2017 - F - Isaiah Livers (Commit)

Livers shows great timing when he is blocking shots.

Excited to see him play for us.

Yep JJ. That’s one thing DJ hasent showed yet, the jumper off the bounce consistently. Isaiah will provide that immediately

Livers named Gatorade Michigan player of the year:

https://www.gatorade.com/poy/winner/isaiah-livers/35613

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Congrats! Well deserved. Been a long time since our last Mr. Basketball (Manny?).

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Thought this was interesting positionally

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Anyone wanna take wagers on what the minutes distribution at the 3 looks like between Matthews, Robinson and Livers next year?

I think Livers depends on the development of Teske/Davis & on Wagner’s ability to stay out of foul trouble.

But working backwards, come the start of the B1G slate:
I think Wilson will see 30-32min/gm
I think Matthews will see 25-30mpg
I think Robinson will 20-22mpg
Wagner averaged 28mpg in B1G regular season play ---- which seems like a good starting point for next season’s projections, if he can avoid the type of foul trouble that has limited him to around 22mpg in the post-season tournaments.

That leaves roughly 10-12 mpg for Teske or Davis at backup Center… if neither really proves reliable, that opens the door for more Wilson at Center and by extension gives Livers a run at the Big Wing/4 spot.

The curveball in any of this is the progress of the guards. If the PGs struggle with the system, MAAR may see some run at the PG position, which may have the trickle down effect of sliding Matthews to minutes at the 2-guard and opening up more rotation minutes for the wings.

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I don’t see how MAAR does not get some run at PG.

That’s what I see as well. I think he will play some at the three in his career. Really pumped for that addition.

Knowing this I really wish we had gone after Kyle young long or donnie Tillman as well to round out the class. Z

I’m with you. I wanted to keep pursing Young and Tillman as a pure 4. Will be really interesting to see what happens with that last scholly for next year. Hopefully we still have a good shot with Bamba.

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The three and the four are the same position for all intents and purposes on offense, but the much more obvious route to playing time next year for Livers is at the four as DJ’s backup.

The question defensively becomes who he is best guarding, but again given his size and skillset I think it makes sense to slot him in as a four when looking forward.

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tbh, I don’t see much chance for significant playing time for Livers next year. Unless Teske/Davis really disappoint and we decide to run small lineups with DJ at C in leiu of an actual backup center. Otherwise, there just aren’t minutes to go around.

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Or DJ Wilson goes to the league and then what happens to the frontcourt minutes?

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This is the scenario I think we’re all silently fearing!

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4 posts were merged into an existing topic: Fire up the NBA Draft hype machine

I think his athleticism will be a plus as a back up 4 and when the team has to go small ball. Currently small ball is DJ at the 5 and Duncan at the 4 which is not optimal as he gets bullied on the boards often. The real key to me is how Matthews fits into the team structure. Is he a 3 and shifts to the 4 on small ball or to the 2 to have what I would call long small ball. What ever, we are going to need Matthews and Livers to be ready to play some major defense with Zak gone as I see him as our best defender and it isn’t close.

Very true, if Wilson or Wagner leave after this season AND Bamba doesn’t come to UM, the minutes equation is a lot different next season. To some extent that’s where Livers and Poole are important to the program next season — as “safety nets” in case something unexpected occurs.

We’ll know in about a month what next year’s roster should look like and then we’ll have all summer to have fun playing around with different lineup permutations :slight_smile:

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End of the road for Isaiah Livers, fell to Xavier TIllman and GR Christian in the state quarters.

Boys hoops: Tillman gets better of Mr. Basketball in state quarters