KoB2011

Correct, I don’t believe for a minute that we came out of nowhere to land that kid so he could simply replace Durr’s minutes. He is ranked similar to TJD coming out of high school and every big we’ve brought in going back to Crean that had that type of talent was a Day 1 impact. Of course Geronimo can take a huge jump, I’d go as far as to say we are all rooting for it. But for every kid that develops like the ones you cited, there are how many more that don’t? The reality right now for Jordan is he wasn’t a top 100 recruit, he hasn’t shown much through two seasons, two difference coaching staffs haven’t thought he was good enough to play the 3 (including this current one that really needed him too last year), we brought in a 5 star kid with a pretty frantic recruiting effort so we could get better at his spots, and his career numbers and progression to date compare most to HMP and Freddie McSwain. Having said all that, I like Jordan a lot and think he’s a good kid and an asset to the team I expect big things from him before his eligibility is up in 3 more season, I just don’t see that as a major role on this upcoming team unless he has a massive leap.

That's awesome, he seems like he must have a great head on his shoulders. Well done!

No, they've not. They've said the obvious that he needs to work on perimeter skills. He's behind three other guys at the 4 and 5 so yeah, he needs to do something to differentiate himself from that group. The reality is Woodson and Hunter didn't play him at the 3 last year, even in situations where we had almost every option there suspended, because he is severely lacking in skills to play the 3. He needs to work on his perimeter skills to even be a starting level 4 because he is 6'6, let alone a 3. I really hope I'm wrong and JG is the stud 3 that everyone thinks he can be, but so far he hasn't shown any ability to play there on either end of the floor. I'm thrilled he stuck around and love his long term potential, but he's a 12 MPG guy that got recruited over by a 5 star stud.

Where is he going to play? That's very cool, congrats to him and to you!

I think he desperately needs to improve his perimeter skills to even be a starting level stretch 4, I just don't read that as that means he's going to be playing on the wing. I could be wrong. I think we as fans try to read kids decisions to transfer or not transfer as strictly related to their role on the team and the reality is there's probably a lot more that goes into it for most kids than that. Think about whatever factors you'd have to look at into make a job change, than add a major move to it, and that's what goes into transferring. It's a bigger decision that just roles on a basketball team IMO.

100% agree, it was an absolute choke job and I think the majority of the blame has to fall at CP3's feet. He was so pathetically bad in that series.

And a ton of fastbreak points for the defense if we are going to have three guys crash the offensive glass.

Have a link? I know they said they want him working on his perimeter skills but that’s a lot different than saying they want him to play the 3.

I think this is a reasonable lineup, but I also haven't seen enough from Woody personally to say that I don't think he'll start freshman. We just didn't have anyone worth starting last year that wasn't an upper classmen; we tried Galloway a few times and he just seems to be better and have more impact coming off of the bench. Bates just wasn't ready, I'm really not sure who else we could have gone with?

Wow - I honestly love that for many reasons.

I think he'll be ready to play defense at a college level and be able to adjust more slowly on offense. My personal expectations are that he starts next to XJ but is a secondary ball-handler and scorer, averaging something like 8-10 PPG and ~3-4 assists. In an ideal world, Bates takes a jump and JHS is clearly the 5th scoring option out of our starters, but even if not I don't see him being anything higher than our 4th scorer which is a great situation for him to come into as a freshman IMO.

Who do you think our starters are?

100%. I think they've got a couple years left of the Big Three still being impact players, but they've got a ton of young pieces to compliment and eventually hand things over to. If the Dubs win the Championship, that may cement Steph as a Top 10 All-Time guy; that would give him GOAT shooter, 4 Championships and two without Durant, two MVPs, and then just the somewhat immeasurable way he changed the game. I think it would probably lock up number two PG behind Magic, at least for me.

So glad they overturned that. It's also cool to see a guy like Wiggins seemingly has found the perfect home for him - he's an incredible talent but just not going to ever be "the guy", but man is he a GREAT complimentary player.

Andrew Wiggins may have just ended Luka Doncic with that dunk. Wow! They have to overturn that offensive foul call, what a freaking poster!

I don’t understand the last dig at Tamar, but to each their own. JHS is ranked higher in a better class and has 30 lbs on Tamar. JHS is ranked ahead of guys like Blackmon and Yogi, where as Bates was about where Hollowell was. I have no idea what JHS actually will do next year, but it’s not fair at all to just say “Tamar bad so we can’t ever count on a freshman” when every freshman that was actually in JHS’s range has started and produced their freshman year at Indiana.

I think this is a fair post, and I’m certainly one that does expect JHS to be a starter and be one of our four or five best players. The biggest differences to me in JHS and JG are 1) I’ve seen JG has a ways to go as a college player to be a top 5 player on a high level team 2) there’s a much bigger opportunity for minutes in front of JHS just based on what’s returning than their is for JG and 3) the likelihood that a 5 star guard comes in and contributes when he’s in a position to get big minutes is relatively high, the likelihood that a guy double his minutes from the previous year when the guys he was playing behind are still there and a 5 star freshman comes in seems low. And that’s not even factoring in Banks who could be an unfairly forgotten guy in all of this But again, you’re right, we are putting expectations on JHS and he hasn’t proven anything yet.

I’m really glad he came back too, I just don’t expect a huge change in role for him since the two guys that were in front of him last year also came back and we brought in a 5 star that he’s going to compete for minutes with. He frankly had a much better chance to take minutes on the wing last year than he probably does this year with JHS in the fold on the perimeter and Galloway hopefully being healthy all year, plus a year of growth from Bates.

But we also know Cody didn’t lead to sustained success (not his fault at all) and didn’t make it past the S16. I think TJD coming back this year, with what other pieces we have and guys we are in a good position with moving forward, can set us up for sustained success. It would be hard to ignore that part of the equation with regard to TJD IMO.

I don’t want to pile on Geronimo. But some of you are so, so unfair to the kid with the expectations you’re putting on him. He’s an athletic, undersized 4 that isn’t particularly skilled at this point. His advanced metrics don’t mean much because he didn’t play many minutes, it’s not fair to think you can literally double his minutes and still get high level production. Its not fair to assume he’s going to play at the wing at all. He didn’t do it last year and he had every chance in the world to earn minutes there. I mean look no further than the Northwestern game where we were absolutely desperate for perimeter players and Anthony Leal played twice as many minutes as he did. I like Jordan and think he’s a good kid, I’m thrilled he came back. I absolutely don’t think he’s remotely as good as the three guys in front of him at the 4 and 5, and I don’t think he has anything resembling perimeter skills at this point in time. I think if he stays another three years he can be a really nice player by the time he’s a senior, but right now he’s a spot minute guy that can be successful when he is put in specific situations. Expecting more than that is setting him up for failure IMO.

So which of the three guys better than him do you want him stealing minutes from? Woodson essentially had to recruit/rerecruit all four of the guys competing for minutes at the 4 and 5 so it’s not exactly a compelling argument IMO to say he could have transferred. Kopp and Galloway play a completely different position than Geronimo so they aren’t exactly a relevant discussion point. Talk about them in comparison to Bates and JHS.

Yeah I definitely can't relate to being a Pacers fan....

I feel bad for fans like you that missed the '60s.

The Heat are a little lucky those last 24 seconds didn't result in it getting ugly.... Bam dunking it for no reason then they played kinda douchie defense.

10000% agree.