Why hasn’t MSU offered him? He sounds like an Izzo player.
So he has to be on a bad team that plays top competition to get cred?
Mattd I like Elliot but I find it interesting you like him so much but didn’t like Gaines. When I watch those films I feel like Gaines is a better version of Greg. Anthony plays a big mans game at times but is also great in transition, off the dribble and a nice defender. He also was extremely effective at the highest level.
Caveats apply because I only had the opportunity to watch Gaines live on 2-3 occasions (as I’ve stated before) last spring/summer. That said, there is simply no comparison in terms of skill…Greg is MUCH more skilled. Gaines has a great motor, but at 6’4 I just don’t see that translating at the PF spot.
Guestavo was pretty intent on seeing him based on his EYBL stats/production and so he and I took in a game together to watch Gaines. I’m sure he can chime in, but I’m telling you that Gaines didn’t even look like a division 1 player on that day…he was awful and that is a conservative word to describe his play that day. His handle was extremely loose, he missed wide open layups with no defender in site, his shot was atrocious and he didn’t appear to be a great athlete.
Guestavo has a much more analytical/advanced stats approach to his scouting in relation to me. I’m much more of an eye test guy. We both came away thinking (praying may be the better word) Michigan shouldn’t offer Gaines.
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I love Poole’s game. Think he’s going to be a pretty good player for us down the road
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From what I’ve seen, Greg has significantly more ball skills, more range and just better feel offensively than Gaines. More physical development to max out, too. They both share a nose for the ball, however. Gaines is your typical undersized straight-line slashing wing who will probably have a ton of versatility defensively due to his strong frame and long arms but the handle and passing doesn’t seem to be there IMO. Not overly explosive, I suspect his best case scenario is a 3&D guy with great defense.
I’d also add that Greg is a much better perimeter defender than Gaines.
From everything I’ve seen he’s a good defender, a great finisher, great an the open floor, great rebounder, athletic and just gets it done. I agree his handle is loose and his shot is weak right now.
I really think he’s gonna be a very effective college wing, he’s got that weird game but I think he will get it to translate.
See he doesn’t look explosive but then he throws down these random crazy dunk, that leave you like where the hell did that come from.
To add some more context on Greg, I was very skeptical on Greg prior to EYBL having seen him play in person for years in the PSL. I simply didn’t think his game would translate to college at the high major level. Guestavo was higher on him based on length.
After we took in several of The Family’s EYBL games together, Guestavo was pretty much sold and I was coming around. It became very obvious Greg could not only compete, but standout among elite competition.
Now that I’ve seen Greg this HS season in addition to EYBL, I’m on board. He’s definitely going to be a Stockriser.
To give Guestavo’s ‘feel’ language more definition, I think the better phrase for it is spatial awareness. Greg has great spatial awareness and makes decisions based on how much real estate he has. His handle doesn’t appear great, but he rarely turns the ball over, has really good vision/passing skills, above average shooter, good athlete, and frankly one of the best perimeter defenders in the country. His motor is non-stop
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We’re devoting a lot of digital ink here to a guy that Beilein has seen play a lot (he’s played with DeJulius) and hasn’t pursued that hard. One to keep an eye on, but really worth talking about every day?
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Guess it depends on your view of prospective recruits that could help the team or whether you’d like to limit your board dialogue to prospects that are clearly being targeted.
It’s pretty dead right now in terms of recruiting, because we’re simply not as active on the recruiting front during the season in relation to other teams.
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Yea I’m a fan of talking prospects. I do like his game. I liked his game the first time you mentioned him, I still wonder if he’s gonna bank these if we miss on bamba. I still think getting a grad transfer pg would be wise if we don’t get bamba. A solid vet pg as insurance would be nice. Really help our 18 squad.
Yeah, Gaines isn’t a non-athlete and has some verticality. I picture a smaller, less athletic version of the CM we saw at UK.
I like the term spatial awareness…think I listened to a podcast where Tom Crean went in-depth with the term. Maybe the most important thing for a basketball player.
I’m a fan of talking prospective prospects. Not a lot of current target info going around anyway.s
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For what it is worth, I have little interest in reading about guys that we are not recruiting, so I usually only skim these threads or skip them all together. It is hard enough for me to get excited about the guys that we do go after knowing that we are not going to land most of them. There are only so many spots available.
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I wish Zak Irvin had a lot more “spatial awareness.” As in, is that guy close enough to swipe the ball from me? And is that guy close enough to block my layup?
In defense of Zak there is no such thing as enough space for him, because he’s simply too slow to get separation off the dribble and lacks explosiveness to finish over bigs.
Haven’t had time to dive into what he is doing this season…and the EYBL statistics are ugly and I don’t think paint an accurate picture without context of the team and JP’s physical underdevelopment. Basically, adding strength/mass and learning what is and isn’t a good shot is going to be key as well as tightening the handle. The spatial awareness, height/length and shooting ability are there to be a devastating PnR player as an upperclassman.
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