I don’t think you want Jett guarding fours. Maybe some situations where you hide him on someone but he’s not your Jamison Battle stopper or anything like that. I would be surprised if he was physical enough defensively as a four.
I don’t know if that’s true. If anything the video showed Khayat looks pretty sharp guarding out on the perimeter. I think Jett should be able to guard 2s as well. I think people are looking at these guys and making judgments based their heights that aren’t necessarily reflective of who they can guard.
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Fair enough. I think you are right to question those things. I think TWill will have to do a lot of heavy lifting on the boards, but I think that’s a task he’s capable of.
Ball handling I’m less concerned about with a strong PG in JL and Hunter’s ability to create out of the post. They should both be very high-usage guys that will put less pressure on everyone else to create.
Defense I expect will be a work of progress at first given all the new faces, but all these long wing types seem to have the talent to guard multiple positions. Your analysis of Youssef’s strength is a good point, but I think overall we have a very versatile and capable group.
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What evidence do you have exactly that you don’t think any of those guys are not likely to be good defenders? Do we know enough about Barnes or Kobe to have a good opinion? There’s no reason from a physical tools perspective they can’t be?
This seems very pessimistic.
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I think we know Kobe was extremely bad last year, yes? That’s a data point.
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I’m not saying they will always be bad defenders. But the evidence we have so far indicates that they are starting from a position with “work to do.” Kobe was really bad last year but since he’s so young and athletic there’s hope. Jett acknowledged he needs work. Dylan just said on the pod how striking Barnes’ tape was from high school and compares him to Aubrey Dawkins. Tschetter is athletically challenged so is probably more of an effort/smart defender than good defender. Glenn is a true freshmen wildcard. Khayat just got this full breakdown and needs to get stronger. Baker has years of data showing he isn’t good at defense.
I didn’t say anyone was flat out bad…just said they aren’t good. We’ve been used to having Eli, Franz, Simpson, and Matthews the past few years so it will be interesting to see how this plays out.
It feels redundant to say it, but Barnes has every tool you could ask for, as everyone keeps saying. I saw him play a game or 2 his senior year in HS, and I will just say that despite his physical build and athletic tools, he did not show a love or prediliction for physical contact (the opposite) that leaves me somewhat curious as to how he will look in a Big Ten style game, which can resemble two guys with broken glass bottles. They likely aren’t in competition for minutes, but I sort of have more faith in a limited guy like Tschetter if he’s able to muck it up (is this even how he plays or am I stereotyping “white guy”?) and grab a board (Barnes’ rebounding in traffic was, I’d describe “theoretical”).
Obviously, time has passed since then.
This is going to be pretty reliant on what Dylan said, because I’m incapable of original thought, but basically the only guys here I have any faith in, as a given, defensively are Williams (who is fine) and Llewellyn (who I think has pretty good positional size/athletic skill for a PG). If Bufkin were to fail, and we get the dual PG look, I think Llewellyn probably won’t be miserable guarding 2s, but probably worse than at 1’s, and I have no faith in Dug just due to stature. Hunter has looked good and looked poor in his career, so I’m not sure what to say there, other than I think how well he plays will depend on how sound the defense at the 3 and 4 is - he can be an anchor if we’re funneling guys at him, but he’s not going to clean up breakdowns.
Obviously, the video in this article details Khayet’s defense (possibly sound against 3s right now), and the key will be to find 80 minutes of defense that doesn’t suck between Williams and the Khayet/Jett/Barnes/Baker group.
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Yeah would love to see you guys do something on llewellyn
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Most freshmen are bad defenders. Most freshmen improve a lot.
Kobe was not uniquely bad for a freshman and improved as the head went on.
Barnes we haven’t even seen play. So just bewildering to me to write him off.
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Of course there’s work to do. Look at the tape of Brooks, Matthews etc. from high school.
I fully expect defense to be a work in process to start the season but that’s to be expected for a team this young.
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This feels like the evolved version of the Llewellyn post from last month. I really learned a ton from being able to watch the plays over and over again as you guys talked about it.
Wrote something on him if you are interested. Different format a bit but a look at one game.
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I hope you are right