The State of UM Basketball

Well yeah. I just don’t think not having NBA guards neccessarily precludes you from having an elite offense (as I would submit UNC as an example). I think it’s the easiest way to build an elite O but you CAN build your team in other ways, IMO.

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Elite/good (whatever term you want to use) and dynamic are not the same things. I don’t think Walton is a Paige level guard nor is Zak on Justin Jackson’s level. This coupled with UNC having an elite defense and I’m not seeing any relevant to UNC being mentioned.

I’m still waiting for someone to cite a great offense without NBA guards and bad defense that have made deep runs.

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What are we qualifying as deep in this case? I can probably find some team, lol.

Tbh, I just disagree that any particular team make up matters that much. The sum of your parts and how those parts augment each other is all I really think matters. Don’t think you necessarily need elite wings, or high flying athletes if you can be good enough in other areas. I’d agree that I don’t think UM is on a current pace to field a Final Four team with the pieces we are bringing in/developing but there are probably examples.

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I can verify that a). Marcus Paige was not an NBA guard (Drafted 55th, waived, hasn’t been on an NBA roster since) and b). Justin Jackson is not a guard, and he certainly wasn’t an NBA caliber player last year when we were #1 in efficiency (unranked in SI, 63 in Draft Express).

Not going to address defense since it has nothing to do with how dynamic an offense is or whether that matters.

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If only Michigan could develop such highly-touted NBA talents like Marcus Paige and Duje Dukan

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The data I used was for final fours but I’ll even let you use Elite 8 and bad defense being anything above adjD 50.

oh fyi, Walton and Irvin won’t even get drafted so that in fact does make Paige/Jackson NBA types and a clear distinction from our creators.

It’s not relevant because how good you are defensively has zero to do with how good you are offensively. Wisconsin’s 2015 offense was better than any other team’s offense in the country, and would have been whether the Badgers had the best defense in the country, the worst, or somewhere in between–indeed, it’s actually harder to be efficient on offense with a bad defense because you get fewer transition opportunities. Arguing that balanced teams win is one thing, though it’s worth noting that Bo Ryan’s most unbalanced team was his best–arguing that if a team is unbalanced because it’s bad one way, that means that the part which is good can’t be “dynamic” enough lacks logic.

You are right it doesn’t but this is about what necessitates deep runs for teams that have bad defenses but good offenses…so defense is accounted for. Unless you think JB is fielding a Kenpom adjD of 21 or 38 then UNC and Wisconsin are not relevant to the criteria.

Which brings us back to the glaringly obvious point that DEFENSE is/was the problem, not offense. Our offense is good.

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I’ve never made a definitive statement on “balanced teams” btw but his most unbalanced team was still incredibly balanced.

JB is never fielding a balanced team so we look at which great offense, bad defense teams were able to overcome that deficit and how.

Since Marcus Paige has played exactly 0 career NBA games, I’d say it’s only fair to compare his college career with Walton’s when defining how clear the distinction of dynamism is. And since Walton is scoring, assisting and rebounding at higher averages than Paige was last year, while shooting better percentages from the field and from three I’ll go ahead and say they are similar.

Prove this.

Then Walton and Irvin should get drafted, correct?

I literally don’t care about what you or any other people feel about my take. I’m very content with my opinion.

Anyways, I’ve had enough of entertaining you for today.

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If we have a great offense and a bad defense, then the problem is our defense.

You’re trying to argue against that very simple and obvious point.

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No. I’m saying Paige shouldn’t have. Pretty clear at this point he’s not NBA material, and using the fact that he was drafted as a symbol of why he is this supremely more talented player than Walton this year is as useful as using Ricky Doyle’s Michigan scholarship offer as a reasoning to why he’s a high major D-1 talent (he’s not).

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