I came away being far more impressed with Dawkins and Wilson in limited minutes than Chatman is 30. Is there any way Beilein changes and inserts one of them into the starting lineup? Wilson gives us even more size in the frontcourt
We sometimes forget that freshmen generally come out of the gates like Kam and Ricky have shown. We were extremely spoiled with Trey and then the fresh five had unbelievably quick learning curves as well. Sometimes freshmen that are talented go the route that DMo took, which as a freshmen was somewhat disappointing. They will be fine, I think Kam especially will have that moment where it clicks kind of how Timmy did midway through his freshman year as the team approached the B1G schedule.
Gonna be a work in progress for all of the Frosh this year. Kam played against the “lowest” level of competition in HS last year in his State, it’s gonna take some time for him to get used to the speed of the college game. He could physically overwhelm his opponent at the small school level, but he is going to struggle initially here on D. I agree with Matt that he has some tools that can be developed and worked with ( I like his wingspan ) but he will be exploited in the early going, IMO. We really have no one who we can put on the oppositions best scorer and make an impression on them defensively. A weakness that will continue from last year. Hard to understand why we couldn’t slow down Hillsdale’s best scorer as a team, alarming going forward. It is what it always is. We have to perform above the norm offensively to compensate for our defensive shortcomings. I don’t see that changing any time soon.
He struggled defensively, but it was mostly just know your assignment type of stuff. There’s time to fix that. He’ll be fine.
I’ll preface this by saying I’m a huge fan of Chatman, and believe he has some real playmaking ability. That being said, it was very frustrating to see Kam consistently fall asleep with his off ball D. I rewatched the game this morning, and counted no less than 8 times where he was beat badly with a simple cut by the opposition. It was much more noticeable in the first half because Hillsdale often capitalized on his miscues, but he was beat badly in the 2nd half as well, but Hillsdale didn’t capitalize with as much frequency.
His on ball D isn’t great, but by no means is it awful either, he actually has more lateral agility than I anticipated. I have to say though, Kam was in full space cadet mode yesterday. We always claim that we recruit ‘smart’ players, so I would assume an adjustment would have been made at some point during the game, but that never happened.
Offensively, he is simply a finesse player that doesn’t look to finish over, or through defenders, which really hinders his ability to effectively finish. Both he and Wilson have that same problem. By nature both of those guys are soft in that regard, they simply are inclined to go around defenders rather than embracing contact. If those 2 look to dunk everything around the rim instead of the soft lay ups, they are stepping to the line for 2 at minimum. That being said, Kam has an excellent handle and his passing ability is great at that size. I also think he has the ability to create some offense in the post as well.
Hopefully his defensive issues will be worked out in practice or film session. Im pretty sure his defense can only get better than what we witnessed yesterday.
I think we should all just get used to the fact that we are going to struggle at the 4 and the 5 for awhile. Hopefully we can get close to average production at those spots by February or March.
I don’t get the negativity on Chatman after yesterday. He showed skill and athleticism yesterday that no one on the team other than LeVert and Walton have. He needs his jumpshot to start falling and he needs playing time so the game slows down for him, but he has the makings of a pro, sooner rather than later.
Seems to me that Wilson is learning the five before the four (notice when he plays each position during games). Dawkins has impressed, but hasn’t gotten a lot of time which leads me to believe he might not be as far ahead in terms of knowing the offense.
I think you would be more likely to see Albrecht inserted into the starting lineup (and Irvin to the four) rather than Wilson or Dawkins. But right now I don’t see that happening any time soon. Think they stick with this group for now.
It was one game. I think Chatman brings a lot to the table, and by the sounds of thing has really impressed in practices. Only concern with him is the same i have with all the freshmen and that is defense.
Simply no way Dawkins can defend the 4, much too small, so I would take that out of the equation. Chatman is far ahead of Wilson on offense, can’t really speak about Wilson as a perimeter defender because he has been primarily used at the 5. Wilson can’t shoot, handle, pass, or rebound better than Chatman at this point, so I really see no purpose in making a change.