DanaDane said:
National Championship teams don't have 10 elite level players. They usually have 7, max 8.
What National Championship teams have are role players who fill certain niches because you run into many different styles of play on your way to a championship.
Lohner, Grimes and even Jonathan (some of our fans are suddenly reducing his effectiveness, possibly without understanding last night his minutes were curtailed with spasms) are perfectly fine as role players.
We will need Lohner in games like last night that are physical. Yes, I realize if you glance at his stat line it doesn't jump out at you. What isn't in that stat line is that his physical blockouts on 4 different series down the court led to rebounds by one of our other players. We won't need him against finesse teams too often.
Lots of good points in your post but 2 stand out.
I was concerned that JTT did not see the court until the end. I am glad at least there is a physical explanation. Missi and Oijanwuna are amazing players with incredible upside but that was a physical game and JTT is my guy in that scenario. We had too many missed cutters in the paint where he helps.
Dudes down on Lohner just don't like his type of player I guess. He is physical, he hustles, he can rebound and score within his role. You just don't want him dribbling much and he is turnover prone with the ball away from the basket. Last year we would go 5-10 minutes without a rebound and Drew puts in Lohner and he grabs one immediately.