Optimistic off-season improvements i'd like to see

what id love to see our returning improve on, that i think is realistic in 1 offseason

Dejon

Realistic Improvements:

  • Shooting Confidence/accuracy – there are clear confidence issues with Dejon in regard to shooting 3s as he regularly passes up open 3s (and its not by design as you can see the coaches/other players getting mad at him for passing it up)

  • Improved defense and physicality- Dejon played what I call “tall” defense last year, which is not great D but its okay because you’re really tall and hard to shoot over…would love to see legitimate improvements in his defense and his physicality on defenders

Unlikely but not impossible improvements:

  • shooting contested 3s at a high percentage

Nate

Realistic Improvements:

  • Mastery of a skillset- Nate is good at most things but he isnt great at anything . would love to see him latch on to a skillset and become a master at it (driving, shooting, defense, passing etc)

  • Initiating half-court offense- more assertive in attacking

  • Improving vertical/Going up stronger- 75% of blocks against our team that didn’t result in fouls last season were on Nate, 3 were momentum changing (looked like easy transition points for us that led to easy points for them). He doesn’t up go strong. he needs to be either dunking it or atleast protecting the ball with his body like rob

Unlikely but not impossible improvements:

  • Mastery of multiple skillsets

Fabian

Realistic Improvements:

  • Added muscle- he loves to post up but was weaker than most post players last year…adding muscle would drastically change his game

  • More consistent mid -range shot

  • More assertive – like he was in the tourney but on regular basis

Unlikely but not impossible improvements:

  • 3pt shooter – I saw a training video of him hitting 3s in the offseason

  • Improved handles

Brison

Realistic Improvements:

  • Gain muscle- to avoid being pushed around by opposing bigs for defense and rebounding

  • Post moves- self-initiated offense

Unlikely but not impossible improvements:

  • Mid-range (short jumpers)

Harris

Realistic Improvements:

  • Free throw %- 55%+ would ideal/realistic for him, but would settle for 48%+

  • Aggressiveness- by far the most soft spoken on the team last year. would love some senior leadership and fire from him this year

  • Dunks- he settles for layups far too often for a player who lacks great touch. he often gets fouled attempting these layup but was such a poor free-throw shooter taking dunks have a higher chance of producing points

Unlikely but not impossible improvements:

  • Post moves or any self-initiated offense

Cedrick

Realistic Improvements:

  • Improved 3point percentage- if 75% of all his shots are going to be 3pt shooting, he needs to get to atleast 35% for 3, minimum

  • More assertive as a driver

  • Improved handles- he has to start transitioning to a guard

Unlikely but not impossible improvements:

  • Modified shooting motion- ill settle for knocking down barely contested 3s at 35%+ with his current motion, but if he wants to be a legitimate shooter, he has to completely change his shooting motion. As is it is way too long/slow (time consuming). if he actually started making it and teams started defending it, no way he could get up his shot against tight defenses
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Free throws

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If we can shoot upper 70’s as a team from the stripe, we’ll be in great shape.

Yes…that is all it takes !!!

Good gawd !!

Gresham is up to 230. See Coach Bishop’s tweet and check out that wingspan.

https://twitter.com/coachalanbishop/status/1138079634569007104?s=21

I think he could really come on next season. I don’t know if Deeky will ever be much of a shooter, but we’ll see. Maybe from the 3–point line.

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i saw that… if he can get to 240lbs by the start of the season (10lbs in the summer isn’t unusual for bishop), he’ll be the same weight as breon was last season…

if he is 240 and maintains his athleticism i think we’ll be more than fine at the 5 on a defensive and rebounding perspective

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Pesik that was amazing analysis. You obviously played at a high level or coached or both.

Well done.

Streaky. Started the season 1 for 9 from three. Finished 0 for 4.

Shot 11 for 20 from deep in the middle.

Similar story overall from the field. Started 7 for 20. Finished 16 for 41. Shot 67 for 130 in the middle.

I blame the start on being rusty and family issues.

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No it isn’t.

Crossover dribble and mid-range jumper was pretty salty for a freshman

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Deeky was not brought in to be a “shooter”

Getting to the basket is way easier when a defender has to play closer defense to you since they respect your shooting. He needs to be able to hit 3-pointers to keep defenses honest.

he was brought in to be a scorer…and to be effective at that he needs to shoot especially if he wants to be the top scorer

i could probably put a pretty long montage together of dejon passing up open shots and the bench shots of the players/coaches reactions of “why?/what is he doing”

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He wasn’t brought in to be the “top scorer” either

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you sure about that…sampson has been admant about dejon attacking and scoring…and preseason last year (before his injury/family thing) said he expected dejon to be our top player by the end of the season, which was derail by him taking time off…
sampson’s constantly harped dejon to “attack” during games to… that makes me believe he had a rob gray type role for him when we brought him here

Corey Davis wasn’t brought in to be the top scorer, either. What someone is brought in to do is irrelevant–coaches look to the player’s development and adjust accordingly. Jarreau’s strength is his ability to get to the basket. He also needs to develop skills that complement his strength.

Deeky’s strong suit has been driving & creating! To hope he can add some to his game is great, but when he sticks to his strength he puts opponents in a bind!

at the same time deeky was able to rely on his strengths becuase he wasnt the main focus of game plans…
i watched most coaches pre/post game comments about games vs houston…not a single person mentioned deeky…there were more mention of stopping galen than dejon

next year, everyone its “stop dejon”…their will be dedicated scouting reports on him…not only that we dont have any proven shooters to stretch the court…teams are just going to crowd the paint…

dejon hitting 3s (atleast the open ones, that he will be dared to shoot) without hesitation will be essential if we intend to compete at a high level next year

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Then they must have respected his shooting last year because he got to the basket a lot.

They respected Armoni and Corey’s shooting, allowing Jarreau more open lanes to get to the basket. When you have two of the best perimeter shooters in college basketball on your team, everything opens up for everyone else. We don’t have that next year, and Jarreau goes from being a 3rd/4th scoring option to likely being the 1st option. With defenses keying in on stopping him, defenders are going to start sagging off of him and clogging the paint unless he shows he can punish them for it.

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