Yeah… I don’t see this team (which lacks lateral quickness at most positions) being a great fit to play Press Virginia style basketball.
3 Likes
Zeb Jackson almost has to get guard minutes with this team. Going to need his ability to handle the ball and maybe spell as a lead guard when foul trouble happens. Also late game ball handling and quickness.
1 Like
Well, I think the ideal situation for this year is that they don’t need him because Smith is good, Eli is his usual self, and Franz/Brown show they can play a few minutes at SG just fine. Then Zeb can ease his way in when he’s ready.
It would be great if Zeb were ready to play because an athletic 6’4" ball handling guard helps this team a lot and preps him for next year. But it feels unrealistic to expect a freshman PG who didn’t play much the past year to be ready.
I think stamina will be an issue with both Davis and Dickinson. I hope they could get some Camp Sanderson time during the summer.
2 Likes
First, how Beilein used Bigs appears to be significantly different than how Howard uses Bigs, so it’s not really a good apples-to-apples comparison.
But, didn’t Morgan redshirt because he had an injury from HS that required surgery and forced him to miss the start of the season?
And didn’t Beilein complain that McGary showed up on campus out of shape? (and had Morgan & Horford to compete with on the roster)
1 Like
True, but he started Nunez instead of Johns or DeJulius or Bajema — it was a baseline he was more comfortable with and kept Johns & DeJulius in their rotational roles off the bench.
Much easier to see Coach Howard replicating that and starting Davis at the onset of the season, especially the first 2-3 games of the season (even if Davis plays the smaller slice of the minutes in those games). Yes, if Dickinson consistently outplays Davis and clearly “wins” the position, he’ll start at some point in the season…just tough to see that being Game 1 (or 2 or 3).
1 Like
The more I look at the roster, the more I hope Jimmy Butler’s 4 AM workouts were worth it for Smith. I really think he will be the pivot player for this team. It is possible to imagine him as a plus plus offensive player who really unlocks the center and the wings and, if you’re really dreaming, is an ok defensive player who just gets shot over once or twice a game but generally stays in front of his man. I can also imagine that he essentially doesn’t play. I don’t think there is any other player who has such a huge range of outcomes. It is so strange, because the guy has played a million minutes of D1 ball, and yet …
To me, this is the most important thing to watch in the first few games.
2 Likes
That’s fair, I was being lazy, but surely there are teams with Johns-Livers-Wagner-Brown-Smith/Brooks lineups that play good defense sharing rebounding and relying on good length and the offensive bonuses of having 5 skilled guys out there and the worst 3pt shooter being 2 decent threats in Brown and Johns (Brown’s FT% in particular indicate he could easily have a high 30s season next year) to make up for not having a rim protecting 5.
I just don’t see it with Davis I guess. I think he’s a low ceiling, medium floor option. I’d rather see the minutes and scheme move towards the wings, particularly when considering he’s not particularly good defensively and the offensive bump from having another 3pt shooter out there seems significant considering we project to only have one 15+ point guy in Wagner. You can make up for a lot of halfcourt offensive issues by bombing 3s at a high rate even if you’re hitting 35 percent of them, and if we want Wagner to be efficient carrying the load offensively surely we want the lane clear for him (and Brown (from what I’ve seen and his rebounding rate) Smith and Johns who we will need to score inside with drives and maybe the occasional post-up on switches or smaller 2 guards Brown/Livers/Wagner can bully, not sure Livers or Brooks’ game is as affected by a non-spacing 5 unless one of them comes back with the ability to consistently get inside).
A plug in senior at the level of a guy like Jon Horford or something, sure. But I don’t see that level of consistent play with Davis. I’d rather let Williams fight for 15 minutes using his bulk (assuming he is 240) and hoping he can survive by keeping other bigs from getting position and not having to play huge minutes against guys and get him experience and have another shooter out there, like we did with Novak at the 4 a long time ago. And if we can’t handle Garza, Kofi or Williams then that’s a specific game thing, not the way we’re approaching the season as a whole.
To be clear, I’m not at all saying that a Johns lineup wouldn’t work. I think it is vital to success this season. I’m not 100% sure that it is in the plan, at least to start.
1 Like
Yeah I get that, I just don’t see why we aren’t going with talent over more traditional 1-5 stuff in this particular case. If we had gotten Sarr or Haas as a transfer or similar to come and play 20 minutes and leave 15-20 for Dickinson and only 5ish for Johns then sure, bog standard positional stuff instead of comitting to smallball would make more sense. Edited my last post to add thoughts btw.
Dylan. Do you know when media day or next availability is for mens bball?
3 Likes
12 Likes
I was already skeptical of Franz playing much at SG
Isaiah Livers says Franz Wagner (still 19 years old, mind you) grew this offseason. Livers thinks he's 6-foot-10 now.
— Daniel Dash (@DanielDash_) November 13, 2020
21-22 roster speculation here…
If you’re Juwan, how badly do you want Mike Smith back on this team next year? Super Senior PG with all that freshman talent and presumably Hunter Dickinson. Can’t see Zeb being ready
They’re going to need to have an older guard on the roster 100%. I would imagine the hope is that one of Smith/Brooks take the extra year, and if not you gotta go find someone in the transfer portal.
1 Like
Next year’s roster is missing a veteran guard for sure. We know how important it is to have a good PG from the Beilein era and now with Smith. Also, go ask Izzo how it feels to not have a clear PG. I love Collins and I think Zeb has long term potential…but next year could be rough if they don’t get a veteran to join that rotation.
(I would love for it to be Smith or Brooks…but I don’t see that happening.)
It would likely be Smith, who has been in Ann Arbor for just a year and has only had the COVID tainted year. Eli’s been here 4 years and would be more likely to want to move on. If I were Zeb, I’d be in the gym putting up hundreds of threes.
1 Like
I’ve said before that I don’t really buy the argument that most guys will want to move on even if they don’t have legit pro prospects, but even if that is the case its easy to see that not applying to Smith. There are worse ways to spend a year other than being in Ann Arbor playing on a nationally contending team.
4 Likes
I am still skeptical, but I also don’t know what Smith is doing with grad school. The kid graduated from Columbia and is now getting a master’s at Michigan. If his Master’s is a multi-year program then why not finish it on Michigan’s dime before you start your career? That would be my sales pitch to him if I am Howard anyway.
6 Likes