89Bear said:
tsubamoto2001 said:
Good luck to Jacobi. Transfers are always part of the deal, especially when a regime change occurs.
The roster for next season currently has:
1 - J. Brown
2 - M. Bradley / J. Celestine
3 - J. Harris-Dyson / D. Klonaras / M. Bowser
4 - G. Anticevich / D. Thorpe / K. Kuany
5 - A. Kelly / L. Thiemann
JHD is a question mark to return, obviously. But assuming he stays, there's 2 rides left for next season. A PG is an obvious need and basically getting a really good player that can play right away (regardless of position) is another obvious need. Someone needs to come in and average double figures in scoring.
Completely agree with the needs. To take a step forward, to me, we HAVE TO get a player who can play right away and make a valuable contribution!!!
It sounds like you are not expecting major improvement, or any significant improvement over the off-season from these players. My experience has been that many players, maybe most players make some improvements after their first season, although many make the big jump after two years, if they do improve. Big men take longer, in general, to improve, and we have a lot of very young big men. Kelly still can not play more than 20-25 minutes, so if he can not improve this, Thiemann and Thorpe will need to improve enough to be and effective replacement for Kelly.
I have liked Kuany not for the 4 but for the 3, or small forward position. He has been coming along slowly, but he could make a big jump this summer. He can shoot, handle the ball, and can learn a lot over the summer with coaching. Very athletic. Thorpe has been steadily improving, but needs some offense, and also become a solid man defender to be able to stay on the floor for extended minutes. Theimann has been discussed ad infinitum, and I expect some improvement from him over summer, but how much is a question.
The crucial thing to ensure we are as good as last season is to get a point guard. A Frankie Ferrari. I'm not sure what we will look like with Brown running the offense for 35 minutes, so it should be someone at least as good as he is this season, and hopefully better. And of course, we need to at least replace what South gave us, which will not be as difficult to do as finding a PG who can play right away.
I don't see JHD staying, but even if he does, he is injury prone, and can only play for defensive reasons, which is a good thing to have, but small forward or shooting guard are scoring positions, and we need someone who can score there, because we are not scoring enough points per game as a team.
So I agree with you that we need someone who can play right away, and I'm hoping that Kuany is the guy for small forward position, and that we find a PG who can play right away, either a great distibutor, or a good scorer and defender, at least. If Kuany doesn't improve enough, then we'll need a SF who can play right away, or we'll be stuck with using Bradley out of position there again, and getting another good shooting guard. I'd also like us to get another big, a center, if JHD decides to leave, but I'm satisfied waiting to see if the current bigs, Kelly, Anticevich, Thorpe, and Thiemann can be the primary players at C and PF for next season.