Recruiting

[DeletedUser]

Of all the KU guards to have the ball in their hands down a score at the end of the game, Dajuan just isn’t real high on that list.

Ball in his hands with the ability to run offense (pass or score)?

I'd have him above Russ Rob, Tharpe, Marcus Garrett, and maybe EJ.

[twocoach]

Dajuan is part of the problem.
Ousdahl and twocoach are correct about his shooting - this is probably his most glaring weakness.

I think his biggest weakness is lack of scoring ability.

Similar, but not the same as shooting (imo).

He struggles to get open enough to shoot. His brain is pass first, so he's also not an eager shooter.

He's a finesse, pass first, defensive minded PG. If he could score it like Devonte he'd be in the league.

And 39% is a good 3pt % over a 200+ sample size. Twocoach can randomly discount it because if it's open it doesn't count, but that's nonsense. We haven't won as many games as we have during the Self era by chucking up heavily guarded 3s. Only a handful of players have had that level of green light to take bad shots.

To me the problem is that he isn't even thinking about scoring the vast majority of the time. I get the whole "a true point guard runs the offense" but if you eliminate yourself as part of the scoring then your immediately making the offense easier to guard.

[pdub]

Re: floor general, I think part of that billing as someone who can just make stuff happen.

Then we have different definitions of floor general and i'd wager mine is more commonly used.

[DeletedUser]

To me the problem is that he isn't even thinking about scoring the vast majority of the time.

Correct. He's a pass first PG.

On a team that (when healthy) had a historically efficient offense with 3 12pt+ per game scorers + Furphy.

[DeletedUser]

Re: floor general, I think part of that billing as someone who can just make stuff happen.

Then we have different definitions of floor general and i'd wager mine is more commonly used.

Yes. This isn't the dribble drive offense.

Floor general gets you into your sets.

Floor general does not mean hero baller get you buckets on his own.

[KUTradition]

to me, “floor general” = extension of coach, whatever that may look like

[jfish26]

I guess my feeling is that whatever Harris' floor general PG superpowers are that do not show up in his box score, should show up in our halfcourt offense not looking like microwaved ass. I think it's very very very hard to make the pro-Harris case when the halfcourt offense has mostly looked like microwaved ass.

[DeletedUser]

I guess my feeling is that whatever Harris' floor general PG superpowers are that do not show up in his box score, should show up in our halfcourt offense not looking like microwaved ass. I think it's very very very hard to make the pro-Harris case when the halfcourt offense has mostly looked like microwaved ass.

Take a look at the players around him.

Plenty of blame to go around. He can't make the shots for them or move their bodies to the correct spots.

[pdub]

Yea but now we are chicken and egg.
Our 2022 team had a top 10 in the nation offense and it was led by Harris.
Harris has ( albeit maybe not as much as we want ) improved since then.

[DeletedUser]

Yea but now we are chicken and egg.
Our 2022 team had a top 10 in the nation offense and it was led by Harris.
Harris has ( albeit maybe not as much as we want ) improved since then.

Yes.

The players around him got worse. That's what changed. Och CB JW and DMac were so solid.

[jfish26]

What was Ochai ranked?
And Braun?

Not highly.

But they developed into NBA caliber talent.

Our best teams have some high end talent that is NBA caliber.

You can build a great program on guys like Ochai and Braun. And the other massive development success stories like what we've had.

But you cannot win at the level and rate we have over the Brown/Williams/Self era - and each of those latter two successively took it to another level - without fishing in the super-high-end-talent pool (whether "traditional" (good lord) OADs or the new, portal kind (Remy/McCullar/Hunter)).

That's table stakes, unless you want to recede into a level of success that is not what we've become accustomed to.

[jfish26]

Yea but now we are chicken and egg.
Our 2022 team had a top 10 in the nation offense and it was led by Harris.
Harris has ( albeit maybe not as much as we want ) improved since then.

Yes.

The players around him got worse. That's what changed. Och CB JW and DMac were so solid.

And then Remy came on late to give us the aggressive scoring guard archetype to balance Harris. And, say what you want, but ninth-year Lightfoot > P. Braun.

[DeletedUser]

Yea but now we are chicken and egg.
Our 2022 team had a top 10 in the nation offense and it was led by Harris.
Harris has ( albeit maybe not as much as we want ) improved since then.

Yes.

The players around him got worse. That's what changed. Och CB JW and DMac were so solid.

And then Remy came on late to give us the aggressive scoring guard archetype to balance Harris. And, say what you want, but ninth-year Lightfoot > P. Braun.

Yes to both.

GM Bill success story, years in the making (with CB Och JW DMac and Mitch).

[randylahey]

Our portal needs: a big 6'8ish wing that can shoot and play multiple positions

And a dynamic quick scoring guard to take the pressure of dajuan who shoots well from 3

[Back2Lawrence]

Our needs: a clear leader on the court, a group that doesn't seem to fold to adversity, shooter(s), proper defensive positioning (bbiq?), less me and more us from it's best player.

That's a start.

[jfish26]

Our needs: a clear leader on the court, a group that doesn't seem to fold to adversity, shooter(s), proper defensive positioning (bbiq?), less me and more us from it's best player.

That's a start.

My opinion - and it's just that of course - is that things like these are largely solved by winning, which is solved by talent (which we don't have) and coaching (which we do).

[Back2Lawrence]

Our needs: a clear leader on the court, a group that doesn't seem to fold to adversity, shooter(s), proper defensive positioning (bbiq?), less me and more us from it's best player.

That's a start.

My opinion - and it's just that of course - is that things like these are largely solved by winning, which is solved by talent (which we don't have) and coaching (which we do).

You can dismiss this if you need to, but I haven't liked HD from day one (before, as I didn't like him when he was at UM). I disliked the Morris twins for similar but different reasons when they were here. I'm not a fan of me first players, which he seems to be most of the time. Sure, without him this season, we'd probably be under .500 (weird), but I'd rather pull the bandaid off than have to look at the scar of his time here as something I celebrated.

That said, sure, get your shoulder back to 100% so you can jump six inches off court, dominate inside offensively at 7'2" and get us to the second weekend.

[twocoach]

Our portal needs: a big 6'8ish wing that can shoot and play multiple positions

And a dynamic quick scoring guard to take the pressure of dajuan who shoots well from 3

We might get that 6'8" wing from the recruiting class vs. the portal.

https://247sports.com/player/liam-mcneeley-46103856/

[pdub]

JFish thinks HD is unfairly judged.
But there's a pattern of dislike...smoke/fire deal.
I would also like to pull the 'diamond earring'd put my arm between my legs when I hit my first three after shooting sub 30% from there in conference even though we're loosing by 8 points' bandaid off.

[ousdahl]

Here’s where I am with Dajuan, and this prob applies to other doods too:

If we need to complement Dajuan with superior talents 2-5 including/and (and/or?) another guard to make sure a Dajuan-led team isn’t 2024 levels of suck…why even bother building around a dood like that in the first place?