Femi Odukale commits

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Good size for a guard, nice pick up. Let's get Patterson next
 

EasyThere Pilgrim said:
If this was true...they'd be getting $500K+ like Payne, Hawkins, & Christie. But these guys are bargain-basement.
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Wake up. Nobody is comparing individual players against one another. It's a team game and all the parts together make the team.

Mitchell will help the team more than Payne if he rebounds at the level he has shown. Payne gave up endless second and third shots.

Our guard rotation will be better than Hawkins if they all pass the ball and make the entire defense move and work.

Christie has always been a one year player. Personally, I can't see him in the NBA.
 

60's Guy said:
So Big Frank is our 5
Garcia our 4
Femi Odukale our 3
Caleb Williams our 2
and the incoming Patterson is our point
That leaves Mitchell to be our 6th man off the bench.
and Rigsby our 7th man on the perimeter.
Fox backing up down low
Betts, Asuma and Groves cheering.
Be nice to have a shooter or scorer to push Williams to a backup (like Ken Evans Jr) and as others have said we need a 5 like Trey Edmonds. I think Williams is better than Mitchell given an equal opportunity.
That'd be 13
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Zero chance Mike Mitchell is not in our starting 5.
 



I think Asuma is definitely in the rotation. he's athletic, and while he may not be ready to be the primary PG, he can handle the ball enough to be part of the guard rotation.

and Betts had better be ready to contribute. If he can't provide at least 8 to 10 minutes as part of the rotation, he's not serving any purpose being on the roster. it's time for him to fish or cut bait.
 





short ornery norwegian said:
I think Asuma is definitely in the rotation. he's athletic, and while he may not be ready to be the primary PG, he can handle the ball enough to be part of the guard rotation.

and Betts had better be ready to contribute. If he can't provide at least 8 to 10 minutes as part of the rotation, he's not serving any purpose being on the roster. it's time for him to fish or cut bait.
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I think Betts will surprise us this year. I don't think he'll be great, but I bet he gives us 10-15 min per night.
 








The Asuma thing is interesting. Is Ben interested in the next Asuma? Reportedly he is an excellent baseball player. Plus the youngest one appears to be the best of the bunch?
 

Off-GridTNgopher said:
The last 3 weeks of the season, the big tourney and the nit there should of been a couple more players seeing the court. Ben ran this team ragged at the end
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Ben is going to have to coach differently regarding depth next year- no doubt. Last year, there was a pretty big drop off in productivity after the starting five. Hawkins, Payne, Garcia and Christie were all feature players in different games. Now he will have only Garcia as a feature type player, maybe Patterson. So it has to get done with team work, defense and effort. The quality of his top 10 is going to be more level than last year. JOJ had talent as did Ihnen but they didn't know how to use it. Hopefully we have brought in more guys that work the system and produce on both ends of the court. Hawkins was effective on offense- but a defensive liability, same with Christie. Carrington was effective on defense but not on offense.

Play nine or ten guys and build a team.
 

Dsigma42 said:
Williams is not playing over M. Mitchell. He is the 3rd of 4th player off the bench.
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That is certainly where he will begin the season, not necessarily where he will be by league season. Mitchell is the starter but there will be plenty of times where a burst of offense is needed to change the game.

What is unknown by most fans (but known to coaches) is what kind of ball handler, passer, and facilitator Williams will be. He might be better than Mitchell as a ball handler.
 

bga1 said:
Ben is going to have to coach differently regarding depth next year- no doubt. Last year, there was a pretty big drop off in productivity after the starting five. Hawkins, Payne, Garcia and Christie were all feature players in different games. Now he will have only Garcia as a feature type player, maybe Patterson. So it has to get done with team work, defense and effort. The quality of his top 10 is going to be more level than last year. JOJ had talent as did Ihnen but they didn't know how to use it. Hopefully we have brought in more guys that work the system and produce on both ends of the court. Hawkins was effective on offense- but a defensive liability, same with Christie. Carrington was effective on defense but not on offense.

Play nine or ten guys and build a team.
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Time to make -

 

Dakota2 said:
That is certainly where he will begin the season, not necessarily where he will be by league season. Mitchell is the starter but there will be plenty of times where a burst of offense is needed to change the game.

What is unknown by most fans (but known to coaches) is what kind of ball handler, passer, and facilitator Williams will be. He might be better than Mitchell as a ball handler.
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I will be interested in seeing if Williams can be employed at the point guard position. He has great ball handling skills but would need to adapt to the mentality of the point. Patterson looks like he could play either the 1 or 2 as could Asuma.
 

007gopherfan said:
Be surprised if Evans is still interested here with all the commits of Guards and Odukale. Thinking Patterson, Edmonds, and like a Ryan Mutombo would really help. Mutombo didn't play too many minutes in Georgetown but would be a veteran that could be used for extra depth and injuries. Would also bring a 7'2 to help matchup with many of the other 7 footers now in the BIG. Seems like every team is getting one.
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No on Ryan Mutombo. He is bad. He isn't Jack Wilson-level bad, but he is bad.
 

bga1 said:
I will be interested in seeing if Williams can be employed at the point guard position. He has great ball handling skills but would need to adapt to the mentality of the point. Patterson looks like he could play either the 1 or 2 as could Asuma.
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Doesn't look like we'll have a true PG, certainly not a Hawkins type. That is overcome by emphasizing rapid ball movement to create shots. Don't always need a ball dominant PG.
 

bga1 said:
I will be interested in seeing if Williams can be employed at the point guard position. He has great ball handling skills but would need to adapt to the mentality of the point. Patterson looks like he could play either the 1 or 2 as could Asuma.
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We'd need to put him in a situation where he isn't locked up by a guy with speed and size.

I think he'll be able to play some point guard for us. He's a pretty crafty guy (from the small sample size i've seen), so I think he'll be fine especially considering he'll likely be playing with wings with some ball handling ability (Asuma, Mitchell, Odukale).
 

Dakota2 said:
Doesn't look like we'll have a true PG, certainly not a Hawkins type. That is overcome by emphasizing rapid ball movement to create shots. Don't always need a ball dominant PG.
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Yep, it might feel more like Ben's first year with Willis, Stephens, Loewe, and Sutherlin in terms of offensive style.
 


Coaches job is to recruit the best players for their system. Players job is to earn their playing time. There will be some competition next year in the SF/G positions as many are now upperclassmen.
Like to see Ben get his PG to be more of 20 PPG guy and I think Patterson could be that guy. Hoping he commits to make it official soon. That would take more pressure off Garcia. Cooper and Hawkins were definitely more pass first.
Think Williams and Rigsby could help kind of like Fox does being a spark plug here and there with still the ability to score the basketball. We really lacked bench scoring in many games last year.

Interested to see who else we may land here.
 

This is a really good pick up for Ben. The guy has size at the wing position. He has been a stat stuffer - really good rebounding wing, a lot of steals and actually a pretty good distributor. He's everything we hoped Carrington could turn into.

I really love that we've added some size and athleticism to the backourt (Rigsby, Odukale, and Asuma).

Go get a PG and a serviceable depth big and lets roll.
 



Bob_Loblaw said:
Yeah, I like Hawkins and this isn't revisionist history, but he did dribble A LOT at times.
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To be honest, it seems like this has been Ben's offense whether run by Willis or Cooper or Hawkins.
I hope he changes it.
 

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