1 Nunn
2 Love
3 Walter
4 Bridges
5 Missi

And an outstanding bench!

Love played great in the 2nd half. Looked like a starter in the 2nd half....First half not at all. Nice to see him come back with a great 2nd half.

Stefano DiMera said:

---

I think it's more important who the closing 5 is.

Starting doesn't mean as much on this team as it appears to be pretty deep

---

Yeah. And with this many guys you are probably spot on.

Smashmouth said:

---

Love played great in the 2nd half. Looked like a starter in the 2nd half....First half not at all. Nice to see him come back with a great 2nd half.

---

Im a little afraid to go back and watch the 1st half - but, I dont feel I need to. Just throw that film away...it was a new young team getting started.

So, when the rotation gets tighter, who suffers?

Lohner? Grimes? Little? EJ?

I think I agree with your list though.

Was that the group with the 9-0 run at end?

Married A Horn said:

---

So, when the rotation gets tighter, who suffers?

Lohner? Grimes? Little? EJ?

---

I don't see Little or Grimes playing a ton. And the loser of that sweepstakes may not get any minutes at all.

My starting 5:

-Dennis
-Walter
-Nunn
-Bridges
-(eventually) Missi

Significant time from Bench
Love
Josh O/Jonathan (to relieve Missi)

Role players depending on opponent/circumstance
Lohner - physical opponent
Grimes - need additional ballhandling
Little - need additional guard play due to foul trouble.

I think Little started behind the rest of the team because he was playing for his country this summer while the rest of the guys were coming together as a team with the European trip. While I don't see him getting a lot of PT, I do think we will see improvement from him over the year.

bear2be2 said:

---

Married A Horn said:

---

So, when the rotation gets tighter, who suffers?

Lohner? Grimes? Little? EJ?

---

I don't see Little or Grimes playing a ton. And the loser of that sweepstakes may not get any minutes at all.

---

Also I would not be surprised to see EJ transition more to a mentor or coaching role. Josh and Missi holding down the 5 barring foul trouble or injury.

Crawfoso1973 said:

---

bear2be2 said:

---

Married A Horn said:

---

So, when the rotation gets tighter, who suffers?

Lohner? Grimes? Little? EJ?

---

I don't see Little or Grimes playing a ton. And the loser of that sweepstakes may not get any minutes at all.

---

Also I would not be surprised to see EJ transition more to a mentor or coaching role. Josh and Missi holding down the 5 barring foul trouble or injury.

---

I didnt want to say this out loud. It kinda makes me sad...but it is what I was thinking.

Crawfoso1973 said:

---

bear2be2 said:

---

Married A Horn said:

---

So, when the rotation gets tighter, who suffers?

Lohner? Grimes? Little? EJ?

---

I don't see Little or Grimes playing a ton. And the loser of that sweepstakes may not get any minutes at all.

---

Also I would not be surprised to see EJ transition more to a mentor or coaching role. Josh and Missi holding down the 5 barring foul trouble or injury.

---

Even a boken clock is right twice a day.

Notes after GW game.

1. Missi may be our best player. Guy is balling straight up. I want to see him against elite bigs now before getting too excited. But, man!

2. Grimes looked good. It appears we have 4 guards for 2 spots. Are Grimes and Love better than Nunn and Dennis?

Dennis and Nunn didnt have great games on defense. Our lead seemed to really build with Love and Grimes on the floor there.

This may also help our now apparent 3 point shooting problem.

3. Bridges seemed a little passive. Would like to see a little aggression out of him. His last 6 to 8 minutes looked much better than the 1st 3/4 of the game...barely knew he was playing.

4. Josh O struggled on D. Seemed to get beat a lot.

5. Walter - smooth criminal! Gets to that rim and draws contact. He is fun to watch.

Rotation down to 9 already? With EJ's body not allowing him to be the EJ of old and Little being worked slowly in, we seem to be at 9 maybe?

I'm most curious about the 4 guards: Nunn Dennis Love and Grimes. This may end up being a hot hand situation, but that hot hand may be on the defensive end. We have to get some defense out of 2 of these 4.

Yes, I think as far as pure upside, Missi is already our best player by a mile. Incredible combination of size and athleticism even by NBA standards. The scary thing is that he's still so raw and unrefined on offense so he has an unlimited ceiling. And to think, if he hadn't have reclassified, he would still be a high school senior! We will have 2 lottery picks and Missi will go higher than Walter due to upside and scarcity. Walter is easily our most refined and polished player even as a freshman. I love his IQ for example he knew we had them in foul trouble so kept attacking the paint and getting to the line.

I think we have 5 guards who will rotate in 3 spots. Grimes has earned time. Still haven't given up on Little, the talent is there he just doesn't look comfortable (yet).

I also noticed low energy from Bridges and on one sequence he literally was jogging back on D and got benched for extended minutes. The luxury of our improved depth is that guys will lose playing time for lack of effort. Not worried about Bridges because he also looked awful last year at this time, but then was arguably our best player once conference play started. It seems Bridges tends to rise or sink to the level of competition.

Last year Josh O seemed more advanced on offense than on defense, and still seems the case. Defensive anticipation and instincts do not come naturally to him.

EJ didn't play last night and in the post game, Drew said he has moved to the role of player coach.

Missi reminds me of Olajuwon as a freshman. Unbelievable combination of size, athleticism, and hand to eye coordination. But you can't feed him in the low post because he has no back to the basket low post game or face-up game.

He will develop those skills. We get to enjoy him this year and his presence on our team is going to bring a lot more eyeballs to our games.

I don't see the Hakeem comparisons because Missi has zero back to the basket game. Hakeem was one of the greatest NBA low-post scorers of all time. At the next level I think Missi will be a pick-and-roll big playing away from the basket, camping out in the corner for the corner three and setting high ball screens.

Isn't Missi the on that reclassified? If so, he should be playing his senior season of HS ball. How hutch back to the basket game should a HS senior like that have developed?

Married A Horn said:

---

Notes after GW game.

1. Missi may be our best player. Guy is balling straight up. I want to see him against elite bigs now before getting too excited. But, man!

2. Grimes looked good. It appears we have 4 guards for 2 spots. Are Grimes and Love better than Nunn and Dennis?

Dennis and Nunn didnt have great games on defense. Our lead seemed to really build with Love and Grimes on the floor there.

This may also help our now apparent 3 point shooting problem.

3. Bridges seemed a little passive. Would like to see a little aggression out of him. His last 6 to 8 minutes looked much better than the 1st 3/4 of the game...barely knew he was playing.

4. Josh O struggled on D. Seemed to get beat a lot.

5. Walter - smooth criminal! Gets to that rim and draws contact. He is fun to watch.

Rotation down to 9 already? With EJ's body not allowing him to be the EJ of old and Little being worked slowly in, we seem to be at 9 maybe?

I'm most curious about the 4 guards: Nunn Dennis Love and Grimes. This may end up being a hot hand situation, but that hot hand may be on the defensive end. We have to get some defense out of 2 of these 4.

---

Almost every defensive breakdown in the second half last night was a result of Love getting beat or Walter gambling. I'm OK with the latter because he's going to turn a lot of those into steals and runouts. But Love has got to improve his defense to be a guy we can consistently count on in crunch time.

I think we'll just settle into a five-guard rotation and ride the hot hands every game. Those who are performing that night will be the guys we use with the game on the line.

That's a huge advantage that we didn't have last year, when we had to live with whatever we got from Keyonte and LJ because we didn't have any other options available to us.

Crawfoso1973 said:

---

Yes, I think as far as pure upside, Missi is already our best player by a mile. Incredible combination of size and athleticism even by NBA standards. The scary thing is that he's still so raw and unrefined on offense so he has an unlimited ceiling. And to think, if he hadn't have reclassified, he would still be a high school senior! We will have 2 lottery picks and Missi will go higher than Walter due to upside and scarcity. Walter is easily our most refined and polished player even as a freshman. I love his IQ for example he knew we had them in foul trouble so kept attacking the paint and getting to the line.

I think we have 5 guards who will rotate in 3 spots. Grimes has earned time. Still haven't given up on Little, the talent is there he just doesn't look comfortable (yet).

I also noticed low energy from Bridges and on one sequence he literally was jogging back on D and got benched for extended minutes. The luxury of our improved depth is that guys will lose playing time for lack of effort. Not worried about Bridges because he also looked awful last year at this time, but then was arguably our best player once conference play started. It seems Bridges tends to rise or sink to the level of competition.

Last year Josh O seemed more advanced on offense than on defense, and still seems the case. Defensive anticipation and instincts do not come naturally to him.

---

We'll never come close to seeing MIssi's ceiling at Baylor, but he's already playing at a high enough level to make a significant impact despite that. The things he does well -- rim-running, shot-blocking, catching and finishing -- he does really well. And those skills fit really well with what we ask our bigs to do.

He doesn't have much of a back-to-the-basket game yet ... and he may never. But we don't really utilize that skill set much anyway, so it's not a big deal for us.

Missi is fun to watch. His athleticism and coordination are light years ahead of anything we've had from a freshman post to date. If he can continue to refine his offensive game, he's going to be an absolute monster someday.

Crawfoso1973 said:

---

I don't see the Hakeem comparisons because Missi has zero back to the basket game. Hakeem was one of the greatest NBA low-post scorers of all time. At the next level I think Missi will be a pick-and-roll big playing away from the basket, camping out in the corner for the corner three and setting high ball screens.

---

I could have rephrased it and said Hakeem reminds me of Yves because he too had no low post moves as a freshman. And I fully expect Yves to develop quality low post moves. He may or may not reach Hakeem's All-Pro level but he showed up his freshman year with the same God-Givin talent and potential.