No, because it means he has less room to improve from a physical standpoint
He is not a solid athlete in any sense. It's not just about verticality, its about lateral agility and speed as well, and he is substandard in all those areas
Believe what you will. I watched the guy play for an entire season and I think he’ll be fine after he puts on some weight. His game is not based on athleticism, it’s based on intelligence and skill and I think those will translate up to the D1 level. He’s not going to be a star like Nik was, he just isn’t that explosive and creative. But I do think with his shooting ability he’ll be a solid guy off the bench that will always draw the attention of the other team because you simply can’t leave him open or he’ll drain it. He’s much more a Kyle Korver than a Hayward or Stauskas.
I don’t put much into open gym at UM. I remember watching Smot at open gym between his freshman and sophomore years and thinking to myself “wow this kid is going to blow up, people have no idea how much he’s improved”. Once the season rolled around he was vastly improved against subpar comp but was only marginally better than the previous season against legit comp.
In retrospect I failed to take into account how bad our defense was and our lack of physicality and athleticism, and ultimately failed to make adjustments in my expectations based on those factors.
That being said, I think Dawkins is an above average athlete that has a chance to be a decent 3 and D type player. A smaller/less athletic Martell Webster.
I don’t put much into open gym at UM. I remember watching Smot at open gym between his freshman and sophomore years and thinking to myself “wow this kid is going to blow up, people have no idea how much he’s improved”. Once the season rolled around he was vastly improved against subpar comp but was only marginally better than the previous season against legit comp.
In retrospect I failed to take into account how bad our defense was and our lack of physicality and athleticism, and ultimately failed to make adjustments in my expectations based on those factors.
That being said, I think Dawkins is an above average athlete that has a chance to be a decent 3 and D type player. A smaller/less athletic Martell Webster.
Matt D - I’m not sure I agree our defense was so terrible in 2011-2012. We shared a Big Ten title with two teams with far superior athleticism (MSU and OSU), and other than Trey and Tim, we didn’t have any real explosive offensive players. The defense couldn’t have been that bad. Indeed, in spite of his offensive shortcomings, Stu was a pretty good on-ball defender, and Morgan and Novak were great at taking charges.
I’m glad you brought up Smot, though, because to me Duncan Robinson looks way better on film than Evan ever did, and yet Evan (when he wasn’t pouting) was a credible rotation player for us.
As far as me bringing up Heyward and Thompson, my only point was at the same stage of their careers neither guy was much of an athlete. I don’t equate “age” with “same stage of career,” because right now Robinson has only played one season of college basketball and it was at the Division III level. Let’s see what he looks like two years from now.
Certainly, all things being equal, I would prefer to recruit great shooters who are also great athletes. I don’t think our staff is actively avoiding that or anything (I’d say all of Dozier, Coleman, Langford, and Battle are plenty athletic). But it certainly is possible to win with average athletes - Wisconsin being a great example.
We aren't going to get Coleman. Let's say we land DTJR and Leaf in 2016. Just like that the roster is balanced. I'm not going to worry about this until we start landing some 16 kids. If we are still getting no named guys in 16 it could be time to hit the panic button. No need to worry about it now.
Those are 2 major ifs. We can’t just snap our fingers and add 2 five star payers and that is why some are rightly concerned.
If anyone has 20 minutes to waste today, I highly encourage going back through this thread. It made me feel 100 times better after last nights loss. Some highlights:
• claims that Devin Booker will never be a pro
• predictions that 2014-2015 Michigan could win the Big Ten (oof)
• the great Duncan / Jalen Coleman debate
• Duncan comparisons to Gordon Hayward
• everyone collectively freaking out that we would have no offers for 2015 (Moe became our only offer)
• a general sense of OMG what if we never capitalize on this great 2-year run that is incredibly fun to look back on now
I made it through maybe 100 posts and got tired of the fighting lol. The Devin Booker stuff was definitely the funniest. Pure salt on missing out on him from some people, he was always gonna be a stud.