Transfer Portal Targets
- Thread starter rutgers93
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Appreciate it! Wasn’t hard to see he was too small and that he would get bullied on D! His poor shooting from 3 was a surprise but kudos to the young man’s mid range!
You think 35.1% from 3 stands out as “poor”? His numbers got better in the BIG. His game was remarkably not impacted much by the level of competition. He actually put up more points in BIG ply than against the cupcakes.
Simply was commenting what was said! Don’t disagree with your points! Mine were specific to him being under sized and getting bullied on D! Which are true but his mid range shot making was the biggest surprise
Neither of them are poor shooters. J Mike’s ability to score in other ways outside of catch and shoot is pretty limited though while tariq is excellent at drawing contact and has a crafty interior game. J Mike’s value to the team is his steady ball handling moreso than his offense in my opinion.
35% from 3 is equal to 10.5 points per 10 shots
you need to shoot 52.5% from 2 to claim same productivity
look at it that way and if he was shooting 52% from 2 you’d be thrilled
this also leans into people’s disgust with the current game being all 3s and layups… why would I not want to shoot more 3s when I only have to make 35% of them to beat them team who only takes 2s and if they shoot 50% I win the game
you need to shoot 52.5% from 2 to claim same productivity
look at it that way and if he was shooting 52% from 2 you’d be thrilled
this also leans into people’s disgust with the current game being all 3s and layups… why would I not want to shoot more 3s when I only have to make 35% of them to beat them team who only takes 2s and if they shoot 50% I win the game
So…is Rutgers done and the roster is now set or are Pume and Co. still trying to get more guys?
No coaching staff shakeup is surprising as well.
No coaching staff shakeup is surprising as well.
Teams are waiting for the 5 for 5 ruling to be finalized before they spend the full budget. I expect Rutgers to add 2-3 more players.
Rutgers still aiming for a PG and a backup center at least.
Pike isn’t gonna change. Gonna run it back the same way and get the same result. Maybe they make the expanded tournament this year. A Rutgers fan can hope.
We can’t be “done”. So far we only have 10 scholarship players and 2 of them are Ware and Duarte. We’ll probably add 3 more but we can add up to 5.
That’s not the same result. Now we have people complaining about making an expanded tournament? My goodness.
We don’t need another PG. It’s very dumb. To make the team better the goal should be to add guys who provide (out of the pool of 200 minutes played) the biggest upgrade over what would otherwise put on the floor. There is no PG remaining in the $1M range for RU who is going to add much over the existing choices we currently have at the position. For $2M, yes, then perhaps maybe, but the pool of players who would consider RU at 1-1.2M aren’t going to be enough better than Lino and Tariq where it would make any sense at all for them to pick RU over another place with a clearer path to starting or better recent history.
We have a ton of guards and 3 forwards. We must add another playable one or we’re one (even minor) injury away from another 22-23 crash.
Nobody will be complaining if/when RU makes the expanded tournament. That doesn't change the fact:
A. Expanding the tournament is dumb
B. Making it should now be the expectation for Pike to continue on
Or even foul trouble could kill us in any game.
According to Carino’s article, as stated by @knight82 Pike is looking to add a European Center soon. Also a point guard. And they are waiting for NCAA to clear Duarte.
For all the people who keep denigrating the mods about it and claiming an "agenda".
The issue is Pike and not the mods.
"Rutgers also is looking to add a transfer point guard. Beyond that, if enough remains in the war chest, there might be one more addition to the 2026-27 roster."
I don't understand why people think it's such a bad idea to add a point guard. No one has the exact budget so it's pointless to base it on not being able to afford it. And in regards to players being upset about playing time..if they can't get on the court because they aren't good enough to beat out other players and they have an attitude about it, even if they transfer out, so what? Rosters turnover now a days, you replace them the next year. Rutgers is extremely small at guard and if they bring in an experienced bigger pg, I have no idea how that can be seen as a negative.
I don’t think anyone was claiming anything about an agenda were they? Unless we have a lot more money available than we think we have - the decision to target a PG instead of adding a playable piece to the frontcourt (if that’s what happens) is entirely on Pike and will almost certainly backfire for a laundry list of reasons.
Ask yourself what 1.2M is buying Rutgers University in the PG market today. It’s a no man’s land of sorts for us because the caliber player commanding that salary isn’t going to be far and away better than the guards we have to be locked and loaded into the starting rotation. This price tag is not getting us a proven high major starter. No way. And whether some of you “think” back ups on other high majors or double digit A-10 guards will be “better” than Lino or not, Pike will not be able to sell that as a given. If we really want a PG they are going to pick us because of money so we’ll be overbidding for someone worse than our guys - in all likelihood. Which will end up being a chemistry disaster. I just don’t understand.
It’s an awful idea unless we have $2M to buy a guard who is clear and away better than Lino and Tariq. J Mike is not going to be playing zero minutes either. He will likely get 10-15 mpg no matter what. Pike is horrible with managing chemistry issues and this would figure to be a 23-24 log jam all over again.
Remember - we mostly played 3 guard rotations last year because we only had 2 main rotation forwards who split most of their time at the 4 (and Buchanan played 5 or so mpg at center too). Zrno and Powers combined for at least 25 mpg at the 3. We now have Smith who is horrible at defense, so no, we will not be playing him at the 4 with a guard at the 3 because we don’t have strong 6-5 guard defenders unless Chris comes in and brings that in which case he’s taking those minutes. If we don’t add a forward we will need either Buchanan or Sydnor on the floor at the 4 at all times. So Smith will be getting Zrno’s minutes and eating away at Powers time maybe.
So where are you getting the minutes for the new PG from. Are you keeping Lino at 16 mpg? Lowering him??? Slashing Tariq’s time down to 20 mpg would only get the new kid 6 mpg. If you take 10 min from J Mike that gives the new guard 16 minutes. Is anyone happy though? Probably not. And again - we’re not getting Bruce Thompson types for $1.2M. If we’re lucky - maybe we’re getting the Givens kid who was just brought in by OSU. Cool he weighs 5 lb more that Tariq - Tariq is better than him in every statistical category. Including rebounds. What do folks think we’re getting and how do they think it’s helping us. Having a shortage of forwards killed us last year.
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Shortage of forwards and BAD SMALL guards! The guards are not ready or just not power 4 players.
We need a PG period!
Ideally Wing defender, PG, Backup Center!
Keli bring it home
So you think swapping Givens for Tariq would’ve earned us more wins last year, huh? That’s what’s in our price range dude. What part of this are you missing? We’re not getting the PGs with great numbers unless we pay a big premium that we almost certainly can’t afford.
Carino mentioned in his article that all the decent centers and power forwards in the portal are commanding 4-5 million, which is out of our price range. Obviously that's why Pike is looking in Europe
We don’t know! I’m saying JMike and Lino should not be playing major minutes on a winning roster. We need someone to unlock the offense. Someone to get the ball to TF, Smith, Gurdak etc the ball in positions to be successful.
someone who can run the team and knock down shots! Avg 7-9 assists .
We now have 3 HIGH usage ball dominant players and a center who will need the ball in the post. Are current PGs are too small to feed the post and are not capable of setting those players up!
That makes sense for the center position. Makes one question why we were so against keeping EO but look - maybe he’s going to collect a bigger bag than we think too. Who knows.The caliber back up center we add may be outside of our control. Paying for another Fall type doesn’t make sense. We already do have Ware at least.
In my opinion, we should be investing in the best defensive wing / forward we can afford as top priority over adding another guard to a crowded backcourt room.
The exact quote was:
“Big men are the holy grail of the transfer portal, and Rutgers initially targeted a couple of high-profile center prospects before realizing they were priced out – these guys were commanding $4-5 million. So they will use a timeshare in the post; Pikiell has been in Europe scouting attainable options to help Gurdak underneath and expects to have a commitment, probably from overseas, very soon.”
it was just a couple of high-profile centers that were demanding that much, not all decent centers and power forwards.
With Mark and JMike back, Tariq will not play the point unless Pike is an idiot, which, sad to say, has become a debatable point.
Our 3 high usage players are at their best creating in one on one situations off the dribble. None are catch and shoot types. Our only true catch and shoot guy in Zrno entered the portal. Most of Gurdak’s offense seems to be opportunistic (kind of like Grant’s) except he has strong hands and seems more reliable at securing rebounds at the high major level (huge difference). But I don’t see a huge portion of our offense running through him either. Pike has actually recruited really smartly to this point. Our best offense by far last year was Tariq in iso but teams would adjust by doubling him and we weren’t able to take advantage of that - we missed open shots. Pike went the route of adding more iso style weapons. Teams won’t be able to double all of them so the goal will be to get the ball to whoever has the best one on one match up. I personally think Lino is a great choice for this role with the ability to take it to the rack himself too.
I guess what I’m trying to say is it seems like we recruited in a way to mitigation the importance of exemplary court vision from the PG position which makes sense - but then why are we now trying to recruit someone who would help us run an offense that would best center around the Cam Spencer types we don’t have. That’s what I’m not understanding.
We should stop calling “playing the point” and make it “handle primary ball handling responsibilities”. We have a roster full of guys who are at their best scoring off the dribble creating for themselves. J Mike and Lino are perfectly capable of this role - primary ball handling. J Mike will keep em honest knocking down some shots and the offense will be simplified to - pass to whoever has the best matchup off the dribble. Lino offers a different set of skills to account for. Tariq can be on the floor without either of the 2 of them now if we want because Smith is a very good ball handler.
All this factored together - boils down to one thing. Focusing on the PG position just seems silly. It’s like buying the ingredients a cake and then deciding to use them to make something else instead.
This entire PG thing is a huge red flag to me that Pike is seemingly clueless about this new type of roster construction.
It's a simple logistics problem that he is seemingly completely botching.
You can't do both:
1. Retain/obtain all of Mark, Powers, Davis and Duarte
2. Look for a starting caliber PG.
As you correctly point out, there just isnt the money or minutes to go around.
Fair and I agree the pieces currently do not make sense.
I believe a PG can use his ball skills to break down his defender and pass the ball to 1 of 4 high usage guys in space on a switch. Providing them a fav matchup to attack in space.
Current offense is an ineffective PG dribble the ball up court and hand off to one of the high usage guys top of the key, and then go stand in the corner. Neither effective shooters so basically having us play 4 on 5!
We see it differently all good!
Dude - I have to call you out on 7-9 assists too. You realize that would be an all time record at RU right? Not sure where Paul ranked on the all time list the season he averaged 5.3 but I bet it’s up there. We’re not getting someone like this at our price point A, but considering our offensive players thrive off the dribble we’re definitely not getting anything close to this. Just saying…
Everyone is assuming we know how all of the new roster additions will play. The coaches are coaching and recruiting these players. They will most likely have the best idea of what the roster needs, the players they bring in let you know the way they feel. I don't know how any of these new players will play but from what I've seen of the current guards, I would want a bigger experienced lead ball handler that can defend and shoot.
Don’t forget about Smith (point forward) and Tariq. The irony is that on paper, Pike actually addressed our biggest issues at guard and it’s almost as if he’s trying to single-handedly undo it. He:
a) added other offensive weapons so that he can give Tariq a rest without a massive scoring drought and
b) added a player in Smith with the combo length and ball handling skills which gives him the option at times to play Tariq without the 2 smaller guards.
The room isn’t perfect but there’s a diverse collection of options for Pike to choose from based on match ups now at least. We can’t possibly have the money left to buy anyone much better than we have at guard. Meanwhile, defense is cheaper than offense and we have major holes at the 3-4 as Smith grades out similar to PJ on that end and we’re shopping for PGs. It’s so frustrating.
If that was the plan, then we shouldn’t have added Smith. Have you seen him play? He’s a prototypical point forward. Strong ball handling skills. Unfortunately he’s not a good defensive player. But he has the length and will allow Pike to play Tariq stretches without another small guard if he wants. There is no way we are getting a tall proven PG with good defensive metrics for under $2M. All you have to do is look at the portal guards our peers are adding to understand what’s realistic.
We should be in the market for under the radar guys with profiles like Caleb and Mag had as underclassmen. Ugly offensive metrics - that’s what we can afford and it won’t matter all that much on a team where everyone plays their roles properly. We brought in offensive weapons and now we need to balance the damn ticket.
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