If opinions of his contribution next year based on Moneyball highlights persist for more than 4 hours, please call your medical practitioner.
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He created on the pull up jumpers in the highlights. He shot 41% on threes last season.
I could tell.
Haha just watch his high school highlights, his deep 3 in Bloomington, and sit back and think about how good Coach Beilein was at finding diamonds in the rough.
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If you couldāve seen the entire play playout he tried for 5+ seconds before to drive by his man almost every one of those possessions and many more that didnāt make the highlight tape. He wasnāt going anywhere or creating seperation to get by his guy. I mentioned in a recent previous post that he was getting his mid range shots whenever he wanted. But he wasnāt getting to the rim or creating for others.
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Inject the Nunez debate thread into my veins.
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I donāt know how anyone can definitively surmise anything from a pick up game with individuals you do not normally play with. I wonāt take anything one way or the other from these moneyball exercises.
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I donāt expect Livers to break his defender off the dribble for lay-ups. Hitting pull up jumpers off the dribble and threes plus transition are in his wheelhouse. Donāt see them doing a lot of iso with him. Pick up games donāt involve much team play. Not sure thereās much to take away.
I, for one, have never thought that Livers was going to be a significant creator at the rim for others, certainly not if he plays the 3, as he will lack quickness vis-a-vis the man guarding him. He might be better than Iggy, he of the 31 assists on the year, because he keeps his head up with the ball, but a drive by and create for others at the rim guy, no. If he can get his own in the mid-range though, and kick out or interior pass from there, heāll help the offense a lot, even if his handle is not the bast.
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Michigan needs players to step up and score late in the shot clock. Whoās going to do that @Jeffrey_E_Schiller & @sane1 ? Everyone has made it out to be that Livers was/is going to be the star this year. Pretty hard to do that if he canāt get to the rim and/or be a playmaker. Idk what everyone is expecting of Isaiah in terms of having the big role jump if he canāt get a bucket on his own. Matthews, Poole and Iggy all were better at that than Isaiah or anyone on else on the current team for that matter. So who steps into it and if not isaiah, how would they not be one of the stars if they are doing that? The defenders will likely be better than what he faced in moneyball as well, so itāll be a little harder to get shots off from 3 or mid range than it was yesterday, and it wasnāt effortless yesterday as is.
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Are we talking about getting a bucket late in the shot clock or specifically a layup late in the shot clock. Charles sure liked the turn around jumpers, Zak liked the jumper one step inside the arc. Not ideal shots, but late in the shot clock you donāt have to get all the way to the basket, right?
He was able to create though. The Wisconsin game was a perfect example. He took over that late and a lot of those buckets were designed isos or end of shot clock isos. Iām not convinced Isaiah can do either right now consistently. Iām not sure Isaiah has had as many iso/late shot clock buckets not off the catch in his entire career as Matthews had in his 2 or 3 best games just this past season.
Iām just saying everyone really needs to pump the brakes on jumping to conclusions from seeing a highlight tape from last nights moneyball game, when yesterday had the least amount of high end talent Iāve seen there in the last 3 years for days Iāve been there and he was probably under 40% shooting for the day. He he shot like 1-10 from 3 but the handles were clear to see. Im not worried about his shot though heās proven that is good already. The handles really need to be tightened still and he needs to be more decisive and have a go to move to get by someone.
Late in the shot clock, the ball is going to be in Simpsonās hands. It might not be idealācertainly Simpson does not create at the level of Walton, Burke, etc., because he canāt shoot off the dribble (or at least he hasnāt been able to until now)ābut thatās not going to change this year. This, however, has little, if anything, to do with whether Livers will make a big jump. There are plenty of top level guys in college basketball (and even in the pros) who are not off the dribble threats who score a ton of points as the recipient of points set up by someone else whether at the end of the shot clock or earlier. I strongly believe that Isaiah will be that type of player.
As for your 3 examples from last year, all could get to the basket late in the shot clock on their own, but all were notoriously inefficient at actually scoring or getting others to score off of that action, especially later in the year. What counts is not whether you can beat someone off the dribble, but whether you can put up points once you do.
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Nunez is about to take that DJ Wilson jump! Personally Iām concerned about losing him to the draft after next season. Weāll probably sign one over the limit just in case.
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Soā¦I was only able to watch 25 seconds of the moneyball highlights before my dial-up cut outā¦but man, I couldnāt agree with you more! Heās gone after next year (Iām sure plenty of NBA scouts made the trip to east lansing and really respect the pro-am style of play!). The only saving grace is we have a waiting list of recruits who are waiting for openings to commit. Whew!
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He is what he is at this point, and asking him to create off the dribble would be a mistake. Itās the opposite of what happens at the highest levels where guys are asked to specialize in what they do well. In Liversās case, 3 and D and transition O
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I do think livers has potential with his back to the basket. He often gets nice looks in those spots, rare as they might have been.
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Agreed ā¦ he doesnāt have the quickness for the position to beat guys off the dribble, but definitely has the size to back people down in the high post.
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His turn around is nice and tough to stop.