In Reply to: I know this is gonna hurt but what the hey … posted by mikeo on January 04, 2025 at 21:46:07
"He can only get better!"
"You'd think he can only get better!"
When bloviators talk about a fr becoming a SO, or a SO becoming a JR, or a JR becoming a SR, or a guy at the start of a year progressing to the end of the year... we hear shiit like this all the time.
"The big goon with zero athleticism needs more playing time. Yeah, he looks like poop now. But if we sacrifice losses NOW...(say it with me)...'HE CAN ONLY GET BETTER'"
what horseshiit
My main beef is with the word "only". No, getting better is NOT the only possibility. The most likely possibility is the guy stays roughly the same (+/- 5%). And another possibility is that the guy gets worse.
That's what we're seeing so far with da.
His production is WAY off. Now, it could be that his o skills are better than ever. And that the reason his production is way off is that it's a different team with different schemes and his role on o is much smaller. Fair enough. But most people don't have the analytical skills to discern a player's bball skills at a micro level.
I've watched very little Ucla bball this year (it's pretty unwatchable), but my sense is that Cronin is doing da ZERO favors on the o end. Ucla doesn't run any actions that are designed to get da a clean look. I never see da in a two man game with, say, bildo.
I liked that late game set where da was on the right wing wth the side cleared out for him.
He had a very nice hesi move that froze his man, and manufactured a wide open RH layup for himself.
Why not run that 4x per half? If they run a 2nd guy at him, make sure the 2nd guy's mark dives to the hoop. We need some layups.