Grayson Grove progression

[gophersoa]

Grayson seems to be improving every game, getting more comfortable and confident. Those of you that know his high school career better than me, how was his 3 point shooting? I know he has taken and made a few for the gophers. I thought that I had heard that maybe he had the ability to stretch the court.
Do you think his 3 point shooting will become more of his game. When?

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

Yeah, his growth has really been interesting to me. From what I saw of him in HS, I thought he was going to be a semi-skilled big who would give us some depth, maybe a little skill, sort of in the mold of a typical Badger 4/5.

He is a different type of player. He plays hard, he's physical, he rebounds hard, he runs the court well and his game has much more of an edge than I thought it would. He kind of reminds me of Chad Kolander at times. I think he's going to be a really important part of our team over the next few years.

 

[goldenboy]

He’s also a nice fit for Niko’s offense, even at this point in his career. He’s a good passer and ok screener, which our offense uses on almost every play. We’ve only posted up a few times, and that’s been with Crocker-Johnson and (to a lesser extent) Tyson. If he can improve as a shooter (and become more willing), he will be in the rotation even when more bigs are added next year.

 

[MNVCGUY]

Grayson seems to be improving every game, getting more comfortable and confident. Those of you that know his high school career better than me, how was his 3 point shooting? I know he has taken and made a few for the gophers. I thought that I had heard that maybe he had the ability to stretch the court.
Do you think his 3 point shooting will become more of his game. When?

Can't speak to high school but based on how he looked shooting the 3s he took against USC I would not expect that to ever be a significant part of his game.

That said, he looks like someone who can be a really solid rotation guy. May never be a star or top option but can come in and play hard giving the team quality minutes off the bench.

The only real positive of all the injures is that Grove and Shinholster are logging a lot of quality minutes that they might not have gotten if the guys in front of them hadn't gotten hurt.

As long as they stick around, those minutes should really help them heading into the 26-27 season when the team is hopefully more setup to compete.

 

[TwistingMyMelon]

He’s also a nice fit for Niko’s offense, even at this point in his career. He’s a good passer and ok screener, which our offense uses on almost every play. We’ve only posted up a few times, and that’s been with Crocker-Johnson and (to a lesser extent) Tyson. If he can improve as a shooter (and become more willing), he will be in the rotation even when more bigs are added next year.

He also appears to be a much better athlete than those of us who knew little about him before the season expected.

 

[topos]

He also appears to be a much better athlete than those of us who knew little about him before the season expected.

I didn't think he could dunk until the NW game.

 

[gophersoa]

I pretty much agree with what everyone is saying. I don't think Grove is going to be a superstar, first round draft pick but it he can increase his frequency/accuracy of his 3 point shooting, it should help the team tremendously. The other things he is adding is another plus.
That is what I like about Medved's offense, if we have another big that can stretch the defense and draw the other team's big out of the middle, our slashers and back cuts will get a lot of easy buckets.
Go Gophs.

 

[leib0039]

If he could become even a semi competent 3pt/FT shooter that would be massive. Like even 30% from 3 and 65% from the line. It hurts spacing when he's at the top of the key with the ball and his defender is at the FT line. And also nice to be able to keep him out there end of game situations for rebounding and not have to worry he guys 0-2 on FT. But yes his progress had been good and I'm hopeful he stick around a few more years.

 

[march madness]

If he could become even a semi competent 3pt/FT shooter that would be massive. Like even 30% from 3 and 65% from the line. It hurts spacing when he's at the top of the key with the ball and his defender is at the FT line. And also nice to be able to keep him out there end of game situations for rebounding and not have to worry he guys 0-2 on FT. But yes his progress had been good and I'm hopeful he stick around a few more years.

When he is playing the 5, being able to hit the occassional three would do wonders to get the opposing center out of the lane. I believe he was an ok 3 pt shooter in high school, had a game or two in the tourney hitting multiple 3's. He does appear to have some Nolen Winter in his game. And like others have noticed, just being willing to use your body for picks, boxing out, trying to dunk near the basket-drawing fouls, all under-rated things that help a team win!