The Official “Regular Posters of the Basketball Forum” Thread

#26,176
#26,176
omghulkhands said:
So many thoughts and opinions around the game. Don't know if anyone cares about all of them lol. So I'll stick to just some super salient ones.

- Overall, the result doesn't matter to me. I was very encouraged by what I saw. I think offensively, we have the pieces we need to be elite. You didn't see it coalesce today. But I saw enough to know based on what I know about our offense, and Rick Barnes as a coach, that this offense has the highest ceiling we've seen since Grant/Admiral.

-The substitutions and playing time were super weird. It was an exhibition after all. I don't think it means anything. Wouldn't read into it.

- Duke played like they scouted us. We didn't appear to do the same best I could tell. I think the we just approached this game differently than Duke. I believe this because Duke did things like doubling the ball early as we got into our offense. And on the other side, they looked really crisp and practiced with blender, which is our one defensive weakness and always has been under Barnes (blender is where you get a defense on it's heels after a double/help/rotation and keep making quick passes to expose that rotation until you get an open three). Duke did this a TON and did it really effectively. It's hard for me to fathom that such a new team would be so crisp at this naturally. I think they game planned for it.

On the other side, we seemed to approach the game as a series of situational opportunities. I could wax poetic on it all night about why I think that and what I saw.

-I think we are all correct to be very excited about this team. Look, our two best players shot 10/39 and we lost by 6 to a pre-season #6 team. Basketball isn't about individual games. It's about average performance over time. And I am willing to go on record that this looks to be far under what our average will look like.
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The other thing I would add to this is that Duke shot extremely well at FTs, over 90%.

The only thing I was concerned about was our rebounding, but maybe Carey will step it up in real games (wasn’t just Carey, I just feel like he should be one of our best rebounders)
 
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#26,178
#26,178
omghulkhands said:
So many thoughts and opinions around the game. Don't know if anyone cares about all of them lol. So I'll stick to just some super salient ones.

- Overall, the result doesn't matter to me. I was very encouraged by what I saw. I think offensively, we have the pieces we need to be elite. You didn't see it coalesce today. But I saw enough to know based on what I know about our offense, and Rick Barnes as a coach, that this offense has the highest ceiling we've seen since Grant/Admiral.

-The substitutions and playing time were super weird. It was an exhibition after all. I don't think it means anything. Wouldn't read into it.

- Duke played like they scouted us. We didn't appear to do the same best I could tell. I think the we just approached this game differently than Duke. I believe this because Duke did things like doubling the ball early as we got into our offense. And on the other side, they looked really crisp and practiced with blender, which is our one defensive weakness and always has been under Barnes (blender is where you get a defense on it's heels after a double/help/rotation and keep making quick passes to expose that rotation until you get an open three). Duke did this a TON and did it really effectively. It's hard for me to fathom that such a new team would be so crisp at this naturally. I think they game planned for it.

On the other side, we seemed to approach the game as a series of situational opportunities. I could wax poetic on it all night about why I think that and what I saw.

-I think we are all correct to be very excited about this team. Look, our two best players shot 10/39 and we lost by 6 to a pre-season #6 team. Basketball isn't about individual games. It's about average performance over time. And I am willing to go on record that this looks to be far under what our average will look like.
Click to expand...
I liked what I saw. First, Duke is really good. Second, Boozer is crazy good.

I wouldn't worry about the Boswell minutes. It's a Barnes scrimmage.

Things that I liked that jumped out to me:
1. Are we sure Brown is a freshman? Good lord!
2. Front court depth: we have 5 (five!) Solid front court guys. No they won't all have great statlines, but none are "we really just have to survive this" minutes. I don't think we've ever had that under Barnes.
3. I know they out rebounded us by the end but that was all 2nd half (we had the edge at half) this is going to be a good rebounding team. Potentially very good.
4. I doubt Amemt & Gillespie shoot 25% many games this year (or ever). Ament was making adjustments by the end. He'll get there. We used Gillespie off ball and his shooting % went way up on that action.
5. I liked Gillespie's speed of decisions. He is overall quicker than I expected physically. But I especially liked his decision-making speed. The ball doesn't die in his hands
6. Inside passing...oh man. There were some juicy inside big-to-big passes. Don't threaten me with a good time.
7. I liked what I saw in Burg. Competent backup PG. Solid defender. Not afraid to get in there and scrap.
8. Our size and athleticism can hang with anyone. The announcers kept talking about Duke's size, but we are right there too. Many teams we face will not have enough height to guard us.
9. We had an effective PnR. That hasn't always been the case. It's nice to see.

Bottom line is I'm MORE excited about this team after tonight, regardless of that end score.
 
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#26,179
#26,179
Duke played a short rotation and played it like it was an NCAA tournament game with their starting 5 all going 25+ minutes. Wild playing Boozer 40 mins but I guess their coach felt like they needed that.

Looks like Carey, Brown, JP and Cade are in audition mode with all of them playing similar minutes. Brown looked great in the first half but I read little into exhibition games. Boswell probably won't play 24 minutes in an actual game this season unless someone is hurt, maybe a few someones.

If Ament shoots 45 percent instead of 25, he has 20+ and 10 tonight against a top ten team playing it like a must win game rather than one where you work on things. I'm still really high on him averaging 18/8 or so this year.
 
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#26,181
#26,181
VolArmy74 said:
Duke played a short rotation and played it like it was an NCAA tournament game with their starting 5 all going 25+ minutes. Wild playing Boozer 40 mins but I guess their coach felt like they needed that.

Looks like Carey, Brown, JP and Cade are in audition mode with all of them playing similar minutes. Brown looked great in the first half but I read little into exhibition games. Boswell probably won't play 24 minutes in an actual game this season unless someone is hurt, maybe a few someones.

If Ament shoots 45 percent instead of 25, he has 20+ and 10 tonight against a top ten team playing it like a must win game rather than one where you work on things. I'm still really high on him averaging 18/8 or so this year.
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Based only on last night, I could see Ament averaging 20+. He a constant shot getter who I assume can make them at a high percentage based on CRB’s praise along with giving him a constant green light.
 
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#26,183
#26,183
omghulkhands said:
That was my first time seeing Ament play.

Lots of back to the basket stuff. For all the KD talk, he gave me more Brandon Ingram or Melo vibes with his style
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Which makes it interesting to see how quickly he can adjust to physical play...the SEC ain't HS. Can't read too much off 1 game but I was not real impressed with his 3-pt shot tbh (and I know he was pressing a bit in front of the scouts and Duke's 5-stars).

Edit: If Ament isn't going to be a consistent 3-pt threat, then JG has to have help from some combo of JP, Burg & Abram.
 
#26,184
#26,184
omghulkhands said:
So many thoughts and opinions around the game. Don't know if anyone cares about all of them lol. So I'll stick to just some super salient ones.

- Overall, the result doesn't matter to me. I was very encouraged by what I saw. I think offensively, we have the pieces we need to be elite. You didn't see it coalesce today. But I saw enough to know based on what I know about our offense, and Rick Barnes as a coach, that this offense has the highest ceiling we've seen since Grant/Admiral.

-The substitutions and playing time were super weird. It was an exhibition after all. I don't think it means anything. Wouldn't read into it.

- Duke played like they scouted us. We didn't appear to do the same best I could tell. I think the we just approached this game differently than Duke. I believe this because Duke did things like doubling the ball early as we got into our offense. And on the other side, they looked really crisp and practiced with blender, which is our one defensive weakness and always has been under Barnes (blender is where you get a defense on it's heels after a double/help/rotation and keep making quick passes to expose that rotation until you get an open three). Duke did this a TON and did it really effectively. It's hard for me to fathom that such a new team would be so crisp at this naturally. I think they game planned for it.

On the other side, we seemed to approach the game as a series of situational opportunities. I could wax poetic on it all night about why I think that and what I saw.

-I think we are all correct to be very excited about this team. Look, our two best players shot 10/39 and we lost by 6 to a pre-season #6 team. Basketball isn't about individual games. It's about average performance over time. And I am willing to go on record that this looks to be far under what our average will look like.
Click to expand...
Barnes said on his post game presser that we scouted Duke and knew pretty much everything they were going to do, but just didn’t execute well in certain areas. I agree with you on the other things as far as what we have offensively. That’s coming. We also have to remember Duke has 6 legit 5-star guys that Duke doesn’t even recruit unless they are elite players. Good things ahead coming up for Tennessee.
 
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#26,186
#26,186
Last nights game looked like 9 unconnected players as you would expect in October and one guy that should have been starting in one of those early season NBA games that nobody watches.
 
#26,188
#26,188
I will say one positive and something we as fans will have to pay attention to, with the sort of depth we have if a guy isn't 95% or better from a health standpoint we won't see them at all.

I don't know if Evans, Henderson, or Massamba were hurt or banged up...but I'll be shocked if at any point this season we hear of "playing through injury" for anyone. Ja'Kobi maybe...but with the depth it seems like we can let guys sit and get fully healthy before asking them to play.

Biggest positives to me:
Brown he's strong and hustles, seems to really understand how to make the small plays to help teammates too. There was one score for Felix on a pick and roll where Duke had a defender in the paint but as soon as he moved as if he was going to challenge Felix Brown went to the basket to hold his attention. Lead to an easy 2 for Felix.
Ament, not a great shooting night 0 of 5 from 3 will do that to you. But still a positive night that's probably the biggest and most talented team we'll see all year in Duke and Ament was able to get whatever shot he wanted pretty much. He also rebounds well and defends well. Passing wasn't as good as I'd like but as a team that will improve
Depth, especially in the post. We could rotate 2 at a time all game and never force any big to have to play more than 4 minutes in a row to do it.
 
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#26,195
#26,195
TheMookieMonster said:
The overreactions I have seen by the college basketball media and/or draft analysts to Nate Ament’s debut in an exhibition game against arguably the best team in the country have been funny. Gotta love this time of year.
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I think the environment plus having all those scouts in attendance worked against Ament and Gillespie. They were pressing. Just hoped to see a bit more from Estrella. A lot of hype around him as an NBA prospect, but he just doesn't make you notice him when he's on the floor.
 
#26,196
#26,196
CAVPUT said:
I think the environment plus having all those scouts in attendance worked against Ament and Gillespie. They were pressing. Just hoped to see a bit more from Estrella. A lot of hype around him as an NBA prospect, but he just doesn't make you notice him when he's on the floor.
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He was barely on the floor, he only played 8 minutes. He managed to go 2-2, one a 3, and get two boards in his brief time out there.
 
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