I thought, before the suspension of Reggie Lynch, that it would be great to have a player like Joey King on this team.. I thought that Davonte Fitzgerald may be that type of guy but he struggled to get back to form. .He would help spread the floor by having the ability for a PF to shoot outside... Would make spacing a lot easier inside.Or a player like Damian Johnson, who I wished would have eternal eligibility. Reggie and Jordan Murphy would have had much more room to work and the drives would not have had as many defenders near the rim.
Think about the last PFs we have had outside of Joey King in the last 10 years.... Trevor Mbakwe, Rodney Williams, Jordan Murphy... All very exciting players with great strengths to their game.. But none of them were threats from the outside, though in fairness, Rodney became much better his senior year. This caused problems in key ways.
With our centers and power forwards limited in their outside shooting, there were usually 2 opponent defenders that were usually BIGS, near the rim to defend... Reggie created awkward circumstances for the defense on his drives from the elbow and was so long that he kept a lot of balls alive with the tip, catch, and put back.. Plus had that hook shot. Jordan was just so darn strong down low.... But just think of the success of the players if there was a threat from the OUTSIDE at either the '4' or 5' spot on the floor as well as others. There would be so much LESS TRAFFIC at the rim.
That is not to say we dont need inside threats but I think some of our spacing issues will get solved if we have a threat at the '4' that can hit the jumper from 12-15 feet consistently.. Would help if Oturu could do that as well. WIth Gas and Bakary, we werent able to pull anyone away from the rim and defenders would let Jordan shoot the jumper as that is still a lower percentage shot.
Omersa may help..If Minnesota gets 2019s Matt Hurt and Zeke Nnaji, I think that would help at the '4', big time.. I think both can shoot. Critical to getting spacing and opening up that floor so that the drive is open as well as the pull up.. Works well with motion or as an option off the post up.
Think about the last PFs we have had outside of Joey King in the last 10 years.... Trevor Mbakwe, Rodney Williams, Jordan Murphy... All very exciting players with great strengths to their game.. But none of them were threats from the outside, though in fairness, Rodney became much better his senior year. This caused problems in key ways.
With our centers and power forwards limited in their outside shooting, there were usually 2 opponent defenders that were usually BIGS, near the rim to defend... Reggie created awkward circumstances for the defense on his drives from the elbow and was so long that he kept a lot of balls alive with the tip, catch, and put back.. Plus had that hook shot. Jordan was just so darn strong down low.... But just think of the success of the players if there was a threat from the OUTSIDE at either the '4' or 5' spot on the floor as well as others. There would be so much LESS TRAFFIC at the rim.
That is not to say we dont need inside threats but I think some of our spacing issues will get solved if we have a threat at the '4' that can hit the jumper from 12-15 feet consistently.. Would help if Oturu could do that as well. WIth Gas and Bakary, we werent able to pull anyone away from the rim and defenders would let Jordan shoot the jumper as that is still a lower percentage shot.
Omersa may help..If Minnesota gets 2019s Matt Hurt and Zeke Nnaji, I think that would help at the '4', big time.. I think both can shoot. Critical to getting spacing and opening up that floor so that the drive is open as well as the pull up.. Works well with motion or as an option off the post up.
Last edited:
