Grayson Grove progression

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gophersoa

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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?
 

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.
 

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.
 

gophersoa said:
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?
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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.
 

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



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.
 

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.
 

leib0039 said:
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.
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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!
 



gophersoa said:
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?
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When he proves he can make free throws...?

Seriously though, his effort has been amazing.
 

bga1 said:
When he proves he can make free throws...?

Seriously though, his effort has been amazing.
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My initial thought is that Grayson has built up his strength significantly, but in so doing he has sacrificed his shot and shooting touch. I was recently reading an article about Wilt Chamberlain, saying he was against bulking up to gain strength and instead suggested more pliametrics and stretching exercises.
 

goldenboy said:
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.
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My main question for almost everybody we get or look at is: Will they likely give up more points than they score? If they are strictly scorers and terrible defenders, well, those guys are a dime a dozen. If you feel that (even if they aren't great on-ball defenders like maybe Durkin) they can at least be good team defenders and are smart enough to pick up the more complicated rotations that most decent college teams use and athletic/willing enough to at least be counted on to funnel their assignment to the spot where our defense can help and rotate properly, then OK.

I'm pretty sure than Niko and his staff are looking at stuff like that just as hard as they are looking at offensive stats. If you need plays run for you to be effective, I don't think Niko's offense (which seems to be designed to create open shots/lay-ups off many cuts, screens and passes, not necessarily specific shooters) might not be a great match.
 

Watched him a ton in high school. He consistently hit the 3 his sophomore and especially his Junior year before he got hurt. Then he bulked up with muscle and it doesn’t seem like he is as fluid. I think that may come. Great great kid who will give you everything he has. He will be the first to dive on the floor. Ironically he was a good FT shooter then something happened. Not sure what.
 



Tigger said:
Watched him a ton in high school. He consistently hit the 3 his sophomore and especially his Junior year before he got hurt. Then he bulked up with muscle and it doesn’t seem like he is as fluid. I think that may come. Great great kid who will give you everything he has. He will be the first to dive on the floor. Ironically he was a good FT shooter then something happened. Not sure what.
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This is great to hear because I love his energy. Hopefully, his shooting will return as he gets more comfortable.
 

He could hit a 3 in high school. The few times I watched him play
 

There was a very good center years ago who went 3/15 from 3 in his two college seasons.

Same bloke has made over 1100 3s in the NBA—despite making 3 total in his first 8 years.

Never say never I guess
 

Agreed that it might be due to him bulking up. But as an underclassman I was surprised at his skill level
 

I watched him in the tournament and recall he was actually a very good shooter from three. As a junior he shot 38.3% from deep. I couldn’t find his senior stats.
 


I watched a lot of Grove in HS, almost every game his junior and senior year. When he committed I didn’t think he was a P4 player but he has proven to me that he can at worst be an energy backup big in the B10 what is a huge credit to him.

But to answer your question about his shot, he was a very quality 3 pt and FT shooter in HS. I’m shocked how bad he is from the line, it has to be all mental because he didn’t seem like a liability from there. But he would let the 3 ball fly in HS and was solid shooter for a HS big. Also Alexandria had another D1 big in Chase Thompson (would love to add him in the portal, with him being on the fringe of Clemson rotation as a freshman) and Alexandria just runs and guns from 3. Grove was struggling with he came back from injury his senior year.

Long story short, he at least has the framework to be a ok shooter, he also has 3 more years to develop. Overall I’m happy where grove is at in his development process
 

The free throws are pretty funny. He gets the ball and just fires it up there. I'm waiting for a dribble, or a spin in the hands, nope, as soon as they bounce it to him, he throws it up.
 

Gopher-in-Keno said:
The free throws are pretty funny. He gets the ball and just fires it up there. I'm waiting for a dribble, or a spin in the hands, nope, as soon as they bounce it to him, he throws it up.
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Yeah, he does not look comfortable at the line at all. 4-17 is shockingly bad and will keep him off the court in close game situations because teams would be foolish not to hack him and send him to the line.

But he definitely has the look of someone who can develop into a solid rotation piece on a Big Ten team.
 

Gophermangeek said:
I watched a lot of Grove in HS, almost every game his junior and senior year. When he committed I didn’t think he was a P4 player but he has proven to me that he can at worst be an energy backup big in the B10 what is a huge credit to him.

But to answer your question about his shot, he was a very quality 3 pt and FT shooter in HS. I’m shocked how bad he is from the line, it has to be all mental because he didn’t seem like a liability from there. But he would let the 3 ball fly in HS and was solid shooter for a HS big. Also Alexandria had another D1 big in Chase Thompson (would love to add him in the portal, with him being on the fringe of Clemson rotation as a freshman) and Alexandria just runs and guns from 3. Grove was struggling with he came back from injury his senior year.

Long story short, he at least has the framework to be a ok shooter, he also has 3 more years to develop. Overall I’m happy where grove is at in his development process
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I was about to say he is exactly the opposite of what I thought we were getting when he was in high school, he has really improved in the ways where I had concerned and yet it seems like he is regressing in the skills that he did really well. Hopefully he can get his touch back with his shot, I do wonder if bulling up affected that. If we add another big I hope Niko goes and gets Jorgenson from CSU
 




The fact that he gets the ball from the ref and fires it without dribbling or focusing tells me he's got a mental block going on and he doesn't want to think about his form or the crowd while he's at the line. I hope it improves because I love his effort.
 

I love the hustle and the energy. I loved the smile when he dunked against Illinois's big. I love a kid who works his butt off and solves problems, and I'll bet you tree fiddy that he's that kid.
 

He has played great. I wasn’t sure what was there but if he keeps progressing he will be a big contributor and a great depth piece.
 

cheeseheadgophfan said:
The fact that he gets the ball from the ref and fires it without dribbling or focusing tells me he's got a mental block going on and he doesn't want to think about his form or the crowd while he's at the line. I hope it improves because I love his effort.
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He just started doing that a few games ago...clearly an attempt to deal with the mental block
 

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