I will take the Castleton bet.
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I would, too, but I still take the point. I think Isaiah probably has to be that guy a little more, though.
Mattski, we agree again. For Michigan to have a good year, Livers has to be the the guy making the biggest gain in contribution. From his defense, to his shooting and of course what you and I see from the training videos the ability to get to the rim when called upon.
If he does not make those gains it could be a tough season for Michigan.
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This is skirting on the edge of the topic of this thread, but to @BP3’s point, we don’t really have a guy on the '19-'20 roster who you would call a 3-level creator/scorer, which is why we needed to recruit one. I’m not convinced though that Jalen Wilson would have provided what Iggy or Poole did last year. We’ll just have to make do with what we’ve got, which is still pretty good.
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I would say that Michigan’s roster last year needed more in this regard. Poole was kind of that guy, Iggy Brazdeikis was super productive, but wasn’t really that guy. He usually caught the ball and attacked in advantageous situations rather than creating his own offense.
Livers, for me, is a guy who will play off the catch similar to Brazdeikis (and Wagner). That doesn’t mean he can’t be productive.
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Bajema has those characteristics. He’s far from just a shooter, at least when playing against the competition he’s been filmed playing against. Nifty dribble-drive game. We’ll see if he’s strong enough and forceful enough to implement it in year one against B1G competition. Wilson seemed ready for it.
I think it boils down to this… Zavier Simpson is a terrific playmaking PG, one of the best in the country. Would it be nice to have a late clock, go get a bucket guy? Of course. Can you craft an effective offense around him without one? I think probably so.
Ball dominant PG surrounded by shooters with a roll man is an effective offense. That was basically MSU’s offense last year, Maryland is a similar roster construct.
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I think they’ll be fine outside of late clock situations but it’s not like we’re not gonna have those. I wonder if Juwan will try to get Teske/Franz/Livers in the post in those situations? Teske, lord knows what that would look like. Livers, I think can get to that turnaround J reasonably well. It’s not a great shot but any shot is better than none at that point.
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Mostly agreed but it’s pretty nice that Cassius and Cowan can go get a late clock bucket
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Small sample size and everything, but Winston actually really struggled in late clock situations last year. Hist teammates were even worse (McQuaid, Goins and Henry are three of the bottom 6 in the Big Ten w/ at least 20 plays) which kind of speaks to what I was getting at.
You will never guess who was last in the Big Ten in regards to efficiency…
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Do you know where that Livers workout video is, Dylan? I didn’t find it on his roster page. Would love to stare at it again. I think that you guys are right about him being more opportunistic than creative, btw. . . but he was displaying some higher-order skills in that vid, IIRC.
I’m sure it is somewhere on Micah Lancaster’s Instagram. I would caution you to not get too excited about a workout video.
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Carsen Edwards?
I get it. But I would take this over anything we’ve seen from Livers before:
This is the one I had seen:
Setting aside what’s “instinctive” or not. . . from a former Mister Bball. . . I’m gonna drink me a little summer koolaid and let others stay thirsty!
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If you need a little variety, you could always alternate reading the posts that say that “Michigan won’t land that prospect” and “Why won’t Michigan recruit my preferred prospect harder (aka roll out the full court press)?” with the posts that say “this current Michigan player will not take the next step in their development”.
I’m gonna re-read the Franz commitment thread as a palate cleanser. Otherwise, I guess I just need to summer to be over.
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Just waiting on the NCAA to approve Michigan’s waiver to play against cones this year. 
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Now you’re gettin’ all catty and stuff, but that doesn’t look like improvement to you? The question was who we could isolate, and lean on to get late-clock buckets. While nodding to the cautions, I still nominate Isaiah–as the guy likely to BE at the 3–for a greater contribution in that role.
Now if it were only November and we could just roll 'em out and see what happens.
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I think Micah is a good trainer (I believe he worked with Victor Oladipo and others). I don’t see anything in that video that makes me think that Isaiah Livers has somehow morphed into a different type of player.
Not saying it is impossible, just that I would definitely not use workout videos to draw that conclusion.
Most likely to me, Isaiah is a better version of the player that he’s been his first two years. He plays more minutes and sees a big uptick in scoring. If his 3-point percentage can be steady while doubling his 3-point volume, that would be huge for Michigan.
At his core, Isaiah is a straight line drive, catch and shoot type of guy. He was 7th on the team in PNR possessions used last year.
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Yeah, I don’t think Livers with the ball in the PNR is going to be the solution to any potential offensive woes. Like Dylan, I think Simpson provides enough playmaking from the point with Teske as the primary roll man. If Livers and Wagner can consistently hit shots and attack aggressive closeouts ala Iggy–then our offense should be okay. As we’ve discussed here, a few guys will need to step up to round out this core of 4 options.
Given the coach change, the only thing I’m sure of is that we’ll continue to run a high PNR…a lot.
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it’s difficult to pick apart bc of sample size and selection bias. like, i wonder if late clock shots that you’re assisted on are different than mid-clock shots. do good offenses tend to have good late clock offense?
but…to your point, if you’re worried about late clock offense, it probably means you should be worried about your normal clock offense as well.
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