How should we play our players together next season

Southpaw13

Helluva Engineer
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Marietta, Georgia
I think you've gotta play them together with our current roster. You can stagger their rest and have 5 minutes off each that are not together... but you need them both on the court, they are basically our 2 best players.
 

slugboy

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10,804
Devoe is not our second best player though.

Well, that’s one way to get impassioned basketball posts.

In BPM order, we’re
James Banks 7.3
Jose Alvarado 4.1
AD Gueye. 3.2. (Gone)
Michael Devoe 2.9
Curtis Haywood. 2.6. (Gone)
Evan Cole. 0.2
Khalid Moore. -0.1
Brandon Alston -0.5. (Gone)
Moses Wright. -0.6
Sylvester Ogbonda -0.7 (Gone)
Kristian Sjolund. -2.6. -1.8 offense -1.1 defense, so mostly offense there


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

slugboy

Moderator
Staff member
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10,804
Here's a better BPM chart from last season (no Usher, of course)

Code:
Rk              Player  OBPM DBPM   BPM
1      James Banks III   0.4  6.9   7.3
3        Jose Alvarado   2.3  1.8   4.1
4      Abdoulaye Gueye  -1.1  4.4   3.2
5        Michael Devoe   0.4  2.5   2.9
6    Curtis Haywood II   0.5  2.1   2.6
7            Evan Cole  -2.7  2.9   0.2
8         Khalid Moore  -0.4  0.3  -0.1
9       Brandon Alston   0.6 -1.1  -0.5
10        Moses Wright  -2.9  2.3  -0.6
11   Sylvester Ogbonda  -4.6  3.7  -0.9
12    Kristian Sjolund  -1.8 -1.1  -2.9
13     Shaheed Medlock  -4.6  1.5  -3.0
14   Shembari Phillips  -5.0  1.2  -3.8
15        Malachi Rice -23.0 -5.9 -28.9
16         Evan Jester -36.4 -4.6 -41.0

Provided by CBB at Sports Reference: View Original Table
Generated 4/8/2019.

Since BPM is challenged in a lot of ways, here's Win Shares (sorted by 40 minutes)
Code:
Rk              Player  OWS DWS  WS WS/40
2      James Banks III  1.3 1.9 3.2  .138
3        Jose Alvarado  1.0 1.8 2.8  .106
4      Abdoulaye Gueye  0.4 1.0 1.4  .106
5         Khalid Moore  0.6 0.6 1.2  .095
6       Brandon Alston  0.5 0.5 1.1  .094
7        Michael Devoe  0.5 1.6 2.1  .082
8    Curtis Haywood II  0.0 1.1 1.2  .074
9         Moses Wright  0.0 1.0 1.0  .074
10           Evan Cole  0.0 0.4 0.4  .070
11   Sylvester Ogbonda  0.0 0.1 0.1  .056
12    Kristian Sjolund -0.1 0.3 0.2  .042
13     Shaheed Medlock  0.0 0.0 0.0  .030
14   Shembari Phillips -0.3 0.3 0.0  .005
15        Malachi Rice  0.0 0.0 0.0 -.345
16         Evan Jester  0.0 0.0 0.0 -.531

Provided by CBB at Sports Reference: View Original Table
Generated 4/8/2019.

Both charts seem to say "go with a lineup that can bang inside a little, get a layup and maybe a few rebounds"
 

RyanS12

Helluva Engineer
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Flint Michigan
Banks, Wright, Usher, Devoe, Alvarado starting 5. You can sit JA, slide Mike to pg and bring Price in at the 2. Moore and Cole are solid at the 3/4 but Moses’ late season production locked down a starting spot imo.

We need a grad transfer big to backup Banks and look for a HS kid to develop for 20/21
As far as the backcourt, the Price pickup was needed but I think we need a grad transfer shooter as well. If we can get a couple more guys I’d like to see us play the uptempo style like JP talked last season.
 

MiracleWhips

Ramblin' Wreck
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583
I think you've gotta play them together with our current roster. You can stagger their rest and have 5 minutes off each that are not together... but you need them both on the court, they are basically our 2 best players.
You think we should have our second best player back up the first player and not play them at the same time?
Not sure if my message made it over from the other thread but I think James Banks is our best two way player. Devoe to me is a liability defensively but for now I guess we can chalk it up as a freshman learning our zone. I do think he needs more of a 6th man role though, I'm not saying the two can't be on the court at the same time... but 30-35 mins together is too much. If it makes things better I believe Jose gets too many minutes so maybe scaling his minutes back and giving those to Devoe wouldn't hurt.
 

lv20gt

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5,560
Not sure if my message made it over from the other thread but I think James Banks is our best two way player. Devoe to me is a liability defensively but for now I guess we can chalk it up as a freshman learning our zone. I do think he needs more of a 6th man role though, I'm not saying the two can't be on the court at the same time... but 30-35 mins together is too much. If it makes things better I believe Jose gets too many minutes so maybe scaling his minutes back and giving those to Devoe wouldn't hurt.

So who do you play instead? Unfortunately you can't make decisions in a vacuum away from what the rest of the team is.
 

RyanS12

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Flint Michigan
As bad as this season was, now that I’ve had time to step off the ledge, I think the potential is there to be an NCAA tournament team next year. I’d take a first 4 appearance at this point, with a W. The backcourt is talented. Jose needs some work and Devoe needs to get stronger but I expect them to make a big jump.
Like I posted earlier, an able body behind Banks is critical! He has a knack to get in foul trouble. He got potential to be a 3rd team ACC type player. But we need depth at that spot.
The way we play D is right there with Texas Tech, UVA types. Not saying we’re that good, but we’re good enough to get a team out of their game in a tournament setting. We need a shooter and someone that can create off the dribble to really make this happen.
 

MiracleWhips

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
583
So who do you play instead? Unfortunately you can't make decisions in a vacuum away from what the rest of the team is.
Right, it's tough to say because a lot can happen in a offseason.

I would like to see

Jose/devoe
Usher/devoe/price
Moore/Usher
Wright/Cole
Banks/Wright
 

YlJacket

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3,189
How we should play our players together is dependent upon which players we are playing. Right now the most likely 5 are Jose, Devoe, Banks, Wright and Usher (post Xmas). Moore and Cole first off the bench – all this pending a grad transfer bucket getter that CJP keeps talking about. With that core of 7 players there isn’t any chance in hadies of not playing Jose and Devoe together for massive minutes. There are simply no options short of a Lazarus event from Philips.

At this point, who is the first, second or third best player is kind of a moot question. The trio of Jose, Devoe and Banks - in any order you want to put them - is going to play until their legs fall off or Jamie Lucky decides to put one or all of them on the bench.

Going back to the title of this post – HOW should we play our players – with Moses on the floor I agree with Red that Moses has a chance to play like Diakite at UVA, but this means scrapping the 4 out system CJP tried to run most of last year with Moses parked in the corner looking for a 3 ball. Like Diakite, we need to find ways to get him the ball 10 to 18 feet from the basket in the flow of things where he can make quick moves to the basket or shoot 15 footers. Otherwise he is ignored on the 3 point line and will get points on back cuts or other times he is forgotten and gets to the basket.

We also are going to have to get Devoe more help in getting his 3 point shot off. So far he isn’t explosive in either getting up on his jumper or getting past defenders. So he gets crowded and taken out of games – especially by athletic guards. The how we play part needs to include some serious scheming to get our best returning shooter some open looks off of some specific movement/actions.

IMHO for this team as constituted to get to the bubbly land next year is a tall order. There are real reasons we had a losing record, got bounced pretty easily in the first game of the ACC tourney by a team below us in the standings and really didn’t build to anything the last half of last year. We are pretty good defensively with a different zone scheme but close to woeful offensively. To move off of woeful status we have to have either some massive player development improvement from pretty much everyone on the roster or we get a real bucket getter(s) in the grad transfer market – or hopefully both. And we are going to have to be really smart in how we scheme offensively to the strengths our players do have.
 

OG-T

Jolly Good Fellow
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303
For anyone who thinks Devoe is not starting next year - send some of that CBD oil my way. Absolute talent. Give him an injury-free summer and fall, and a year of college b-ball in his rear view. You’ll see.
 

RamblinRed

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Jose and Mike will be the starting backcourt next season. That is not even a question. Even before this past season started Pastner was quoted as saying that he thought those 2 would be one of the best backcourts in the ACC in 19-20.

There is no other guard right now who could even hope to take min from those 2 on the roster.
Looking at full year or just ACC action Devoe was 3rd in win shares behind Banks and Jose. 4th was AD. 3rd on the team as a FR is a good place to start.
Devoe was also one of the 5 best shooters in the conference in ACC games, making 32 threes at an almost 44% clip.

Assuming Moses continues his play from the last 3 weeks of the season then the starting five will be Jose, Mike, James, Moses and one of Moore, Sjolund or Usher.

Usher will be eligible the day after fall semester ends - I believe Dec 13h.
FWIW, Usher's conference only win shares at USC was 1.1 as a FR(for GT last year in conference play it was Banks 1.5, Jose 1.3, Devoe 0.7, AD 0.5, Moses 0.2).

IMO, the single biggest need for next season is a 3rd guard that can help Jose and Mike. Jose and Mike will handle PG duties. When one is out the other is the PG.
I'm less worried about the frontcourt if Moses continues his late season play. Banks will start, Moses could potentially back up the 5 when Banks is out and then you can play Cole or more likely Usher at the 4.
 

RamblinCharger

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Alabama
Some good points here. I’d like to add that I think Moore will be a really good player and should get major minutes at the 3/4 spots.

Jose / Devoe
Devoe/ Grad transfer / Price
Usher/ Moore / Sjolund
Wright / Moore
Banks / Wright / Grad Transfer

I think this team has a chance to win 18-20 games next year. Need a good summer together and need a good grad transfer guard that can score, and a big to help Banks.
 
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