This. Outside of Buca, we didn’t add any kids who project as “defense only” types. Everyone else is capable of scoring and despite what some might want to believe or dream of, it’s highly unlikely that anyone on the team turns out like Tariq last season where their offense is simply so good (on a relative basis) that we can’t keep them off the court. We have a lot of kids who have downplayed what Tariq did for us last year and while his usage wouldn’t have been as high if we had better players on the team (and thus his overall production would’ve been lower) it should be acknowledged by our fan base universally that very few players are capable of dropping 17+ ppg in BIG play at his efficiency level under any circumstance - full stop….
IMO this means the guys who earn minutes next season will all be better at D than Tariq was last year at their respective positions. And Tariq clogged in as only slightly below average - not awful. So to see time - what I’m trying to say is guys like Powers, Darren Smith, Martin, Jones, Diego, Syndor, etc. are going to have to check in as no worse than average on D - otherwise Pike will likely be rolling with mostly a combination of Lino, Tariq, Buchanan, Center (and whoever is the least bad of the group above on D). At center - Pike has less choice. Gurdak doesn’t project to be a defensive center so he’ll probably be playing around with line ups there. Gurdak won’t play either in situations where he can’t stop anyone IMO.
