Thinking about the UM future without Jordan Morgan led me to think about Donnal. Are we to suspect a player similar to Smotrycz with a little more inside game, or a player closer to Kaminsky from Wisco?
Mark can shoot but I wouldn’t expect him to put the ball on the floor as well as Evan could.
Mark will be another finesse big who may see some spot time at the four, but mostly as a catch and shoot role. I agree he won’t be too too much like Smot. But who knows.
Regardless, I’m pleased with the potential amount of frontcourt depth we look to have going ahead.
Well, frankly, I’d feel a little better if our frontcourt depth were a bit more than “potential”. If McGary comes back and is healthy, then we’re in good shape, but if not, what do we have? Horford, who’s been almost invisible on the score sheet lately, and Beilfeldt, who’s been a bit of a disappointment this year. Donnal, who’s still unproven, and who may or may not be an inside banger-type. Doyle and Wilson this year, also both unproven. One or both might be good enough to play, but they may also be redshirt types.
Bottom line, without McGary, Horford is our only big with any real playing experience, and he’s not a player I’d like to have to count on for 30 minutes a game. After him, we have mainly speculation and crossed fingers.
I would love to count on Horford for 30 mins a game, seeing as that will be the case next year. Im sure he will rise to the occasion, Im not worried. Coaches will have him ready.
I will be very surprised if Jon comes any where close to 30 minutes a game next year. He has a lot of stuff to work on, namely staying out of foul trouble and his lateral movement. Not sure he can improve much on the latter.
Well, if Horford were capable of “rising to the occasion”, one would think he’d be doing it right now, but he’s just not. Maybe if he’s our only experienced big next year, he’ll look around and think “holy shit, it’s on me, now” and all of a sudden start playing much better, but I think that’s hoping for a lot. The chances of a guy taking that kind of a leap in performance from his 4th to his 5th year are limited. He’s had four years to work on his game, so there’s just not that much more room for improvement.
If McGary comes back, we’ll be fine with Horford playing maybe 10-15 minutes a game, and Donnal about the same, but if Mitch goes, our front court looks a lot shakier.
Personally, I think Horford is able to contribute just as much as Morgan has done so far this year, but when he plays, he just doesn’t ever look comfortable. Morgan’s hedging, defending, and PnR offense seems seamless, whereas when Horford tries to do any of those things, he looks like he is trying to hard or forcing actions. He’s got to make his responsibilities more natural or he’s going to be in trouble next year.
Morgan didn’t look like he was ready to contribute heavy minutes after last year, remember? So I wouldn’t be surprised to see Horford step up next year.
Yes, Morgan seemed to lose some of his mojo last year, but we had seen him play much better earlier in his career, so this year really wasn’t that big a surprise. Horford has never played consistently at the kind of level we’d need him to as a 30 minute a game starter. He’s really a backup-quality guy. Nothing wrong with that, but we’ll have a problem in the frontcourt if there’s nobody better, especially if all three guys leave early for the draft.
Morgan didn't look like he was ready to contribute heavy minutes after last year, remember? So I wouldn't be surprised to see Horford step up next year.
It is very rare that I disagree with you JBlair52. But I have to here. Morgan was a starter for the majority of his career, the only time he did slow down was after the injury which came late in the regular season last year (at Illinois). We have never seen anything from Horford that would ever allow me to think of him as a starter/30 minute guy. However based on the fact that Donnal was a 4 star recruit and the comments that have been made about his work ethic and skills I think and hope he will be our starting 5 next year (even though that creates a very small starting lineup and forward laden bench).
That’s fine to disagree. I just like Horford’s potential in a full game. You’ll see 