It’s funny how so often after games like this I think to myself, “Okay… but what’s worth talking about?” And then I continually find myself struggling with what to cut after I’ve clipped. This is the kind of game where we get more implications than we do conclusions, but there are still things that do translate, and plenty on which to speculate. But please, come join me as I discuss one player’s return to form/health, do some scatter-shooting around the team and then tackle some of our backup positional competitions.
Normally, I try to do some larger thematic sections – I’ll have a couple of those, but this week will also include more quick-hitters around some players.
Rohde’s Return
From what I’ve seen, Andrew Rohde appears to be the most polarizing player on the roster this year in terms of his play vs. his utilization. And, as I’ve said previously, I don’t think the narrative is the most reliable or correct one. Rohde took a little time to adjust to his role, a lower volume one, surged in quality after the Harris injury, struggled badly after the exam break with his own injury and, on Wednesday, looked to have reclaimed his pre-exam form. I don’t say this because he had a better game against a lesser opponent in Morgan St. Northeastern was also a lesser opponent (given, not as lesser – but similar enough compared to Memphis) and he struggled mightily on both ends in that game. No, you could just see that he looked and felt much better in this contest independent of opponent. It was a welcomed improvement, as well, because as I’d previously written, he both elevates this team when he’s playing well but also really hurts the team when he’s playing as he was the previous two (especially at the minutes he was getting). Fortunately, it doesn’t appear that the tension between his health and how much CTB wants to play him are at odds any longer.
So, how do we know? The biggest tell is that his footspeed was far better, which showed up in all elements of his game. For the previous two, he was sluggish, virtually unable to stay in front of his man on the defensive end. This clip (after his first made three) was a great initial sign. On the wing in secondary transition, watch how he cuts off the driving angle, stays in front of his man, and bodies/goes straight up to force a difficult shot and the bad miss:
In the previous two games, he was getting left in the dust badly on plays like this.
He was slow and in bad positioning off of the ball throughout both of those games, often fouling or allowing easy buckets on the back end (revisit those reviews if you need a reminder of his play here). In this game, there were several occasions (along with some good positioning on his 5 rebounds) where he was much better positioned to help (rather than concede the open buckets he had been). This is one of his three steals on the game, which came from being alert to how the play was developing, and not feeling as though he needed to stay as close to his defender to recover (close out speed was also a big issue before).
I picked that clip not just because of the defensive positioning but also because of how he got out in transition and hit Minor with a very good pass/opportunity (despite the fact that it wasn’t converted).
Offensively, he snapped his two-game scoreless streak and, once again, looked much more apt/willing to attack off of the bounce. Here he drives much more quickly and with purpose and has the ability to finish with the left hand. While I’ve got you on this one, notice the little wrinkle in the Triangle offense where Buchanan sets a ball screen for Beekman but for the purpose of freeing him to the wing – and Buchanan, Dunn, and Rohde hold down the mix from there. It’s a nice little decoy to potentially represent Flow while simultaneously setting Beekman up on the wing.
Here he is later in the game completely shaking his man up top with the cross-over, getting deep into the lane and finding Bond who draws the foul. It’s a really nice move to create so much space, he’s able to push the advantage until he draws help and, as we’ll see more of later, I really like how once he’s in the lane he takes his time, surveys the floor, misdirects with his eyes, and then gets the best look to Bond.
And then, lastly, the jump shot was mostly back, both in ability to make but also in willingness to take. He looked downright awkward shooting the ball in the previous two, even from the free throw line, often passing up open looks enough so that teams were beginning to help off of him. Here, after already having made one early in the game and firing when he had open looks, he steps right into this second chance opportunity and buries the deep three.
It was clear watching him that he had his legs (or foot) back, which was great news because… all of those elements to his standard game (quality defense, capable shooting from well outside of the arc, the ability to create off of the dribble) all augment his great ability as a facilitator – really the second best on the team in that regard. His passing created quite a few opportunities, including those that didn’t end up counting as assists, like this:
Groves misses the layup, but that was a gorgeous pass from Rohde, not only with the precise placement to hit Groves in stride, but also in how he manipulated the defense with his eyes to look like he was looking back to the point, only to deliver that beauty.
And this next clip, such a clean and timely delivery off of the back/flare screen from Groves for Beekman (and a great finish at the rim by Reece).
I’m not doing a DEEP dive into Rohde here, just highlighting what he has been recently when healthy and that he appears to have reclaimed that, but there were several other clean looks like that throughout the game. It’s funny, last recap I highlighted how Rohde’s +/- was by FAR the worst in the Memphis game. On Wednesday, it was by FAR the best on the team in total (and second on a per-minute basis only to Bond). That’s not to say, again, that he was our best player in this game or anything like that, but rather just to say that it’s a huge boon when you have such a reversal of fortunes like that through one player’s time.
Now on the other side of both breaks, if Rohde is, in fact, fully healthy, and if he can sustain and/or build on the form he showed against Morgan St., it should do a lot for our consistency across performances. It will also be a big positive toward our hopes for raising our offensive ceiling.
Dunn In The Mix
I highlighted Rohde, Dunn, and McKneely in my last piece so it makes sense to jump back to Dunn here. I didn’t notice anything but his typical sterling defensive self, so positive vibes there. Offensively, we definitely made a concerted effort to get him closer to the rim rather than playing him out on the wing. As a result (I assume this was the primary reason for this, although there could be others), we ran more Sides throughout this game. We also played him in the mix in the Triangle more often. It definitely resulted in fewer situations where the defense was able to sag off of him, which was a positive in and of itself. He was there as a finishing outlet for his teammates, and it also allowed him to be around the rim more often for offensive rebounds, which was another plus. What he did with those opportunities was more of a mixed bag, as he alternated between some strong and convincing finishes and some altogether blown opportunities that should have been on the easier side.
Here’s a look at him in the mix in the Inside Triangle and the opportunity is there. He catches the ball on the elbow, kicks the ball back out to Reece, goes to set a screen on Reece’s man, but doesn’t hold it as Morgan St. switches so he immediately rolls and gets the ball going toward the rim. But, rather than just going up and finishing away from the trailer, or even pump faking and going up on the left side of the rim, potentially drawing a foul, he jump stops toward the right side of the rim, lets the trailer land and rake at the ball stripping it, and then gets blocked from the 7 footer coming back on the other side.
This is indecisive and unnecessarily timid, and it wastes the opportunity, which sounds overly harsh like that but there were several other examples in this game where he caught the ball and went right up into the layup or even a powerful dunk at one point.
Similarly, here’s a look at him being around the rim for an offensive rebound opportunity but he goes up soft rather than just exploding for the dunk or the power layup using the glass. Instead, he tries to finesse it straight-on and misses, and then misses on the follow as well.
But, as I mentioned before, there were also plenty of positive results from this. Here, below, he collects the offensive rebound again and this time is able to collect, dribble and finish with strength:
And here he is, below, executing a nice pick and roll with Beekman, which he finishes with a thunderous dunk and draws a foul (his free throw shooting was very off this game at 2-6, so the shooting issues appear to persist).
I think, with Dunn, this may be where things need to settle this season, they’re certainly trending toward relying less on his jump shot/driving than more. That’s not really ideal from a Dunn developmental perspective or with regard to our ceiling as a team, but playing him a lot more inside does appear to be heading in a positive direction with regard to our practical ceiling right now. He’ll need to work through some of these finishing issues and he’ll need to be tougher with the ball, but having him around the rim as a finisher and to create some havoc on the glass (he had 5 offensive rebounds in this game as benefit from this change in positioning) will address some of the offensive struggles we face when teams cheat off of him from the perimeter and will help to convert opportunities that Beekman, Rohde, (and hopefully eventually Gertrude and Harris) continually create.
Still a lot for Dunn to work through on the offensive side of the ball, but I think this game marks recognition of that from CTB and an effort to address those limitations in a positive way. This, coupled with the Rohde section above, are positive trends.
McKneely’s Shot
McKneely was 2-6 from deep, hit the more open looks and missed the more contested ones. He only took one shot from two on the game (which was an ill-advised step-back two from the corner early in the 2nd half), and he passed up a couple of looks he was previously taking (a couple of three-point opportunities I wasn’t thrilled about and a couple of two-point opportunities that I was). All, in all, I think it mirrored my hope that he take fewer difficult twos and stick with his three-point shot. I don’t think it’s fully there yet, but I do think his stroke/confidence will return by continuing to follow this model – especially with the two changes I just mentioned above re: Rohde and Dunn. But, in the meantime, while he’s working through whatever this is – he’s still providing tons of spacing and playing defense like this…
Granite Groves
Jake Groves only played 15 minutes in this game, which I think signals that CTB feels confident in him as a veteran and is very focused on working through/solving the rest of the frontcourt rotation. I’m sure I’ll tackle this more as the season progresses, but Groves’s presence in the lineup is the biggest needle mover in terms of our overall offensive quality. He was reliable as ever, going 3-4 from three in this one.
Here’s a cool look from very early in the game, highlighting the spacing/threat that he brings. I also like this one because of the offensive wrinkle that it highlights. We’re in Sides here, which really isn’t the best Groves offense. We played “Wide-Sides” earlier in the season which put Dunn and Groves closer to the three-point line for pick and pops, and allowed more drive spacing, but have gotten away from that since moving more to our Triangle offense. But here, we run standard Sides and McKneely gets the ball, curling into the lane near the elbow, drawing two defenders. He isn’t able to get the ball to Dunn near the hoop, so he kicks it back out to the point for Rohde. But from here, there’s an offensive deviation where Groves leaves his post to set a ball screen for Rohde, and pops to the point after the switch, taking advantage of his man’s inclination to drop down into the lane on the play.
This is a very nice little wrinkle where they can get out of Sides mid-possession and get right to a ball screen out top (likely the beginnings of Flow) and take advantage of their personnel with Groves on the floor.
Beekman’s Excellence
Thus far through the season, the more Beekman has had to carry a huge load for our offense, the worse of a sign that’s typically been for how good our offense is playing. That being said, it’s been so much fun to see him just do his thing and go off at times and we’re absolutely going to need “Beekman: The Offense” to win some hotly contested games over the course of the season. In fact, even in this game, he exerted himself to push out the lead early, then hit a couple of big shots early in the second half when Morgan St. was shooting the lights out. These two clips, below, are so good and translate against most any competition.
For the first one, look at that separation he gets when he stops his dribble at the elbow before calmly knocking down the jumper.
For the second, that’s an NBA move both with its simplicity and shot confidence. I love the subtle lean to his right while setting his left foot, and he just fakes the dribble, pulls back to it, and launches the shot. That’s big time and will be huge if he can replicate this kind of offense in conference play – both for the points themselves and for how defenders will have to play him, giving him less cushion.
I think I’ve written as much over the past few recaps, but it does feel weird focusing so little on Beekman because he’s been in such good form – but right now I’m most worried about the rotational players/back of the lineup and how we’re positioning that – and I’ve no doubt there will be more time to showcase Reece later on in contests with more of a sweat.
Bond Buoying
Bond was tied with Rohde and Groves at 10 for the second leading scorers behind Reece, and I mentioned earlier that his +1.16 points per minute on the floor lead the team. A lot of the discussion around Bond has and will circle around positional fit – is he better suited at SF or PF on any given game? Some of that comes down to discussions around his ball handling, though, and so I think it worth leaving this here both for the stifling defense and for the fluidity of movement off the bounce.
This isn’t to say that I expect Bond to start breaking down defenders off of the dribble, but rather to say that the skills to be a slasher appear to be there if he trusts it – compounded with that benefit of that range/defense.
As much as there was some discussion after the game about taking our foot off of the gas on the defensive side of the ball – we held them to 16 points in the first half – a completely stifling performance. While I’d certainly love for the team to replicate that across two halves, and it’s CTB’s job to push for that… it’s a natural thing across sport to play with a little less of an edge once a game is so non-competitive. Bond was a huge part of this across many facets (including being 2-2 from the charity stripe on a day when the team was 5-11). The continual effort to define his role/utilization is so important.
Buchanan and Minor
The next two sections I’m going to tackle some player comparison/role discussions. Basically, where and how are they being utilized and what should we reasonably hope for with their roles throughout the remainder of the season. Let me first say, I’m happy just to be able to write this section because, other than a few brief bits illustrating the whys behind why he wasn’t getting much run, Jordan Minor wasn’t forcing himself much into the discussion. In fact, while I hadn’t entirely given up hope that Minor could ever carve out a role this year, I did (and still do, to a degree) doubt, primarily because many of his issues seemed to be with regard to physical execution.
Let’s first start out with a brief thesis. Blake Buchanan was our first player off of the bench in this game and has, for a stretch, started for us this season. Where he’s always been pretty solid for us is with his hedging and mobility. He rotates well defensively and has active hands. He’s improving on the glass, which was a big challenge earlier in the year and continues to be a struggle, but is still quite effective crashing the offensive glass. Where he appears to be struggling – really since the Florida game – is with finishing offensive opportunities. He’s been weaker with the ball, and seemingly lost a lot of touch as a finisher.
Here’s an example of this where Blake goes up to set a ball screen for Beekman and then slides down to the block after drawing the switch. Rohde posts up just inside of the three-point line, and then in a unique look, Buchanan notices the size mismatch and puts his arm up, calling for the ball. Rohde again delivers another really high-quality pass, hitting Buchanan in position to go right to the rim, but on the catch Blake brings the ball low to his waist while gathering to jump, and his man is able to circle around him and deflect the ball out of bounds. Buchanan needs to catch this, keep it high, and just go right into a layup or dunk before the help comes over (or through it) and without allowing the much smaller guard to get back into the play.
That fluidity of motion and finishing is something he was doing much better in the Florida game and seems to have lost confidence with since – but this is really just all technique right here as he’s done the rest of it well.
This next clip is one of several hook shots that looked like this. It’s a hook shot fading away, that looks like it comes off of the hand unnaturally, and is very flat. And, really, when he drop steps onto his left foot, there’s an angle/room for him to jump toward the basket, forcing contact from his defender and likely getting something off of the glass toward the rim. This play is undeveloped (as of yet, still very bullish on Buchanan long term) physicality.
This next sequence is an example of where he was contributing at his most on the offensive side of the ball and I love that he was playing with aggression on the offensive glass – nabbing three boards on the game. Two of these were on this play where he keeps the first miss alive and kicks it back out, and then comes down with the second in traffic. It is Morgan St., but it’s not like there’s a huge size advantage for Buchanan here. Both rebounds were over the 7’0″ Christian Oliver (#21). So, it’s more just hustle and activity and effort grabbing these, which is encouraging. After the second board, there’s that very flat hook shot in traffic again that just doesn’t have much hope if it draws any iron.
And here’s one more look later where he’s running the pick and roll with Reece and just seems sped up/uncomfortable. He doesn’t catch it clean at first, which stops his momentum toward the rim even though he has good positioning, and then he just panics and throws the ball out of bounds into the corner, I assume because he thinks that’s where Reece will be rather than just locating him first.
Please sanitize what I’m typing here – I definitely think there’s a role for Buchanan on this team and, perhaps, it is first off of the bench in the frontcourt. Hopefully, the game will slow down for him a little as the season progresses, and his defensive agility and activity on the offensive glass will allow for him to provide some valuable minutes. Hopefully, some of this offensive clunkiness will also abate – but that’s the part I’m not sure of, because that area of his game really has dried up dramatically since the second game of the season. And, I think, that leaves the door open for Jordan Minor to still find some time for himself as the season progresses.
Now, I wouldn’t say this game is any kind of tell on CTB’s behalf. He was regularly giving Minor opportunities in uncompetitive games. In fact, I think it’s still more likely than not that this didn’t really move the needle re: Minor’s involvement in hotly contested games. Let’s face it, just catching the ball cleanly had been a struggle for him across many games this season, so it’s a high bar. Wednesday’s contest was the first time it felt a different (despite the blown dunk early).
The first thing that I noticed was this pass to Bond on the cut out of the short corner as he drew the double team. It’s not just that he made the pass, the speed and accuracy of the pass allows Bond to take advantage of his positioning and finish the layup. When I did my scout on him from the Merrimack film, one thing I noted was his underrated passing ability, but I hadn’t yet seen it on display here – but this was a glimpse:
But then there were two things on this next play, below, one eye-popping and one more subtle but almost certainly more important. Watch this unfold with Minor and Rohde in the two-man game out of Sides (a pairing I quite liked). That pin-down screen Minor sets for Rohde is devastating, completely stopping his man in his tracks and forcing the 7-footer to switch onto Rohde and the small guard to stay on Minor. Rohde does well to realize what’s up, and pull back out to the wing, giving the ball to Minor in the post. From there, Minor absolutely goes to work with a move that is all power and a good deal of skill. It’s a spin baseline, then a spin back to the middle, gaining position and separation through his body power, and then a step-through for the easy layup. Very little finesse about this (although I love the footwork!), and a ton of power – exactly what a post player should do when getting a switch like this! Let’s admire for a second:
Now, I am still doubtful that a post move like this would be effective against his normal defender at the ACC level – but that brings up the most important part of this clip – that screen! We do not have anyone else on the roster now setting screens like this that are jarring, hard to fight through, and FORCE switching action. There are so many practical applications for this (hello Isaac McKneely three-pointers!) across our offense – and if he’s back to finishing like that when he does force a mismatch (which he certainly will with more screens like that), well now we’ve got something brewing.
This next clip is a turnover that is Minor’s fault as he fails to properly account for his man recovering to him on the double-team and his pass back out to Rohde is deflected – but there is something here. His screen frees Rohde, his slip is quick, his catch is good, he probably could make a move sooner prior to the recovery coming back, he draws the double, Bond has a chance at a play on the ball against a smaller defender, a cleaner kick out to Rohde probably yields a three…
Minor playing like this out of Sides isn’t nothing; I see some potential still here even against better competition.
This is what he did so well at Merrimack and it was good to see him redeem himself after the miss earlier. This is Flow in transition, and Minor simply fakes the screen and rolls right to the hoop before setting it. Reece finds him on the move and he gathers and goes right up for the dunk. Having some success as a finisher in the pick and roll is where I envisioned the majority of his offensive contribution coming into the season back when I imagined he would be our starting center – and it does appear that there are some stirrings here.
The problem with all of this is that we are pretty well assured that between Dunn and Groves, a lot of that frontcourt time is occupied, along with CTB’s desire to keep playing Bond at the 4 at times. So, this may well end up being a competition between Buchanan and Minor to secure some of these remaining minutes. I’m just thinking now, for the first time this season, that Minor may not get iced out entirely. They’re both bringing skills that the other isn’t, and I don’t think we can entirely sleep on the value of a powerful screener in a CTB offense, especially one who is more capable of offensively attacking mismatches. Of course, Buchanan is probably just going to offer you better positional defense, with active and disruptive hands, and length/movement to keep plays alive on the offensive side. He’s also getting moved more often than not on his own screens and is still learning how best to convert opportunity into offense.
Coming into the season my biggest concern in the front court was Buchanan getting little to no time and us over-relying on Minor. Now, I am making the case that there still can be a role for Minor and here’s what it looks like – aggressive screener in Sides and on-ball in Flow, mismatch creator, opportunistic finisher when the moment is right, physically bang with players and help to wear down/soften up the opposition. Let’s see if this was a springboard to get him back in the conversation.
Taine vs. Gertrude
If there’s anything I’d say I was actively displeased about on Wednesday it’s that Taine Murray was the first guard/wing off of the bench in the game, and that Elijah Gertrude, at only one more minute than Jordan Minor, appeared to have slipped down the depth chart some. Now, rotations and depth aren’t set in stone obviously, and we don’t know why for sure. I’m left to speculate whether it was meant to get Elijah to reign in the chaos a little after the Memphis game – but, personally, I’d have loved to see Gertrude get more run than 13 minutes in a 35-point blowout.
Now, I haven’t spent a lot of time focusing on Taine this season, primarily because his minutes have been limited in competitive games, but with him entering the game before either Gertrude or Bond (who started as Dunn’s back up), I think it’s worth highlighting why he’s not often been in this position.
It’s his defense.
The metrics are flipped for him this year (team offense playing worse than the defense when he’s in the game), but that’s why these things can be misleading. Offensively, he can provide spacing, and he can knock down an open shot – so far hitting 36% on the season on 14 attempts. For example, he stepped into and knocked this one down confidently:
He is not drawing the defensive attention that McKneely and Groves are, though, and he was 1-4 in the game. Two of the other three attempts were wide-open, clean, looks. Other than that, he’s not giving you very much on the offensive end. Occasionally he’ll make a downhill cut toward the basket as I highlighted against Memphis. If you need the added spacing re: Rohde is playing like he was in his slump or if something were to happen to McKneely, etc., then there’s some utility – but you’re not getting the creation/ball handling/passing that you’re getting from Rohde and you’re not getting the percentage that you’re getting from McKneely on the offensive side.
But defensively you’re getting from a healthy Murray what you were getting from an injured Rohde. He’s good with team defensive concepts, but he really struggles to keep his man in front of him, full stop.
Here’s a look at him just getting straight taken off of the dribble from the point, from a fully set defensive stance. His man just beats him with first step quickness and gets his body fully by him on the drive.
Here on the wing, you see him just get lost when his man jabs quickly to the right and explodes baseline, putting Groves in a position where he tries to draw the charge. This is a clear path running at the rim because of the quickness discrepency.
And then, later in the game, this is after he switches with McKneely off of a ball screen. The Morgan St. player just gives a little stop and go, forcing Taine to stop his momentum and have to pick up again, and he’s right by him. Kudos for Buchanan getting there to block the shot, but the foul is drawn on Taine.
The problem I have with all of these is that they’re physical limitation buckets. If teams aren’t testing him and he can kind of rotate, play off of the ball, help to crash the defensive glass… it can be fine. If the player he’s guarding is on the slower side, it can also be fine… but, faced with quickness, he is easily… and it’s not close, the worst guard/wing on-ball defender on the roster.
Now, Gertrude is still also a work in progress. If you look at this clip, it yields exactly the same result that one of Taine’s earlier clips did:
That clip above is also a wide-open baseline drive – but it’s not because he just got out-quicked – that’s really hard to do to Eli – it’s because his body positioning was too high and he just offered the clean path toward the hoop.
He’s actually a worse off-ball defender at this point than Murray is, as well. Watch him on this one as he gets kind of caught up in a muddled lane and has to switch his man off to Beekman at first, only to allow himself to get caught/pinned for too long in the post and not get out fast enough to contest the three-point shot:
But I’d always rather have the talented player learn than hope the less talented player can hold up. The truth is, Gertrude’s defense is still very good on the whole despite the growing pains. We’ve seen how he’s a one-man fast break when he gets his hands on the ball, how his athletic ability helps him generally be a quality on-ball defender, and also how he positively impacts rebounding. His block rate per minute is second on the team behind Dunn. And, despite technique, he’s flashing like this on the defensive end because of his athleticism. Watch, here, how after the Buchanan and Minor double team (this is a very interesting lineup, by the way, with Buchanan, Minor, Bond, Murray and Gertrude all on the floor at the same time) Gertrude just evaporates the close-out space and forces the up-and-down violation (which otherwise would have led to his run out).
Offensively, while he’s not offering you necessarily the same level of spacing, he’s also doing things that other guys on this roster aren’t. Maybe Reece, to a degree, but not as athletically effortlessly…
…
At this point, I would classify playing Taine, strategically, as trading defense for another spot-up shooting threat… and I don’t think we need to or should do that given our current options and what they bring. It’s not even that I mind 16 minutes for a bench player like Taine in such a lop-sided game, I don’t (except if you’re only affording Gertrude 13) – but if he’s getting run earlier in the game and in better leverage situations – and if it’s any indication of where CTB views them as depth options at this point in the season – that’s not ideal. Practically speaking, I do feel that the more you invest Taine’s minutes into other guys, at this point, the more you’re investing in the team’s ceiling for later in the year. Just like the more you play Elijah, the better his decision making is going to be… and the less you’re going to want him sitting.
In Conclusion
Twelve games into the season, it appears as though CTB is comfortable with his starting five, but is still really tinkering with both his complementary players and how to best solve various lineup issues through different offensive approaches. I don’t think anything is fully off the table at this point, and I think we’re going to see him keep giving significant opportunities to most of the guys to take their opportunity and run with it, especially early in conference play.
While I’m cautiously optimistic that Minor can carve out a role, I’m mostly just convinced that the best versions of this team in March will be ones that have gotten both Gertrude and Bond locked into key minutes within a tightened rotation. The more we make clear progress toward that goal now, when the games are less competitive, the better.
Notre Dame should, hopefully, be another opportunity, even within conference play, to try out more of those options. We’ll be able to check in on the progress in just a few hours!
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