I don’t think I said anyone was arguing that? I was just responding to the guy who said it’s uncommon for people to play a traditional power forward.
I think it could be very good particularly if x and Mathews progress like I think they will.i see maar as an all conference performer. It wouldn’t surprise me if he was on the wooden watch list by his senior year. Some people might think I’m crazy but I think he can be very good. I really hope we continue to run a lot of our offense through him this year.
I’m really psyched for the next few years. Watching highlights of levert yesterday, made me think if he was healthy with spike that we could have been good by the end of the year. I think they could have gotten it together and made a run after struggling early.
Okay that’s fair. I think the Troy Williams, Miles Bridges, Jae’Sean Tate mold of power forward is here to stay though, and we’ll continue to see a lot of it.
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A little more insight into the possibility of Duncan guarding the 4. Regardless, glad to hear he is working on getting stronger and building up endurance, and (hopefully) diversifying his game.
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I am glad he has been able to get stronger and get that weight up. He says that his weight was lower than listed and I think that probably played a role in him getting worn down.
Thought this quote was interesting… Also found the talk of guarding fours interesting.
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I am guessing that means needing to improve off the ball movement.
Consistency, being stronger with the ball, making more of the right passes on time and with confidence.
Glad to hear about the weight gain and other improvements from Duncan, but the thought of him guarding 4’s scares the hell out of me. If we had a real option at the 4, Duncan would slide to the place where he probably would fit best, which is as a backup 3/ instant offense off the bench. But, unless DJ takes a massive leap forward that won’t be happening.
I don’t see how Duncan comes off the bench given the current roster. As I mentioned above in this thread and in his report card, he’s kind of at a crossroads defensively. He’s not great (or good?) defending 3s or 4s, but where does he have the potential to be better?
Concerns in both directions and Beilein mentions some of the same elements in that MLive article.
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Are there any stats available for how Duncan shot off dribble? There are the synergy stats of location on the court but how about off the dribble? Seemed that opponents later in the year forced him to take a couple dribbles to make him move off his spot.
Cited several of them here:
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I completely agree, there is basically zero chance of that happening with our current roster, however 93grad said, “If we had a real option at the 4, Duncan would slide to the place where he probably would fit best.” which I think is a pretty reasonable take.
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Even if we had a “real option” at the 4 – and by that I guess we mean someone who would start over Zak, Duncan, and Rahk – I’d bet that Zak would play the 2 and Duncan would start at the 3. We are at least a couple pieces removed from Duncan’s roll merely being to come off the bench for instant offense.
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If Duncan shoots like he did for the first 60% of last season, I don’t think he would be moved to the bench even if we had the couple of pieces you mention. Michigan State started Bryn Forbes last year despite having plenty of pieces including several at his position (Eron Harris, Matt McQuaid). Guys who shoot like that make everyone better even if they’re limited in other respects (as Forbes was and Robinson is). Of course, if he doesn’t shoot all that well, different story.
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I think we have already discussed this. Forbes was worth it out there with only his shooting because they had a guy in Valentine who could consistently draw doubles and get him the ball. Michigan doesn’t have anyone like that on its current roster and it showed in Robinson’s Big Ten numbers. Obviously a part of that was fatigue but I don’t think it’s as big a part as you and some others would like to think.
I expect that Duncan will be one of the most improved players (along with Wilson And Wagner) for UM this year.
This phenomenon has two sides. Drivers and slashers are better when there are shooters and shooters are better when there are drivers/creators.
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It happened to Nik during his freshman year, too, not only in Big Ten play but in the tourney - he was a total non-factor against Louisville. And he had far better talent around him.
Where the hell are you getting your stats from? Stauskas’ national rankings for his stats improved practically across the board once he hit conference play his freshman year. That means that while they went down a bit, he stayed a lot closer to his nonconference form than most people in the NCAA. His nonconference ORtg was 36th, his conference one was 13th. His nonconference TS% was 35th, his conference one was 8th. He wasn’t in the top 350 for 2P% during the nonconference schedule but he was 10th in the country at it during the conference portion. His three pointers dropped a bit more than the rest of his stats but he STILL improved his ranking, going from 43rd to 11th.
Now the thing here is that you cannot possibly expect every player to stay the exact same. Obviously there will be a difference once you face harder competition. However, Robinson went from 60th in ORtg to not in the top 350. His 3P% fell over 15%, from 26th in the country to unranked. Robinson to Stauskas is not a valid comparison here when Stauskas struggled through what, 5 tourney games? Robinson’s was practically the entire conference season. Honestly I’d think it would be better to do a little research before making claims like that.