RE: EJ Liddell convo. Jeshaun Tate is someone who has carved out a nice role in the NBA that’s similar to EJ.
RE: Luka Garza. He’s played some minutes due to injuries with the Pistons. He’s been surprisingly good offensive in that he shoots better than I expected, sets good screens and gets offensive rebounds. You’d like to see him develop his passing when he’s up top. Defense is what you’d expect. Can’t deal with any kind of lob threat.
I don’t think they are that similar at least from their time at OSU. Liddell is exponentially better offensively than Tate ever was in college. Tate was all motor and effort and very little skill.
Maybe the Morris twins then. 6’9" Average (for the NBA) scorers inside and out. They are probably better than Liddell at guarding in space, but they’re not what you’d call elite defenders.
I can vibe with that a bit.
I think EJ has a more clear role as a 4 in the NBA because he’s strong and so talented on offense. He won’t be a total liability on defense. Morris is a good comp.
Finished the pod on my drive home. Two thoughts…
I generally agree on the roster management take and when Dylan has talked about how you can’t pick the recruits who will sign so looking at who we went after is important. I do think with the benefit of hindsight you could potentially debate whether signing six freshmen (two who were going to redshirt) was the best use of scholarships or whether a transfer forward/wing would have been smart. But the issue is that I think Barnes and Tschetter we’re two of the first guys to sign so you don’t know if you’re getting the higher ranked guys at that point. I do wonder about that with Glenn in the next class too and whether a transfer spot would have been worth considering.
As for Houstan comps or stats, I get that he is asked to do more than other freshmen and it might not be fair to compare his 2pt numbers to Iggy or Franz. But he’s been worse at 2pt% and TO% than just about any freshman wing in the last decade. Irvin, Duncan, GR3, Livers, Poole, Stauskas, etc. Even Aubrey Dawkins had better numbers in that regard. I think Houstan has huge upside next year and I would be using Franz, Hunter, Johnny Davis, Jaden Ivey, Murray as examples of guys improving their draft stock with another year.
Fluff piece comparing the stats of our starting freshmen to other recruits in this class…