NathanAllen said:
SFCityBear said:
NathanAllen said:
SFCityBear said:
NathanAllen said:
Iowa forward on the market. Averaged 2.8 points and 3.2 rebounds last season. Averaged 8.9 points and 5.0 rebounds as a freshman. Obviously has the connection with Coach Francis.
From his stats on sports-reference, it looks like he may have been hurt in his junior year, playing only 2 games. Since his minutes and shot attempts per minute both went way down in his senior year, was the injury still affecting his play? How healthy is he now?
Yes, reportedly had surgery to repair a previous knee surgery. I assume he's healthy enough now since he played in 28 games this past season and is seeking another season as a grad transfer. I'd assume his minutes went down because other players on the roster passed him up and that's why he's seeking a transfer, but that's just speculation. Garza was the focal point of the Hawkeyes' offense this year and everyone else was basically in a supporting role.
I'm not saying he's an ideal choice or the staff is even interested. Just that there's an obvious connection with Francis. Fox seems to be focused more on PGs at this point, which is where the roster really needs some help.
This roster needs a lot of help. I agree we need help at point guard, but we need a wing who can play right away. With South leaving, theoretically Bradley could return to his regular position of SG, and we would need a small forward who can score inside and outside. We need Kuany to develop into this role, or bring in someone who can start at SF. Note how Bradley's 3-point percentage dropped considerably when he moved from SG to SF last season.
The roster also needs a tall player who can play center, score inside, defend the opposing centers, rebound, and protect the rim. Kelly is effective in certain matchups, but he does not have the height or athleticism to be a #1 center. He fouls too frequently to be able to play 35 minutes, night after night. Lars and Thorpe are projects, each with a little promise. We can't play them together, because then there is no offense up front other than Anticevich. We are still short one good big, two wings and a point guard. If Bowser and Celestine are good enough to start, then the focus should be on a point guard and a center, IMO. We have a lot of offers out there on the table, and I hope that a couple of good players sign with Cal.
Absolutely no argument there. No offense to any of the current players, but it needs constant upgrades across all positions besides Bradley, who should be at the 2 as you say. Although, I'd point out Bradley's drop in percentage had to do more with him being the focus of opponents' defenses this season and that 47.2% from three was unsustainable. Also, not sure how much the new three-point distance affected him but overall three-point percentage was down this year.
I think the reason why I emphasize the need for a PG so much compared to other positions is as of now, there's literally no primary ball-handler besides Brown. And I think the PG is one of the most important positions (if not the most) on the floor. I think we saw that this season with Paris. When Paris was playing well, Cal looked a lot better.
I also think you're right about needing another CG to slide in at the 2 to relieve Bradley. I'm not as concerned about the 3 (wing) position, but that's just me. You can already move Bradley to the 2 by sliding JHD, Kuany, or Celestine or Bowser into the three. You've already got Anticevich, Kelly, Thorpe, and Thiemann that can play the 4 and 5. But there is an obvious hole left by Austin and South that the coaching staff has yet to fill on the recruiting trail.
I don't disagree. To be as good as last year, we theoretically need to replace both Austin and South with equal talent, and I'd like to think that of Kuany, Celestine, or Bowser, someone could emerge an be able to play the SF as well as South played the SG. South may have slumped in conference, but he still was a glue guy and brought other things to the table. He took care of the ball, played decently on defense, and made few mistakes. That leaves PG as the most important, and finding one who was at least as good as Austin may be challenging.
I was thinking in terms of moving up in the win column from last year, and to do that, finding a point guard who can shoot, pass, take care of the ball, be a leader and defend the point would be a priority, not one just as good as Austin, but better. Second would be getting a player who could play the center position, and play it better than anyone did for us last season. That would leave Kelly free to split time with both Anticevich and the center. Any improvement from Thiemann or Thorpe would be a plus, and who knows maybe one of them will show enough improvement over the summer to prove me wrong, and we won'd need a better center to move way up in the conference standings. Third would be to get a small forward who could complement Bradley's scoring with 10-15 points of his own. Hopefully that comes from the Kuany, Celestine, or Bowser. BTW, is JHD still on the roster?