In thinking about the upcoming season, who do you think we can least afford to lose to injury? I’m going to go with one of the freshman bigs (the D and D boys). Though I don’t expect much out of either, I feel like we have depth at the other spots that could mask a season-ending injury.
I would put Walton and LeVert higher on the list than the freshmen bigs. But will be an interesting thing to track.
I have faith (based on the Arizona and I think it was iowa at home games last year) that spike could still make us more than just formidable, and let’s remember that DJ Wilson is still in the equation in terms of depth, so if have to go with Caris LeVert!
No doubt its Caris. Walton at least has a backup with 2 years experience that has proven he can run the offense and knock down an open 3. Caris on the other hand, has no backup with any game experience. None of the bigs have any experience so its impossible to project a drop off accordingly. When the question of who we can least afford to lose is posed, the answer in my mind is always the player with the backup that will have the biggest anticipated drop off in production
In other words, we really won’t be able to tell until we see how MAAR, Dawkins, Doyle, etc. are doing.
There’s so much pure speculation that goes into answering a question like this. If you had asked last year, a fair number of people might have said McGary. Who we did end up losing, for the entire Big Ten. But which we still proceeded to win by three full games over some pretty decent competition, and to also outdo the previous year’s NC runner-up by three full games, and to make the Elite 8.
Just a little perspective.
Caris by a landslide. He’s the multiskilled player we are looking to have lead the charge this year, and he’s being handed the keys to this Maserati. Next I’d go with Walton, because he will often be helming the ship, and then Irvin. In order to be a top tier team and exceed expectations I think we need a big year from KamChat, and beyond that, I’d say that the Doyle/Donnal combo needs to come up big if we want to be a Round of Eight kind of squad. Losing Spike would also be devastating, because he will spell Walton with little or no drop-off. But as stout and wonderful a player as he is, I don’t think Spike could carry us game after game. . .
I say Sean Lonergan
Dakich. With McGary gone, I don’t see anyone able to replace his sideline antics.