Andre Kelly at the 5 and Grant Anticevich at the 4, with any of Hyder/Brown/Betley/Foreman/Bradley at the guard and wing positions. What this essentially means is four shooters surrounding an effective post player, and the results have generally been very positive.
Welcome to the 21st Century Coach Fox. Let's see if you can recruit enough shooters to make a constant 4 out offense work without always relying on grad transfers.
Agreed all around, Nick...they’re watchable, but until the talent level is upgraded, 8-10, or at best 9-9, is the absolute ceiling for this team under Fox. Betley just killed them this weekend, going 3-20 combined, 2-11 from 3. Yet they still hung...but once the opposing talent level ratcheted up, the shots missed the mark.
This team really needs a low post anchor...Kelly is solid, but his offensive repertoire is somewhat limited. Thorpe is a Kelly clone, just younger. KK is simply too raw and unfortunately probably won’t reach his potential until his mid-to-late 20’s...Thiemann just brings so little to the table it’s not even worth mentioning. Grab a rebound for chrissakes....
But they’re definitely on track, and a full season of a healthy Bradley next year will be a big help...but they sure could use an impact big to take the next step. Also pleased with Joel’s development, tho shooting <50% from the line is simply unacceptable for a PG.
I think Kelly is plenty good offensively, as mentioned above my favorite lineups feature him at the 5 surrounded by shooters. I do think there are defensive questions, but that goes for pretty much every post player on the roster right now.
I don't think a low post player is the way forward in 2020+ - nor do I think there are a lot of post players in high school anyways. Kids play face up, dive, or in the dunker's spot. And everyone wants to be a stretch 4/5 - which frankly I'm fine with. 4 out or even 5 out offense is the way forward. Everyone bomb 3s and gang rebound.
I hear you. But this Cal team does not gang rebound...they give up way too many offensive boards, and don’t grab many themselves. I’d love a stretch big....doesn’t have to be a strictly back-to-the basket guy...but a rim protector would help. Hate to say it, but this squad could probably use Conor Vanover....
As for Kelly, there’s definitely room for improvement, and I do like him as the lone big, even if we struggle to defend...a bankable 10 & 6 a night certainly helps the ball club. His struggles from the line are hurting his ppg- after averaging about 69% from the stripe his FR/SO years, he’s down around 50, which hurts the bottom line.
Vanover would've been really nice (as would Justice Sueing!)
I think we're aligned on the future of the big in college. 70% would be fantastic for Kelly, and he's got really great hands. He's just a little small, like a thin MSF.
I guess we're all hoping for some sort of tall player who can do two things on the basketball court - pick from rebound, block shots, set screens, shoot face up shots.
Nick, I'd swear you scanned my own brain before writing this. Not because I would have written it so well but due to your alignment with my own thinking. My son and I watched this game, and UCLA, and agreed we were just a bucket or two away from beating top teams. With a team that is clearly less talented. That is coaching. It gave me hope that at least on the X's and O's side of things, Fox can do it well enough. I saw good offensive passing and plays by our Bears yesterday. But as you conclude, if we don't get the Ivan Rabb's and Allen Crabbe's and Jaylen Brown's, we will remain scrappy and lowly ranked. Monty was a better coach than anyone in the league, but it still took some top flight talent for him to win the Pac.
But we see progress on the court. And after the Jones debacle, that's a good sign.
"We are still passing the ball around the outside"
This is how you attack a zone defense. You need to get the defense shifting from side to side. Sure you could attack through diagonal passes, penetration, and side pick and rolls, but ball rotation is step one. If the defense is not playing on a string, then strong ball rotation is the first way to attack.
I'd argue that Kelly is that big man offensively. Like I mentioned above, he's shooting 66% in conference play, with the highest offensive efficiency on the team.
Andre Kelly at the 5 and Grant Anticevich at the 4, with any of Hyder/Brown/Betley/Foreman/Bradley at the guard and wing positions. What this essentially means is four shooters surrounding an effective post player, and the results have generally been very positive.
Welcome to the 21st Century Coach Fox. Let's see if you can recruit enough shooters to make a constant 4 out offense work without always relying on grad transfers.
Agreed all around, Nick...they’re watchable, but until the talent level is upgraded, 8-10, or at best 9-9, is the absolute ceiling for this team under Fox. Betley just killed them this weekend, going 3-20 combined, 2-11 from 3. Yet they still hung...but once the opposing talent level ratcheted up, the shots missed the mark.
This team really needs a low post anchor...Kelly is solid, but his offensive repertoire is somewhat limited. Thorpe is a Kelly clone, just younger. KK is simply too raw and unfortunately probably won’t reach his potential until his mid-to-late 20’s...Thiemann just brings so little to the table it’s not even worth mentioning. Grab a rebound for chrissakes....
But they’re definitely on track, and a full season of a healthy Bradley next year will be a big help...but they sure could use an impact big to take the next step. Also pleased with Joel’s development, tho shooting <50% from the line is simply unacceptable for a PG.
I think Kelly is plenty good offensively, as mentioned above my favorite lineups feature him at the 5 surrounded by shooters. I do think there are defensive questions, but that goes for pretty much every post player on the roster right now.
I don't think a low post player is the way forward in 2020+ - nor do I think there are a lot of post players in high school anyways. Kids play face up, dive, or in the dunker's spot. And everyone wants to be a stretch 4/5 - which frankly I'm fine with. 4 out or even 5 out offense is the way forward. Everyone bomb 3s and gang rebound.
I hear you. But this Cal team does not gang rebound...they give up way too many offensive boards, and don’t grab many themselves. I’d love a stretch big....doesn’t have to be a strictly back-to-the basket guy...but a rim protector would help. Hate to say it, but this squad could probably use Conor Vanover....
As for Kelly, there’s definitely room for improvement, and I do like him as the lone big, even if we struggle to defend...a bankable 10 & 6 a night certainly helps the ball club. His struggles from the line are hurting his ppg- after averaging about 69% from the stripe his FR/SO years, he’s down around 50, which hurts the bottom line.
But at least we’re on the road to contention...
Vanover would've been really nice (as would Justice Sueing!)
I think we're aligned on the future of the big in college. 70% would be fantastic for Kelly, and he's got really great hands. He's just a little small, like a thin MSF.
I guess we're all hoping for some sort of tall player who can do two things on the basketball court - pick from rebound, block shots, set screens, shoot face up shots.
Nick, I'd swear you scanned my own brain before writing this. Not because I would have written it so well but due to your alignment with my own thinking. My son and I watched this game, and UCLA, and agreed we were just a bucket or two away from beating top teams. With a team that is clearly less talented. That is coaching. It gave me hope that at least on the X's and O's side of things, Fox can do it well enough. I saw good offensive passing and plays by our Bears yesterday. But as you conclude, if we don't get the Ivan Rabb's and Allen Crabbe's and Jaylen Brown's, we will remain scrappy and lowly ranked. Monty was a better coach than anyone in the league, but it still took some top flight talent for him to win the Pac.
But we see progress on the court. And after the Jones debacle, that's a good sign.
Kind of a frustrating ending but a lot of things are starting to go right for the Bears.
"We are still passing the ball around the outside"
This is how you attack a zone defense. You need to get the defense shifting from side to side. Sure you could attack through diagonal passes, penetration, and side pick and rolls, but ball rotation is step one. If the defense is not playing on a string, then strong ball rotation is the first way to attack.
I'd argue that Kelly is that big man offensively. Like I mentioned above, he's shooting 66% in conference play, with the highest offensive efficiency on the team.