That tells me all I need to know you saying Condon wasn’t a playmaker for them. He helps that offense go a lot of the times. I guess Amari wasn’t a playmaker for us 2 years ago either?
Kam Williams developing some ball handling skills might be one of the key aspects to UK's success this season.
- Thread starter Son_Of_Saul
- Start date
Yea ok man. Keep wanting a reserve that can't walk and chew gum as your starting 2g because he may make a 3 out of 10 attempts.
You apparently don't have much knowledge. We aren't talking about Milan, we're talking about a dude that gives very little as a reserve.
IDK why you just repeated what I said by not having ball handlers last season but whatever.
Here's my take on your set position claim
I don't give 2 fks what position anyone plays. I care about someone being able to make something happen on offense. We were stagnant as hell all last year because oweh Aberdeen were the only 2 that could move with a ball. Including kam. 3 pt shooting comes from penetration and swinging the ball. Not putting a freaking 6'9 forward at 2g that can't move
Tell me 1 "high level" team that plays a fn backup pf at 2g because you want him to shoot 3s?
Lol I'll be waiting the rest of my life
Never said starting 2g. That’s Wilkins. I said Kam could play some 2 if he needed to with the right pieces around him. I hope he don’t have to but he def could if needed. Learn to read.
Lost? Moreno couldn't hold on to a basketball and got it stripped almost half the time he touched it. That has nothing to do with being worn down. It's been 4 months , he's not in the shape he should be . That will take at least a year of lifting weights.
Milan can't guard anyone dude. I'm more worried about the fact he can't create **** on offense and playing the 3 . But that point will go over your head as you want a sg that can do o even less smh
Iowa st had great defenders that sorounded him. It's not hard to see. We couldn't get the ball moved 5 ft against them.
I'm not so sure on the kepnang point. Let us get destroyed on the boards and down low and you will find out. Moreno should have stayed as a mid 2nd rd pick because his stock will never be higher
Things like this that are obvious isn't to the guys preaching 5 out. They believe offense comes from standing still and just magically getting open 3s.
Vandy last year is how you run a great 4 to 5 out offense. Penetration every possession from all 5 guys and swinging to the other side of the floor.
They absolutely had ball handling play makers at every position
Uconn all of em
Michigan besides the big, Arizona
Duke
Where are you getting Moreno being a creator?
Again you can’t read. I said Wilkins is the 2g and kam is plenty good enough shooter. As bad as he started the year he finished 36% and year before was 41%. I greatly prefer Kam at the 3 but his defense will be needed and if healthy we have to find some spots for him.
Learn to see
Hell anyone can be put in if u don't have another guy to put in. Now we are getting somewhere. I'm sorry I misunderstood
I think who knows basketball has become obvious in this post. Mr Kam Williams 2g
Moreno had more assists than 2 of UConn’s guards. Was on par with all the bigs from all those teams you named as well. The hate for Moreno is mind blowing. Dude was a freshman. He will get better as basically every freshman does.
It's obvious by watching. Every NBA team does that. All good college teams do that
I don't care what people say, learn to use your eyes and figure things out
I don't care how many assists they had. They could all dribble and take there guy off the bounce.
I’m talking about u saying ppl keep thinking standing around just shooting 3’s. Idk anyone who has said that’s what we should do. We won’t do that at all.
You need to go back and watch all those teams bigs then if u think that. Ngonba wasn’t doing that. Krivas wasn’t. Mara wasn’t.
FWIW I agree with you. Pope’s system doesn’t really work like a traditional offense with set PG, SG, SF, PF, C. As someone noted earlier, Pope views his players as playmakers, wings and bigs. There really hasn’t been much of a distinction between a SG and SF in Pope’s system. Someone is going to get the ball up the floor and then we are either going to hit someone open if there’s already a power play on the floor. Otherwise, we will get into the continuity offense. Within that offense, you’ll have:
- A Dribble Hand Off (DHO) Ballhandler aka Trigger
- A pin down screener
- A DHO receiver who goes to receive or reject the DHO.
- The other two off ball players are simply spotting up, cutting to draw defensive attention, or back cutting to score.
^ This can be done with various archetypes/positional variations.
The thing with Kam Williams is he is more of a wing than a playmaker and it seems Pope wants to have two playmakers on the floor. I still expect Kam to get minutes at the “2” if you want to refer to it as that. You won’t be able to play Kam with two other “wings” and only one “playmaker” against heavy blitzing, trapping, pressing teams. His ballhandling isn’t good enough, even with a presumed big off-season jump there. But there will be plenty of matchups where Kam will be perfectly suitable to be the “2” as only one playmaker would be needed against more conservative defenses.
My opinion. No clue if that’s definitely what the coaches decide to do.
That’s what I was saying if Kam had to play the 2 it’s only possible with a pg and if Mitchell is eligible then he could be the other playmaker technically. Then you got Milan and Kam as shooters opening up the floor. I personally don’t think we get Mitchell eligible now with appeals winning unfortunately. Also Kam would be fine a few mins a half if needed. 5 out doesn’t have positions. Just need to cut and move, have shooters and ball handlers. Kam is def capable of passing or doing a DHO.
I agree. There really hasn’t been a lot of true “positions” since Pope arrived on campus. We just get assigned those arbitrary positions for a frame of reference.
2025 team
Butler - playmaker
Oweh - wing
Robinson - wing
Carr - big
Williams - big
Kriisa - playmaker
Noah - wing
Perry - playmaker
Almonor - wing
Garrison - big
Chandler - wing
Brea - wing
2026 team
Lowe - playmaker
Aberdeen - wing
Oweh - wing
Dioubate - big
Moreno - big
Garrison - big
Williams - wing
Chandler - wing
Noah - wing
Quaintance - big
Jelavic - big
Johnson - wing
All players are encouraged to playmake, but here’s how I seeing these work as archetypes:
playmaker - primary role is to handle the ball until the offense is initiated
wing - primary role is to occupy and find space, cut and screen
big - primary role is to score on the interior, rebound and screen. Playmaking encouraged.
^ Problem on 2025 team is someone like Perry is naturally a wing and not a playmaker but he had to be the initiator due to need
^ Problem on 2026 team is there were no playmakers after Lowe’s injury. Aberdeen did fine but he’s a wing. Dioubate had wing size but big instincts and skills. A lot of guys moved out of “position” to fill unnatural archetypes on that team.
Condon is a great player, but I don't exactly see him as a facilitator. Amari definitely was. Moreno isn't either of those two players. I assume he could develop into one or the other, but that's a fairly big leap. I'm honestly not too sure what to think of where he could be at the end of this next season. I think he could become a 14/8 kind of guy, but I also think he could hover around his 8/6 numbers from last season too. His face up game and shot aren't terribly developed. He's better as a back to the basket or ball screen/zoom screen and roll or slip guy. I think, if the guards and wings can keep the floor spaced, that could be a huge part of Moreno's offensive game. I wouldn't be shocked to see Pope move away from the "big" being the trigger to the Zoom stuff. There are so many ways to run it now, and I'm not sure the bigs on the roster really fit that role.
I honestly can't tell if you're a troll or just don't know that much. Posters make points and rather than tell your side or belief you just make statements like this. Vandy's offense is very much the old school Euro drive and kick that Duke brought from when K coached in the Olympics all those years ago. It's essentially the Euro version of DDMO.
That’s wild considering all the nba feedback and reports are he’s a very good passer. His knocks were strength and ability to stretch the floor shooting. The shooting I agree is a huge flaw. The strength can be fixed easily. He’s been in a college weight room now over a year and I’m sure has gotten stronger. We will always use the big as part of the offense. It’s a relief valve and way to let the guards get moving more freely. His development will play a huge part in how good we can be.
Basketball coaches, for one. Drive, force help, kick, and either attack a bad closeout with another drive or continue swinging the ball with the defense in scramble mode. Two of the most successful offensive systems of the last 20 yrs were built around this.
Vandy runs the modern version of offense everyone runs. Constant motion and attacking driving lanes. What makes it work is also having an elite pg who can get in those lanes. You can’t just run any offense regardless of player ability. It’s why last year we went away from zoom action once it was clear Aberdeen had to run the show. He’s a pNr type guard and we didn’t have the shooting either.
Nobody hates him on here. Don't be so dramatic. Some (myself included) are skeptical about a meteoric rise. I think it could happen, but I'm not certain it will. Heck, I'm not even better than 50/50 on it.
Yea that’s the offense cal runs and has always ran. It works to an extent but is easily guarded now. That’s why you see so much spread type offenses. The counter to the spread has been a resurgence in just having huge guys 2-5 or 3-5.
I think you and others forget he was a freshman. All the other bigs you referenced are old and got better. Heck Haugh and condon sucked as freshman. Surprise surprise they developed and worked on their weaknesses.
I don't disagree with anything you said. I also don't think you will ever see Kam on the floor as the secondary handler. Doesn't mean he's "playing the 2", but he's not at any point going to be the secondary handler on the floor. I think MAYBE, you could see a Zoom (or Wilkins, but I hesitate there), Kam, Milan, Mitchell, Moreno type lineup. But man, I stress MAYBE there. You'd almost have to have the best handling option at every other spot on the court. Even in that lineup, I'd assume Mitchell is your secondary option.
That’s exactly what I said and you said no way can that happen. In popes offense you don’t need a bunch of your so called ball handlers. Need guys who can shoot, cut screen and move the ball along side the play makers. And to think that high level division 1 kids can’t dribble good enough is a stretch. Jasper had handles he was just too weak to fend off defenders and then lost all confidence. He didn’t get stripped cuz he couldn’t dribble it good enough. He was weak. Otega lost the ball a lot because he went into bad spots or got sped up.
It should improve simply because we will be bigger across the board. Ousmane scout says he’s a very good rebounder. I expect Moreno to take a step up. McBride is going to surprise some people when he plays. Guards being 6’4 and taller has to help with rebounding. Outside of Wilkins they are all well built too.
It's only a relief valve and part of the offense if you have to defend him out there. If not, his defender is just camped halfway between him and the bucket clogging up the cutting lanes which limits options on the DHO and even the 2 man side of the floor. Hard to get a curl off the DHO, a backdoor or refusal off the Zoom screen, or essentially anything other than a pin down and step out on the 2 man side. When this happens, the offense is super predictable (see last season). Amari couldn't shoot but he was such a good passer teams had to get into him on the perimeter to try and limit his vision to pass. Duke tried to leave him free and he just chopped them up in the first few minutes. They quickly made an adjustment. Moreno isn't that. I think that's why, with last years group, you saw Pope try to get to a high-low look a lot more often. That's why I don't think the big will be the trigger that it has been in the past.
While I don't see it ever working out. Even Goodman from Field of 68 projected Kam to be our starting 2g by February, with Wilkins moving to the 1 and Zoom coming off the bench...
At this point, he has to be trolling BBN right? He didn't have a stroke that anyone knows of correct?
Most teams still run offense in space no matter of the size of the dudes. It's not the size, it's the skillset that matters. DDMO was one, but it was an offspring of the Euro drive and kick which spurned the Euro ball screen which lead the way for the ball screen motion (Iowa and KU now and what Billy D brought to college at Florida) and all of those lead to the Zoom craze that hit the NBA and Pope began using in college. Now everyone runs something with Zoom action in it, or so it seems. Not all use the big the way Pope used Amari or the one dude at Louisville that was with him at BYU. In fact, most use them the way he used Moreno last year. In transition he runs the rim like a traditional big and then lifts at some point in the possession to get a reversal. Then you've got a Zoom to either side if that's what they're in. Amari rarely ran the rim. He or Carr would stay high and drag in transition. Carr could shoot it and Amari could trigger it. Either way can be super effective.
It's about more than just being able to dribble. There's a high level defender there too. It's about getting past your man. If I can defend you on an island and not need help, I don't have to be one step closer to help line. You can have as many shooters on the floor as you want, but if you don't have a guy and probably two that can create off the dribble your shooters aren't going to get the space they need to shoot. That was last years team in a nutshell. It's why Chandler quit getting clean looks in the second half of the season. Nobody had to give him space because he couldn't create and there weren't enough other guys on the court capable of creating.
Latest
-
01
KSR Football
They Call Him Floyd: Why Kenny Minchey has Mayweather Moniker
-
02
KSR Football
Will Stein didn't go to bed until 2 AM after Kentucky's win over Texas A&M
-
03
KSR Football
Will Stein shared a special moment with his dad after the win
-
04
KSR Football
WATCH: KSR explains why Kentucky's win at Texas A&M was one of the best in program history
-
05
KSR Cats in the NFL
Stevie got loose over Niagara Falls