We are so different from last year. We relied on a ton of 3's and our 2 guards to generate a ton of our offense, mostly off the bounce or transition. We were exposed at times by bigger teams last year, getting posted up on and killed on the glass in our worst games. Now we look like we're going to be able to hulk out and over athlete a ton of teams, not with pure speed but with force and strength. Danjel and Okoro both look big/strong enough to guard solid 4's and you have them both out there together. Wiley isn't a NBA player to me, but he's got the potential to do a lot of damage to a lot of college teams this year. Shot blocking, boards and getting us easy hoops anytime we get him the rock deep enough. We also need to ask him to pass as little as possible and cannot give him the ball too far out from his sweet spots.
I am curious about how our defense and our defensive approach may change with this group. Last season we were kinda high risk, going after turnovers and deflections and willing to give up some easy baskets/open shots by doing this. I worked because we were excellent at those deflections and steals and were were lights out in transition. I'm not sure this group will produce the same level of turnovers, which is fine if we're better at contesting shots and making life miserable for offenses that way. I'm also not sure we're going to be so elite in transition, so maybe trying to overplay everything to force turnovers won't be the smarter play. It's gonna take 10 games to really figure out what we're doing anyway, but I'm intrigued.
J'Von needs to be the guy he was in the 2nd and really the guy he was for a few minutes late. It took that long for him to really flash his quickness. That was what made him instant impact last year off the bench. Maybe he can't be that all the time, but it can't be missing for a full half either. I hope we get enough big leads that Bruce can play Turbo/Stretch and see what they have. Feel like we're going to need at least one of them, maybe both.
