GT Hoops General Topics

MtnWasp

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
733
Pastner's pre-season presser was revealing. I think I counted at least four times that he commented about various positions needing to play hard and winning 50-50 balls.

He talked about Sturdivant and Smith approaching Alvarado's scrappy play, hitting the defensive boards and winning 50-50 balls. So that is what he is looking for from the point position.

He said what he was looking for from the 5 spot was that group to play hard and to play good defense. He didn't talk much about scoring from that group except the need to be sound while we ran the offense through them from the elbow and the ability to make the "quick jump hook."

About Devoe, he said that he wanted him to focus on winning games without looking to score all the time. It was when speaking about Devoe is when Pastner commented about "not giving the ball a headache" and emphasized Ball Movement, "rhythm, flow and energy." Sounds to me like Pastner is really trying to develop the primary scoring option being the open man.

In other words, this is not going to be a "star" system where we feature players. It is very clear that Pastner is running a system and he wants the guys to buy into running the system. On offense, that means lots of movement, everyone touches the ball, hard cutting and crisp ball movement. Rhythm, Flow & Energy. The "Go-To" man is the open man.

In the fewinstances that Pastner made a comment about scoring, it was in the context of guys making open shots. So that is the deal there, he has a system to get guys open shots, and he needs for his players to run the system and then finish by making the open shots.

On defense it is all about intense, dive on the floor, effort; a sophisticated amoeba zone with seamless transitions between man an zone, and an emphasis on guard rebounding.

In speaking about his freshman class, Pastner paused for a tangent when he said that Gt was "unique" in that we were a little complicated on both sides of the ball. That kind of statement is a dead giveaway of a systems coach. Having complicated schemes could also be part of the reason the team starts slow, as it takes time to catch-up with complexity.

Anyway, this is why forecasters miss on their projections for GT teams. Forecasters are fixated on star players and they tend to be mystified by system coaches. They saw our team last year and assumed it was star players that won the day, even though the same forecasters did not project our star players to be star players.
Forecasters start to pay attention to systems coaches after repeated success, like Bennett and now Leonard Hamilton.
 
Last edited:

g0lftime

Helluva Engineer
Messages
5,348
We still have to replace about 35 points per game average from Jose and Moses. We might get 5 to 10 from our center. Jose also made a lot of steals last year. Teams will try to lock down Mike and Usher. Anxious to see who steps up.
 

Root4GT

Helluva Engineer
Messages
2,349
Pastner's pre-season presser was revealing. I think I counted at least four times that he commented about various positions needing to play hard and winning 50-50 balls.

He talked about Sturdivant and Smith approaching Alvarado's scrappy play, hitting the defensive boards and winning 50-50 balls. So that is what he is looking for from the point position.

He said what he was looking for from the 5 spot was that group to play hard and to play good defense. He didn't talk much about scoring from that group except the need to be sound while we ran the offense through them from the elbow and the ability to make the "quick jump hook."

About Devoe, he said that he wanted him to focus on winning games without looking to score all the time. It was when speaking about Devoe is when Pastner commented about "not giving the ball a headache" and emphasized Ball Movement, "rhythm, flow and energy." Sounds to me like Pastner is really trying to develop the primary scoring option being the open man.

In other words, this is not going to be a "star" system where we feature players. It is very clear that Pastner is running a system and he wants the guys to buy into running the system. On offense, that means lots of movement, everyone touches the ball, hard cutting and crisp ball movement. Rhythm, Flow & Energy. The "Go-To" man is the open man.

In the fewinstances that Pastner made a comment about scoring, it was in the context of guys making open shots. So that is the deal there, he has a system to get guys open shots, and he needs for his players to run the system and then finish by making the open shots.

On defense it is all about intense, dive on the floor, effort; a sophisticated amoeba zone with seamless transitions between man an zone, and an emphasis on guard rebounding.

In speaking about his freshman class, Pastner paused for a tangent when he said that Gt was "unique" in that we were a little complicated on both sides of the ball. That kind of statement is a dead giveaway of a systems coach. Having complicated schemes could also be part of the reason the team starts slow, as it takes time to catch-up with complexity.

Anyway, this is why forecasters miss on their projections for GT teams. Forecasters are fixated on star players and they tend to be mystified by system coaches. They saw our team last year and assumed it was star players that won the day, even though the same forecasters did not project our star players to be star players.
Forecasters start to pay attention to systems coaches after repeated success, like Bennett and now Leonard Hamilton.
Good thoughts. The slow start is a real concern as we have a fairly difficult non conference schedule. If we mess it up like we have previously under CJP that adds much more pressure to win ACC games which is never z ACCm easy task.

How we start this season will be telling on CJP’s approach.
 

daddee724

Georgia Tech Fan
Messages
93
 

orientalnc

Helluva Engineer
Retired Staff
Messages
9,338
Location
Oriental, NC
Anyone expecting the rotation to be figured out game 1 is setting their expectations too high.
A couple of thoughts about the rotation:

Until CJP has confidence that one of his bigs can stay on the floor without being a liability, the rotation at the 5 will not be stable.

If Coleman gets introduced as a starter before Christmas I think he is a lot better than we thought or someone ahead of him has an issue. I hope we see him get 15-20 minutes early. After that depends on his play. The same for Miles Kelly.

My prediction for first game starters -> Sturdivant, Devoe, Usher, K Moore, Howard
6th man -> Smith
Early off the bench -> Meka, Coleman, Kelly

All the starters have played in the system and Pastner knows what they can do in a game. I bet Pastner plays 9-10 guys early in the season in an effort to see which ones will be in the 7-8 getting minutes in 2022.
 

YlJacket

Helluva Engineer
Messages
3,167
Moore's status likely depends on whether he can hit a 15-18 foot jumper reliably (assuming his defense). Coleman's status depends on whether he can guard at the college level (assuming his offense).

Howard or any of the big's status will depend on whether they can stay on the floor playing good D and can they rebound. Offense is simply a plus at this stage.

All this will be interesting to watch over the first month of the season
 

Buzzbomb

Mello Yellow-Jacket
Messages
12,014
I’d like to see a smaller, quick lineup on certain matchups where Howard sits and the third guard such as Smith or Coleman comes in. Moore and Usher inside. Some disguise zone?
 

GTHomer

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
896
A couple of thoughts about the rotation:

Until CJP has confidence that one of his bigs can stay on the floor without being a liability, the rotation at the 5 will not be stable.

If Coleman gets introduced as a starter before Christmas I think he is a lot better than we thought or someone ahead of him has an issue. I hope we see him get 15-20 minutes early. After that depends on his play. The same for Miles Kelly.

My prediction for first game starters -> Sturdivant, Devoe, Usher, K Moore, Howard
6th man -> Smith
Early off the bench -> Meka, Coleman, Kelly

All the starters have played in the system and Pastner knows what they can do in a game. I bet Pastner plays 9-10 guys early in the season in an effort to see which ones will be in the 7-8 getting minutes in 2022.
Do you think Parham will see the floor?
 

lv20gt

Helluva Engineer
Messages
5,546
That sucks but hopefully he can return fully healthy later in the year.

It opens the door for a lot of things though. I would expect both Sturdivant and Smith to play a good chunk now probably being two of the top 3 (behind Devoe) at the guard position. However it leaves the door open for someone like Maxwell or Kelly to get some playing time as an off ball guard they may not have otherwise gotten as I don't know how well either Sturdivant or Smith will be other than as a primary PG.
 
Top