sure. If it doesn’t, he’ll be at risk for splinters in his arse. Good thing we don’t really need him as constructed. Speaking of, haven’t heard any updates on Harris joining the team and the first day of school is the 26th (I always forget it’s much later back home than out east).
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@KUSTEVE Theoretically. Most ball players I’ve known/heard of are well practiced by the time they’re 12-15. To “learn” to start shooting at 17 is more or less unheard of.
Reference Udoka Azubuike’s free throw shooting.
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@nuleafjhawk based on @BeddieKU23’s report that he just switched shooting hands (he’s actually left handed) then it won’t be impossible to build up a new stroke. Just takes time and good reps.
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@FarmerJayhawk no, nothing
