I’d l take ddj and Bajema over Brown and zeb from deep but I agree a hundred percent with your take. I personally have been touting that shooting from range is going to actually be our surprise strength this year,
To his point about ball handling, I agree that we have limited options but luckily for us smith has elite handle and vision and I’m convinced he is going to give us 27-32 minutes of above average quarterbacking out there so he is going to fill the large hole left by x.
It’s when he’s not out there where we may have some concerns.
So you just hit the other key to the season in my opinion…Smith.
If Smith is somewhere around B10 average, that means he can play 25-30 minutes and I think that unlocks everything (as long as Franz continues to get better). He fixes ball handling, initiating the offense, ball screens, outside shooting, keeping others (Brooks, Franz) at their natural positions, etc.
However, a lot of people think Smith’s likely to top out as a Spike Albrecht type of player where he’s a really effective back-up who you’re comfortable with for about 15mpg. If that’s the case, suddenly you’re primary lineup is one of the worst ball handling teams in recent Michigan memory and everyone is outside of their natural comfort zone a bit.
I meant our size more than style alone with FSU, but I’m feeling better about the season already, size on D and shooting can make up for a lot of possessions where we struggle to create something.
If you go back and break down his game film
Versus the few high majors he’s clearly not outclassed and is still one of the top players on the floor.
If you also pull his highlights vs Yale and Harvard the last couple years who I think most would agree were at bare minimum solid mid major programs he’s not just holding his own , he’s having MONSTER games.38 and 3 and 37 and 4 vs Harvard. Then he drops 34 and 4 vs Yale.
Then you watch the highlights of HOW he is doing it and it’s that much more impressive. He’s basically playing one on five and getting it done. High level of difficulty, great creativity and skill. Very impressive.
With Smith I think 15-20 minutes a game would be his sweet spot. Also from the last Martelli interview I saw it’s sounding like they’ve been playing him off the ball with Eli getting the bulk of the work at the 1.
I heard that quote and I do like the flexibility of having Brooks and Smith be able to play both roles. But if I am honest, I lumped that with the comments about Johns not being tried at the five into a bucket of “things I hope the coaches are just saying to the media”.
I hope Eli improves as a true PG and we need him to play there a fair amount. But he hasn’t really shown that to be a strength yet. I am still hoping Smith is at 20-30mpg because I don’t know that 25 minutes of Brooks at PG and Wagner at SG is our best lineup…but it would be awesome if it was!
We’ve had this discussion, but the way it was worded to me made it seem like Eli got the team into the offense the best. Which makes sense, especially early before actual practice. That’s even why Eli started as a freshman. Then I believe Martelli said something about how Smith could attack from there. Just because someone is not playing PG doesn’t mean they can’t have the primary creator role
I know but it pops up cause it’s such a major question mark and in a lot of ways I personally think our ceiling depends on what he can give us.
It also seems split between those that expect him to be your normal low major transfer up and those who think he can handle the bulk of the minutes effectively.
That’s a good point and makes me feel better to look at it that way.
I did think Eli had the potential to create and get guys open at certain points in his career but I backed off a bit because his handles were just too loose and he’s just so solid at the two.