Painter is a pretty good shooting coach and couldn’t fix it. May improve, but can’t expect by much.
3 Likes
Yep, I’ve been in a couple of Twitter “discussions” that she has participated in haha
1 Like
First time I saw Nojel play at Purdue, I thought he was Jamal Crawford’s twin cousin. Perhaps that is why he has picked Michigan.
Looks are similar, but games are way far apart.
I don’t see how you can possibly say adding a lockdown defender to a team doesn’t raise the ceiling. Nojel can shut down smaller guards which is something we desperately need to be able to do. In crunch time having a defender like Nojel will make a big difference imo.
1 Like
Not sure about this one. It seemed like his shooting was the reason Michigan stopped recruiting him in high school. Now that those concerns have been confirmed (so far), he will have to contribute greatly in other ways to be an effective player.
I thought Painter spent more time attacking Haarms than he did Eastern. He really went on listing all the bigs before him that had found some success. Much of the rest of his criticism could apply to both of them.
I think he is just bitter about losing two players he was counting on. I like Painter, but I don’t like him making this public. It makes him look petty. Players leave or have conflicts with coaches all the time. Give me Juwan’s reaction every time instead.
On the plus side, it may motivate Eastern. I wouldn’t be shocked if it was the other way around. That Painter’s remarks made Eastern want to stay in the Big Ten.
3 Likes
Sorry but I am not buying the whole hes a crap kid, a kid like that would have not made it 3 years playing for a coach like painter. Also even if his mom has a big personality there may not be a better coach for that than juwan. Dude literally lasted so long in the nba because he was known for massaging egos and keeping lockeroom morale high. He also coached Hassan whiteside and got the most out of him and hes known for being crazy. Big egos and personalities are not going intimidate juwan at all.
3 Likes
Winslow shot 38% from 3 in the last 2 seasons he played and posted assist rates over 20%. James Johnson has occasionally shot the 3 ok, and was a plus passer for his position (they also aggressively replaced him), Bam is one of the best screening and passing centers this side of Jokic. All three, as secondary ball-handlers, post better assist rates than Eastern, and are wildly more efficient scorers.
I think Eastern is an extreme limitation.
Which is why we recruited Smith and why Dylan has posted roughly 1.4 billion times that finding an additional offensive facilitator is vital.
I am very worried about how this offense works if Smith doesn’t work out, and even then, how it works when he doesn’t play.
1 Like
Well before everyone gets too happy…better wait see if NBA teams offers guaranteed money.
This move does not excite me. Wouldn’t excite me if he chose Eastern Michigan and I was an Eastern fan
1 Like
IF that’s true (obv we’re just speculating), that would be a bit hypocritical of Painter, as not only has he taken a transfer from in conference, but it came from us.
2 Likes
When you say “we have shooters” what do you mean? We have guys we THINK should be shooters, but only Livers has proven he’s a consistent/reliable shooter at this level and with the FIBA line. I’m very hopeful that Wagner regains his prep shooting form and Eli/Smith are okay. But we’ve been a relatively poor shooting team the last 2-3 years and I don’t see anyone on the roster right now besides Livers and maybe Wagner who is above average.
1 Like
Feels like a negative addition.
2 Likes
Brooks is above average to me. Livers is elite. Wagner imo will be well above average. Smith can shoot. Johns should be average. Hopefully Nunez can be average.
I’ll just say we have more shooting than we have shot creation and good defense on the wing.
8 Likes
Would also note that Livers has spent three years knocking down shots that have been provided to him, mostly, by X. Now, he showed some ability to hunt more last year, and take a dribble or two to get to his shot, but I think any success we’ve seen from Livers and Brooks needs to at least partially be contextualized by having one of the best shot creators in college basketball hurling them the ball.
1 Like
Does this mean Dylan will pick up a new subscriber? 
3 Likes
Not surprised you would think that.
My concern here is along the lines that Dylan used to established that Coleman-Lands is a better shooter than his numbers suggest, because he was taking a ton of heavily contested threes. X has been able to supply Livers, Brooks, et al with a pretty steady diet of great looks. If Smith doesn’t work out, I’m not sure who can even fulfill half of that volume.
1 Like
We should all just scan through our Nojel eastern thread from a couple days ago lol
1 Like
1 Like