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.
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.
Mostly agreed but it’s pretty nice that Cassius and Cowan can go get a late clock bucket
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…
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.
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!
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.
Just waiting on the NCAA to approve Michigan’s waiver to play against cones this year. 
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.
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.
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.
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.
This is the first summer I’m paying recruiting much attention, having gotten interested in Juwan’s progress despite myself. Maintaining optimism seems like a tall task in a pursuit where MOST guys are not coming to your school just by dint of numbers vs. spots.
There’s also a little bit of movie reviewer negativity at work there for the experts, too. They’re trained to find all the blemishes and possible limiting factors whereas some of us can just be wowed. I wonder how many GMs start out as scouts–might not be many. You gotta be an optimist!
I don’t really see any of this going on.
This thread, for example, is more a discussion about what the next step in Isaiah Livers’ recruitment is rather than if he will take a step.
Similarly, I’m don’t really understand what you mean as far as the recruiting stuff. Talking about players you like who maybe Michigan could prioritize seems perfectly normal? Same with pointing out if school X or Y is a favorite in a recruitment where Michigan offered. I haven’t really seen anything overly negative or anything in that regard.
A bit off-topic but maybe we all should re-read the coaching search thread. There seemed to be a lot of worrisome chicken littles there, IIRC. I am very pleased with Howard as coach, his cast of assistants, and the recruiting approach thus far. And, it all got done very quickly - another area of negativity as I recall. That said, X may be all we need with proper spacing and a new Howard-type post game late shot clock. One can fantasize…
I don’t think Tom was criticizing you, Dylan. But there has been a somewhat negative cast to the commentary, and I do think a certain manic quality–of rising and falling hopes often underlain by too little real knowledge of what the kids’ decision-making process ever really involves–kinda comes with the territory.
I was referring to the discussion on the site, not myself. I think you have to accept that some of that is just how discussing recruiting goes. I’m not sure what else people expect?
Since this now appears to be the biggest area of need, I would love a piece on Michigan’s options at the two–touching on who’s going to get buckets late in the clock or at crunch time–especially if you have some insight, Dylan, on DDJ and Nunez. Also, did there used to be a year over year roster on the roster page? Was trying to think about who we’ve got available next year; the roster that is up is still last year’s. . .