MAAR and Alstork would be a very good backcourt. And one that could handle most of the ball handling responsibilities. We have better reason to believe that Alstork will be better at PnR next year than Simpson or any of our incoming guards. I don’t think he’d be competing with the wings for minutes. He’d be in the backcourt and compete with MAAR, Poole, Brooks and Simpson. Two best players in that group are probably MAAR and Alstork. He could potentially take some of DRob’s minutes if we go smaller, but I don’t think that’s really a problem for me. Alstork also solves our one obvious question mark next year more than Daniels - creating for others. Horizon is greater than MEAC IMO, so if you question Alstork’s production you absolutely have to questions Daniels’ as well.
The only question mark is on defense against quicker PGs IMO. Alstork/MAAR are probably not quite built to handle it but then you’ve got Simpson on the bench to play bigger minutes in those games.
Aren’t most grad transfers role players? If a senior has aspirations of playing professionally I would imagine they go pro (here or oversees) to get paid rather than play another year in college.
I don’t have access to the article but there’s enough people talking about on Twitter to come up with a pretty good educated guess of Jaaron Simmons from Ohio.
I like Simmons the best out of the Simmons, Alstork, Daniel trio that expressed interest in visiting. Cam Johnson and Simmons would be awesome if Bamba isn’t a thing
If Wilson and/or Wagner leave, we will need a scoring guard. If they both stay, we will need a facilitator to get them the ball. If they leave and Bamba comes here, we will still need a scoring guard because Bamba is not a guy you give the ball to and let him create for himself. It’ll be interesting to see what happens. The most important thing is keeping Wilson and Wagner for one more year. If they both leave and we land Bamba, we wouldn’t be as good as we would be with Wilson and Wagner staying.
I think the starters at 2 and 3 are not locked in. Beilein moved Robinson to the bench last year even though he was a 4th year returning starter.
Depending on what happens at 1 and 4, you may have more need for a shooter (Robinson) than a slasher (Matthews). And while I agree MAAR is very likely going to keep his starting job, what if it’s Simpson and Matthews starting beside him? Is Michigan really going to start a lineup where MAAR is the biggest (only) 3 point shooting threat on the perimeter?
As is generally the case, Michigan will have some figuring out to do next season before it finds the right roles and rotations. There’s a decent chance next year’s roster is deeper and more competitive than it has been since at least 2013…though that statement has been made in a lot of Aprils and not ended up being true.
It’s possible the 3 isn’t locked in, but I FULLY assume Matthews is the starter. I said it another post, but if he’s not the starter than the team is probably in trouble. I think MAAR is locked in for sure as a starter as well, although that may end up being in name only if a transfer or Poole eats into his minutes.
I think the team will be okay with three point shooting. Don’t forget your 4 and 5 can shoot it at a high clip. Matthews is an unknown but from the sounds of things, he’s going to be able to shoot it at a good enough clip.
Lot of unknowns but you might have 2 shooters (Poole and Robinson) and 2 slashers (Matthews and Simpson) and it may make sense to break them up beside MAAR.
Probably a moot point though, given it looks likely there will be a grad transfer PG who can do both.
Another option could be Matthews and Robinson both starting at F if (Wilson goes pro.)
I would not count on Matthews being an asset as a shooter. Which is perfectly fine if, as you said, your 4 and 5 can drain from 3. Beilein is happy to play 1 guy who can’t shoot, but 2 pushes his limits.
If Wilson or Wagner leave it may be tough to play a lineup that has Simpson, Matthews and Teske at the same time. If MAAR and Wilson/Wagner are the 2 best 3 point shooters on the floor, that would be by far the worst shooting team Beilein’s ever had.
The Morris, Stu and Morgan lineup was a lot worse shooters than the possible X, Matthews and Wilson/Wagner lineup.
Morris couldn’t shoot it well, Morgan wasn’t a shooter and I don’t think people realize Stu was an average to below-average three point shooter most his career.
If Matthews can be in the low 30’s as a 3 point threat, the team will be more than fine with that starting lineup or one of Wilson/Wagner if one leaves.
Teske/Morgan: same. Simpson/Morris: same. Matthews v. Douglass… It’s true that Douglass was a mediocre shooter but that would be a huge step up for Matthews, who shot 41% from FTs. That’s worse than DeAndre Jordan shoots. I’m not saying Stu’s career marks (34% from 3 and 70% from FT) are unattainable, but it seems doubtful that Matthews would be there next year.
Again, the debate is academic, but I’m not sure the Beilein offense will work with so little shooting (again assuming Wagner or Wilson are gone to be replaced by Teske or Davis in the starting lineup).
X showed more shooting ability in high school. Only had 19 attempts in limited minutes this past year. That’s not enough to say he’s a bad shooter at the college level. Morris shot 64 treys and made less than 30% of them. We know he’s a bad shooter from deep. We don’t know that about X yet. I think he’ll shoot above 30% next year and if most of his attempts are spot ups, then I think he could be a competent shooter from deep.