I think in that case, if it’s a 2-3 zone, you put Matthews in the middle and extend DJ to the three point line. That gives you DJ and MAAR as the shooters, Moe who can shoot it even though he’s down low, and Matthews playing facilitator role in the middle.
It’d be tough to move DJ away from that middle facilitator role, but hopefully that’s something Matthews can do well.
Exactly, the amount of tough buckets he creates and scores is pretty big. He really knows when to score a tough basket. He has terrible vision when guys are open so I don’t see him as a point but I don’t see him losing much time to poole, Brooks or Ibi. His d, slashing and intangibles are too great.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Maar took on the go to scorer role for the roster. I watched the Oregon/ Michigan game again and the intensity of the game and of our defense is something I can’t see Poole handling well. I think his role as shooter/ scorer off the bench will be perfect for him. 10-15 min a game. Hell I still give ibi a shot to win those minutes. I could see him holding off Poole.
This past season, our starting lineup featured 5 guys that could shoot from deep. Two of those have graduated. Even if X and Matthews can’t shoot a lick, we’ll still have three that can. And I think X will shoot much better if he can get more catch and shoot opportunities.
If Poole (or Ibi) gets 15 minutes at the 2, that is a reduction of 5 minutes for MAAR (unless you see him getting additional minutes at the point).
Part of the reason that our offense was so good is because we had 5 guys that could shoot the three. Spread the defense and open up the lane. Having three guys that can shoot is good, but having 4 or 5 is better.
WE need to adjust our style this year if we want to win. This roster needs to cut the threesz down by 5 shots a game at least. This roster is built to run and slash/ post up. Let’s hope we adjust. Shoot threes on the kick out ect.hopefully belein mAkes the proper adjustments.
It’s only better if - between all 5 players - they can fill the other roles and skills necessary for the offense to function. We had a great offense because we had 5 shooters, two of which were bigs, and we had two guys that could find them off the PnR or PnP in Walton and Irvin, plus MAAR being able to get to the basket on his own.
Our best shooting lineup next season would most likely be Moe-Wilson-DRob-Poole-MAAR. That’s a very good shooting lineup. But it will struggle mightily in things outside shooting IMO.
5 shooters isn’t inherently a good offense just like how having 5 great offensive rebounders isn’t inherently a good offense or 5 slashers or 5 dribble drive threats.
I realize this is a pretty specific sub-topic and not related to the real topic (Poole), but I disagree. I think DJ is tailor-made for sitting in the middle of the zone: he hit a few back door cutters, and his height helps him shoot/pass over the zone. Also, I think Matthews will be easily our best option as a backdoor cutter, and I’d be greatly surprised if his redshirt time with JB hasn’t made him a passable open-corner-3 shooter.
Still, between the presumed limitations with our guards (shooting and facilitating) and the exciting versatility of our bigs, it will be very interesting to see what this team ‘looks’ like, next year.
Agree with this completely as it relates to DJ in the middle against a zone. Let him make a decision to attack, hit cutters, lob into Wagner or kick out to shooters. His length, passing, and ability to hit the 12 footer would be an asset in that role.
I fully agree with you and @lopez, because DJ is picture perfect in the middle of a zone.
My point was more if Matthews isn’t adequate enough to be a spot up shooter. If the question posed above was what do we do in a zone with that lineup, then you aren’t going to get the ball into DJs hands in the middle very often. They’d sag off and into the middle. This all just greatly assuming CM can’t hit the 3pt shot enough in the spot up role.
That makes sense. Im just hoping/assuming CM can hit the open corner 3 at a ~35% clip, until proven otherwise.
To play 5-out, you dont need five guys shooting 40% from 3, just five shooting threats. A wide open 3, left to a guy who can make it and will take it, is still a bad shot to surrender, making helping-off hard. I think CM and X can be good enough to maintain the principals of this year’s offense, even if we shoot a lower % as a team.
And I think X will shoot much better if he can get more catch and shoot opportunities.
A full off-season of X working on his shooting will likely help as well. What’s nice is the example DW Jr. set for how working hard during an off-season can really pay off big time. Hopefully the younger players were paying attention! 
I would be surprised if MAAR became the go-to-scorer. He hasn’t shown Walton’s ability to create space and launch threes and while he seems willing to go the hoop, he’s not particularly quick and relies on a lot of juking to get an opening. Beilein said when talking about the need of guys with wiggle, that MAAR had a “little” of that.
Well, clearly we don’t know until they set foot on the court. But given the film I’ve seen, I feel pretty confident both Brooks and Poole will be far better three point shooters than MAAR. By next year? I don’t know, we’ll see. Poole has Stauskas type range, and Nik was certainly a better three point shooter as a freshman than MAAR has ever been.
Again, my point is real simple. If the MAAR we saw over the final 15 games or so is the guy we’ll have next year, he’ll keep his job and play big minutes. But if it’s the guy we saw early in the year, he’s going to get pushed hard for playing time if indeed Brooks and Poole are ready (and sure, they may not be).
Here’s the book on MAAR from Beilein himself. Sounds like he expects MAAR to take on a bigger role next year.
http://www.mgoblue.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/031817aaj.html
Out of all the perimeter guys MAar could easily be the go to. It’s rare these days when bigs are the go to and certainly not the way we’ve played. I think that is what we SHOULD do but who knows if we start feeding the post like that.
If DJ returns I think he could develop into that go to guy. He can handle has length and can get a shot off in multiple ways.
That sounds like pretty tepid coach speak to be drawing any conclusions about his role next year.
We may see an offense with more equal distribution for a few players – more like when Nik was the “go-to” but he saw approximately the same number of shots as Caris and Glenn. That could increase the value of a guy like Poole with his offensive versatility and high level shooting and passing.
Yeah, I think long term they’ll most likely be better shooters. But next year? And at this point, we can’t project them being able to contribute more than shooting immediately. Which means they most likely won’t be cutting into the time of players that provide more than shooting.