A very important win on the road to, hopefully, build confidence and momentum away from the JPJ (and to stop adding losses to the resume). It was a game where we started to, likely, get a more cemented look of how CTB wants the team to settle into the final half of the season. Four of our five starters played over 30 minutes and Jordan Minor, our fifth starter, played 24 minutes. Leaning heavily into that group appears to be in the cards, with Dante Harris and Jake Groves as the leading bench support and all of Leon Bond, Blake Buchanan and even Taine Murray being available to augment.
Even though the team did really well with Murray on the floor (and his heads up play to get a bucket at the end of the first half was big for momentum), I have a feeling he’ll end up being the last odd-man-out and we’ll get down to a true 9 man rotation. I was also encouraged that, despite Dante Harris playing very well offensively against Virginia Tech, CTB didn’t overly rely on him in this one, especially because it wasn’t his strongest game. It seems like he’s going to be more of that supplemental piece rather than viewed as the saving grace – which I agree with and think is correct. Leon Bond continued to be utilized at the SF, which I appreciated.
It was also an interesting and unique game in that I thought our offense carried us at times; regularly getting response buckets throughout the second half whenever Georgia Tech would score. That was an encouraging sign for a beleaguered unit.
All of that being said, since we appear to be narrowing down to CTB’s desired end-state, I’m going to do something a little bit different for this piece and just do a section on each of our five starters while they were all playing together (I’m going to cheat a little on McKneely). There were a couple of hiccups, but I thought that all five finished the game having contributed impactful and quality performances. It did feel like we’d finally found our best five in an undisputed way and, while I still really like some of the things our bench guys unlock, and we are showing a willingness to keep all (except for Eli, sadly) of those guys engaged for when they’re needed; we’re probably going to see more of this group together for the foreseeable future, so I plan to use each of them as a lens into how they all work together and little snippets into what they offer.
Reece Beekman, PG
19 points (on 7-16 shooting), 11 assists, 6 rebounds and 2 steals in 33 minutes. That was Reece Beekman’s stat line; his second highest point total on the season (21 vs. Northeastern), his highest assist total on the season, and tied for his highest rebound total on the season (also Northeastern). This was his most active overall game of the year, by far the most against a P5 school. Both his minutes AND his utilization have actually been trending up over the two games since Dante Harris has returned. Granted, not a huge sample size yet, but it’s my hypothesis that the luxury to not have to initiate as often means that he’s been more aggressive when he does as he’s better rested/more able to expend energy/effort on those plays. We’ll see if this continues to play out, as some of it also relates to the interplay with Minor’s screening as the duo has worked well together, but it’s encouraging that Reece is starting to fill up the stat line across so many elements of the game; especially on the offensive end where he’s most needed.
Here’s a great look at the high-quality finishing that he’s bringing to the table, and how he has the ability to be that on-man show, especially when playing initially off of the ball. This is the same play we ran last game where McKneely sets the initial ball screen for Beekman and then curls around to the hoop for the backdoor cut. Georgia Tech defends it better than Virginia Tech did, so we end up resetting and it’s on Reece with the ball on the wing working off of screens from Minor. He eventually gets the ball and Minor sets a screen for him to get into the paint with his man on the trail. Beekman then uses his body control and pacing to keep his man behind him while elevating, hanging, and finishing over the 6’7″ Tyzhaun Claude (#12). That’s a tough finish in traffic that wasn’t created by other-worldly quickness but, rather, just savvy and methodical body control.
Now, 6’7″ isn’t the most oppressive rim protection, but it’s still good size for Beekman to be able to finish over.
But here’s a different but similar look, below, of him rotating to the bottom Side and getting a clean look by running his man back and forth off of several Minor screens, and then patiently working his way down the baseline, drawing the double team momentarily, until he has enough space for the neat little turnaround in close to the rim.
It’s an incredibly patient and veteran play on Beekman’s end where he really just forces the defense to make a decision and waits for them to do so. GT opted not to leave Minor entirely on the baseline probe, so Beekman just took the opportunity that was there.
I like this two-man game with Beekman and Minor because they play off of each other well; mostly by Minor just giving Reece more space on his man than he’s had and being a threat to finish around the rim to that defenders can’t just leave him to help on Reece. It’s especially effective with this starting lineup because they don’t need a ton of space to operate and Dunn being on the opposite side really doesn’t matter that much. In this case, he hangs out at the three-point line and his man doesn’t feel comfortable enough leaving him so much that he can get into this play. Some teams may try to combat this (many have) by sagging farther off of Dunn, but that’s a lot of space for him to either line up a shot (like he did earlier in this game) or to take a good diving angle to receive a pass from Reece moving toward the rim.
But this is also a nice little wrinkle that Reece has been running lately and that I’d like to see our other movers run more often. The majority of this clip is with Rohde running the point and Reece and McKneely playing the wings. It’s an important note because, while Rohde isn’t going to make much happen going toward the rim from the point, he stabilizes the offense well, reads the defense well, and finds good passes. Multiple times on this possession you’ll see GT over-playing the curl screen to the middle of the floor, which is something we’ve seen a lot of our opponents to recently – meeting us on the other side of those screens as we catch the ball because they know where we’re going. Here McKneely has a quick dribble but Tech is there along with a sagged point and the same happens with Rohde not long after. Generally, pretty concerning, because neither is really posing a legitimate threat to get into the lane and do something. But as Rohde catches the ball on the point toward the end of the possession and McKneely runs to the lower side with Beekman cutting baseline. Pause at 19 seconds into the clip and you’ll see Naithan George for GT (#2) anticipating how he thinks he should be defending Beekman. He’s got an angle to stay plastered to him, but he’s gotten caught on enough of these curl screens from Minor that, instead, he ducks over the screen at the last minute anticipating that he’ll meet Beekman there on the pass. Beekman gives a subtle fake like he’s going to start running toward Minor but, instead, snaps his route off into the corner and Rohde hits him with a good pass past George’s attempt to get into the passing lane. Pause at 20/21 second and you’ll see George now caught on the Minor screen going the other way, not able to get down to Beekman in the corner as he sinks the wide-open three.
That’s the kind of adaptation you see from a player who is experienced running Sides to anticipate and counter a defender trying to cheat the actions, reinforced by Minor being a more obtrusive screener and Rohde being an anticipatory passer. I’d really like to see McKneely, especially, start to run more of these actions. Far too often our guys are always curling around that screen such that it’s predictable and not a real, credible threat. Beekman’s done this several times recently and I love seeing it.
Here’s an awesome look at Reece just providing two-way value. He’s guarding George now, after some struggles earlier in the game from McKneely, and initially shuts the drive down to the middle of the floor. Georgia Tech is running a four-corners offense of sorts with 6’11” Ebenezer Dowuona (#10) commanding Jordan Minor’s attention and Dunn covering 6’9″ Baye Ndongo (#11) marking the middle of the “X.” We’ll talk about this set a little bit more later because it was an interesting one where GT often moved their biggest player to the corner, pulling Minor out of the middle and forcing Dunn to defend the post – something that would never have happened with Groves on the floor as teams would always target him. But on this play they kick it into the corner for Dowuona who dribbles out to hand off and set a ball screen for George. This puts Minor and Beekman into the hedge defense and Beekman gets hit hard by a moving screen early on – really more like a football block by Dowuona that isn’t called, put pause at 12 seconds and look at the long arm of recovery creeping back into the passing lane and straight up swiping the ball. He then turns and leads the break the other way with a cross-court pass to Rohde. Rohde, smartly and beautifully, waits for the secondary break to clear with all four GT defenders getting back, and sends the ball back to Beekman, who drains the open three.
The play is really such good chemistry and awareness between both Rohde and Beekman, but I also just love how that screener attempted to really lean into Reece and it turned into a steal regardless.
And then, lastly, I wanted to include this clip, below, which really just highlights so many of his intangibles. It’s a great job crashing down on a board that Minor would have otherwise lost, but then he gets his head looking down court and drops a dime all the way down court to Dunn on the move that we’ll see finished later.
It’s not surprising that Beekman is the center spoke around which everything revolves within our starting five. We’ve seen for years now, but especially peaking last year, all of the versatile elements to his game. I think where we’re starting to see him thrive more than he was just a few games ago, is with improved screening from Minor with multiple finishing options around the rim and then coupling that with him playing off of the ball more, allowing him to isolate and attack a side as a mover. Furthermore, with both Dunn AND Minor (as opposed to Groves) in the post, there’s less tension and urgency around helping on big men, which gives them all, but especially Beekman, the ability to lock down one man (or freelance to make a play) rather than getting pressed into so many help rotations. Basically, Beekman not having to cover for as much is allowing him to carry more.
Isaac McKneely, SG
What a tale of two games Isaac McKneely had and he’s the only player I’m going to cheat when covering and include both more clips than everyone else and some clips when he wasn’t just playing with the other starters, because I think it’s important to tell the story and to show the improvement.
McKneely played really badly for about the first 15 minutes of this game or so, and then went complete inferno from there, hitting just about everything under the Sun from deep, but also playing much improved defense. It was an interesting piece of information to add to the portfolio, as I was making the case in-game that you had to be willing to sit him down for a bit because it was going so poorly. CTB is clearly in the camp that this isn’t a player who you sit because he’s capable of what he did for a little more than the second half of the game. Clearly, CTB was right in this one! While I am not sure I’m sold that this is universally correct, it’s a sign that McKneely is about as much of a staple to the core minutes rotation as Beekman, probably the second most entrenched player, even more so than Dunn. And, while I think that’s always been pretty evident this season, we hadn’t really had a stretch like this where things were going so poorly for him for such a prolonged period of time – perhaps the Memphis game.
This also struck me that without Groves or Buchanan in the starting lineup, teams are most likely going to attack McKneely and Rohde now, but more so McKneely on-ball because of Rohde’s length, to this likely marked the beginning of what could be a shift to iMac being tested more frequently and with intention on the defensive end.
Here’s what I’m talking about early, as he struggled to stay in front of his man, often Naithan George, for the majority of the first half. Some of the conceded shots were challenging and over a quality contest, but some were like this where Miles Kelly (#12) just blows by him to the baseline and then uses his 6’6″ frame to hit the floater .
That just wasn’t enough resistance at all.
This next one is NOT with all of the starters, in fact you’ve got McKneely with all bench players surrounding him here. But notice how he’s picked up Kyle Sturdivant (#1) from the beginning of this possession, the ball rotates around the defense, and McKneely does two separate 360s almost in place, doesn’t rotate anywhere, Sturdivant barely relocates, but he’s still able to take the kick-out and bury the three over a poor contest from iMac.
McKneely just feels kind of lost on this play like he’s not quite sure exactly what to do with himself. He’s torn between sagging and helping on rotations but not finding a place to help, all the while, losing distance to stay close to his man. It’s really just not the kind of defense we expect from him at this point.
There were several other buckets that he gave up, he briefly sat, and then came right back out to give up an immediate foul on the ball…
And then, here, below, he’s way too lax/loses urgency when George passes the ball into the corner and allows himself to get caught on a screen such that he offers a very poor contest.
At this point in the game he hadn’t yet scored, had missed two of his midrange jumpers and one open three, and was regularly getting cooked on the defensive side of the ball. And I, like a sucker, thought “okay, you’ve got to get him out of there.”
To be fair to, well, me, I still don’t think that’s a terrible impulse, but it would have missed out on a world of these (6 of 9, to be exact):
And this handle/slick set up for Dunn’s push shop was night and day confidence from how he was playing on these screens:
But the most surprising thing is that his defense flipped a switch around this point as well.
Here’s a look at him sagging and recovering off of the first hedge and then doing a really good job of getting through the ball screen on his man but having the awareness to realize that Taine hadn’t left with his man – switch to him and quickly close the distance while staying in good guarding position and forcing the travel.
That’s just an energized possession there played with great awareness and very good quickness.
And here’s one last look at some solid on-ball defense on George, supported by Dunn’s sag/reach, that results in a hurried kick out/turnover.
I think of the emotion that McKneely displayed at the end of the game, joking around with his teammates versus how tight and passive he was playing early in this one. I’m sure CTB got on him for his defense as he mentioned it in the post game about Isaac deciding he wanted to guard someone in the second half, but this was the first time this year he really went full microwave on the road and backed it up on both ends. And, while I kind of have mixed feelings about how much of a leash he clearly has, given CTBs comments and how much iMac played anyway, his ability to shoot and the range from which he does it (see earlier clip but there was an even longer one he had to force up and still drained) alters the way defenses have to defend us and can create quality spacing.
I expect there will still be moments this year where McKneely struggles to separate from his defenders and faces trying circumstances on the defensive end but, now, I also expect we’ll see him respond to those moments more often than not, which bodes well for his long-term role on this team as a leader who will get you big buckets.
Andrew Rohde, SF
Okay, I promise to stick to the rules and play fair from here with the clip selection.
Andrew Rohde appears to be the most polarizing topic of conversation around player utilization at the moment. I see the most wide-ranging comments about his play which, to be fair, does vary pretty significantly in quality.
To me, the debate shouldn’t be whether or not Rohde has a positive impact on the team when he’s playing well. He does. He’s a glue guy who, used right, can do all of the miscellaneous things from linking the team up through good passing, setting up the offense, to playing very good defense. He often makes all of our other guys play better despite rarely taking on a large scoring role himself. The more reasonable discussion, to me, is whether or not he should have the level of leash that he has – because when he’s not playing well it can be pretty rough; especially on the defensive end. He’s really better as a 1 or a 2 than a 3 and there are some matchups where he just struggles against the opposition’s SF and there are some games where he’s just playing a step slow on both sides of the ball. If you contrast his game with McKneely’s – who can have a pretty terrible first 15 minutes of a game like we just discussed above but then just absolutely go off for the rest of it, that’s not what you’re getting from Rohde ever – so there shouldn’t be as much reluctance to sit him down when either the offense is stagnating or when his defense isn’t there.
And yet, to a lesser extent than Reece or McKneely, CTB does seem to view Rohde as a core part of the rotation, logging 31 minutes even when coming off of the bench vs. Wake Forest compared to 25 minutes when starting vs. Virginia Tech and another 31 minutes when starting in this game. Despite being open to the idea of using him as a 6th man, CTB really hasn’t scaled back his minutes or use with his lowest minutes in a competitive game coming in at 23 vs. Memphis.
Personally, I absolutely love his passing, which I already showed quite a bit in the Beekman section above, but I’d like to see him be more aggressive off of the bounce and settle for fewer pull-up/midrange jumpers. The correctness in playing him, to me, is always going to come down to his defense – how well is he sliding and how well is he helping while still being able to recover to outside shooters with a good contest.
This, for example, is what I’m talking about where his defense most regularly struggles. He normally does pretty well on the ball (although when that goes you know it’s a good time to re-evaluate his minutes in that game), but it’s the footspeed on the recovery that is often wanting. This is Georgia Tech basically running their version of Flow, here. They put two men in either corner (their big man trying to pull Minor away from the lane as far as possible), station one man on one wing, and run a ball screen on the other. This is exactly the same as one of our Flow variants. Notice that Dunn flat hedges this screen so, even our quickest most athletic front court hedger has adapted this new angle. As he does so, Rohde seps into the lane (almost entirely in, one foot slightly out) to tag the screener on his roll. As he does so, GT just whips the ball into the corner for the 6’7″ Kowacie Reeves (#14) who drills the three before Rohde can recover.
This wasn’t just a Rohde issue. GT targeted this all game, getting successful shots in the corner over Dunn, Bond, and others from time-to-time off of baiting this tagging help and swinging it right to the corner, but Rohde was one of our most targeted as you see on this first bucket of the game. Some of it was helped by GT’s size on these shooters who were less bothered by the close-out, but it was more that they just identified that this was a place where they could find opportunity against our defense and our lack of close-out speed. As an adjustment, I would have liked to see our guys across the board be a little less aggressive on this dive. Shade it a little so that you can react to a pass but, otherwise, make them throw that pass and trust that between Dunn and Minor recovering and you pinching down, that you could still have a stout double-team on a catch. Even just tagging without being directly in front of the diver but rather just reaching out and jamming him a little with an out-stretched arm. Either way, it’s something to watch and it’s the area Rohde is most vulnerable on the defensive end – probably actually our single biggest chink in the armor defensively across this starting 5 is putting Rohde into a lot of help-then-recover situations.
Offensively, this was our first look of the game and it’s one I’ve chatted about on social media a bit. This is a Sides look throughout, and the first part of the possession is really all Naithan George shading the curl screens, cutting them off, and us kicking the ball back out. Then, at around 10 seconds left, Jordan Minor sets a quality ball screen for Andrew Rohde on George who is still recovering from shading Beekman. George goes over the screen, getting caught on Minor and trailing the play and it’s from this point (about 8 seconds into the clip that I want to discuss). Rohde takes a couple of dribbles past the screen and shoots a midrange jumper, which misses. Take a look at the play first, and then I have quite a bit of commentary below:
The first thing I’ll say here is that this is actually exactly the kind of situation Sides is trying to create, it’s just not the correct shot selection by Rohde who needs to be more aggressive. Sides, historically, is an offense designed to forcing defenses to run/work for a bulk of the shot clock and then, eventually, create a quality look. That doesn’t mean that we won’t/shouldn’t take an early look if one is there, and it also doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be working for one early. It does mean that these early runs through where we’re probing the middle and then kicking the ball back out aren’t concerning as long as we’re able to get a good look when the time is right. They’re still part of the overall strategy of wearing down the defense. They also establish patterns and repetitions for later in the game, like with the clip I showed above of Reece representing the curl to the middle, George cheating it, and Reece flaring to the corner. It’s important to keep in mind that this is the first possession of the game, so it’s still a feeling out process and establishing those patterns.
But the Minor screen for Rohde is precisely the end goal of a run through Sides. Naithan George gets caught on it and is fully trailing the play. This is an advantage, now, where the 6’11” Ebenezer Dowuona (#10) who is playing drop coverage here, standing in the lane, is responsible for stopping both Rohde off of the bounce and Jordan Minor rolling to the basket. Again, that’s the goal, a man taken out of the play, and an imbalanced attack on the basket – and 10 seconds is all of the time in the world to execute this set from this point where the advantage is created. Note that Miles Kelly (#13) is chasing McKneely through the lane on his baseline cut which is correct because his back is to the play and he’s not going to be available to help (and if he somehow did, McKneely would be open in the corner. If McKneely snaps this back out to the near-side corner, he runs Kelly right back into the play, potentially being able to cut off/harass Rohde’s dribble while chasing McKneely. Beekman is on the opposite wing so and his man really isn’t likely to get into this play (but Beekman would be open on a kick-out if so). The wrinkle is that Ryan Dunn’s man, Baye Ndongo (#11) is staying in the lane help side despite Dunn fanning out to the three-point line, as he should at this point, to attempt to create more space, because of the lack of threat of Dunn’s shot. This reinforces how teams have been playing Dunn to clog the lane.
Even still, there are really only five relevant players at this point in the play once the screen takes place – Rohde, Dowuona, Minor, Ndongo, and Dunn. Rohde decided to simply elevate into the jumper given the space Dowuona provided, which is an inefficient shot and not one he’s been regularly making anyway. What I’d like him to do is to push a left-handed dribble and there are a couple of options on how he could do this. He could take it a little wider, forcing Dowuona to come farther away from the hoop to him, then pass to Minor who would likely either be able to finish through Ndongo (or get fouled) or dump it off, in turn, to Dunn who should be diving to the rim at that point. He could also take a more direct angle at Dowuona’s right shoulder, forcing him to slide and taking the ball under the hoop, which would put Ndongo in the position of having to defend both Dunn and Minor diving to the hoop and allowing Rohde vision to pick one of them out. Either way, if Rohde drives and Dunn dives with space/momentum from the perimeter they better take advantage of the numbers mismatch created by taking George out of the play. In fact, Rohde not driving here is a glaring concession that just playing sag defense from a big is enough to defend a 2-1, which it shouldn’t be.
This is where I’d like Rohde to be much more aggressive – see the advantage that’s there and force the action rather than settling for the jumper; especially now that Minor’s getting the run that he is as a better finisher around the rim.
Okay, this next clip is a bit of a new development but, given how he’s been shooting I suppose isn’t that surprising. GT sags off of Rohde on the perimeter entirely and dares him to shoot… which he does, and sinks it.
I liked seeing this one because sometimes when a team dares you to shoot it can sap the confidence and some players will pass up the open look… or take it and miss. Rohde having the confidence to take what was given and knock it down despite his recent slump from outside was encouraging. No, you can’t just leave him out there… which is important for the offense to be able to function.
Reece finished well in transition, but this one, below, was really more of a Rohde play and shows his value on defense through his alertness, especially when he’s moving well. The first part of the play he helps very aggressively on the pass into Ndongo, cutting off the path to the hoop as Beekman also drops down to swarm. Ndongo passes out to the point as Rohde recovers and then tips the rebound away from Minor to reset the possession. It’s a good example where, even though we’re better at securing the glass with Minor in the game, it’s still not a strength and we just tied GT at 29 boards a piece in this one. Anyway, it’s a scramble from there with McKneely and Beekman initially getting crossed up on their coverage and then Kelly driving past Beekman on his recovery, drawing Dunn and McKneely to stop the drive and passing back to Dunn’s man, Claude (#12) coming in from the corner. This is where Rohde’s instincts are good as he leaves his man entirely to help on Claude, allowing Dunn to get back into the play with the double-team. Rohde then swipes at/steals the ball and, more, immediately picks Beekman (who was out of the play from earlier) out for the run out.
When we talk about glue guys, they’re often guys who link up the team through good passing, as was on display here, but they’re also often guys who just have that instinctual sense for where they need to be and have a nose for the ball. This play went from a potential layup/foul for GT to three points the other way (a 5-6 point swing) all because Rohde realized it was time to leave his guy fully and just commit to trying to stop the ball (and because of his quick hands).
Earlier I showed Rohde’s intuition in the secondary break with Beekman, and here it is again. This time after the nice outlet from Beekman to Dunn (which he should have taken up, to be honest), he passes it back out to Rohde who immediately flips a sick bounce pass to the cutting Minor.
I’ve said it many times here, but I really do love Rohde’s floor vision and passing.
When you look at how this starting lineup has evolved, I think Andrew Rohde has become the most interchangeable piece at least early within a subbing pattern. When either of Dante Harris or Leon Bond come into the game, most of the time you’re going to want it to be for Rohde. When Jake Groves comes into the game, even, some of the time you’re going to want to shift Dunn up to three and that’s also going to be for Rohde (although I do like playing him at 2 in those big lineups). That being said, when he’s on his defensive game his skillset does provide the most well-rounded compliment to the rest of the starting four.
Ryan Dunn, PF
I thought Ryan Dunn had a great game overall, except for the late free throws. He was active, energetic, hitting his shots (4-4 from the field) and you saw how his defense benefits from playing alongside Minor rather than Groves. Still, the addition of Minor means that he’s going to get tested in the post more regularly, so let’s take a look.
Here’s the clip where Ndongo got him angry by making the too small gesture (which, let’s all just declare is ridiculous – he’s got him by an inch – so thank goodness Ryan got some revenge). But there are a lot of interesting things about this set. For one, GT is playing four-around 1 with Ndongo in the middle and Dowuona in the lower corner. This puts Minor in the position of covering the 6’11” Dowuona and Dunn forced to defend the post. On this play, below, Dunn does a good job of denying the post pass only to have it get back to Dowuona anyway and to concede the hook shot in the lane.
It’s fine defense by Dunn who gets a decent contest on the shot, but it illustrates our opponents, now without the option of attacking Groves, may look to play through Dunn’s man in the post rather than Minor, depending on the matchups. Net-net, this is a positive development because we don’t really need to send a double here and it’s just always better when a better defender is playing on-ball defense than a worse one – but I still have a few thoughts.
For one, Ndongo was a more skilled offensive player inside, so even though the size difference is bigger, why not play Dunn on the perimeter player and let Minor take Ndongo (they would opt for this later)? But, furthermore, Dowuona hasn’t TAKEN a three-point shot all season. Just like teams have been sagging off of Dunn in the lane, this was an opportunity to scout GT and force GT to have their 6’11” Center hit some perimeter shots. This is a great example of where we need to play our opponent, not just run our defensive system. All of GT’s actions were run to get the better shooter the look in the corner, if Minor just pinched in here I’d love to have made Dowuona prove that he could beat us with that shot considering it’s not one he literally ever takes….
Which, CTB clearly recognized because he (and by extension, Dunn and Minor) adjusted quite well to this wrinkle. Here you see Minor being MUCH more aggressive from the help side and, even though he never fully goes for the double, he has the potential to. This forces Dowuona to keep walking more into the play, cutting in to be more available/relevant because he isn’t going to shoot from out there. Dunn does really well to hold his ground and Rohde does a great job of continually pecking down on the dribble while popping back out. He IS beaten by his man off of the bounce on the recovery, though, but Dunn excellently stays home and blocks the jumper.
It’s kind of like we called their bluff on the Center in the corner – but also just a great individual defensive effort from Ryan Dunn.
And one more look, this time with Minor on the near side rather than the back side, but Dunn just playing suffocating straight-up defense blocking the shot.
I wouldn’t recommend taunting Dunn as an opposing player.
Speaking of sagging off of the shooter, from before, this was a sight for sore eyes. I love how he doesn’t hesitate and just lets it rip on the catch. Dunn is an infinitely better offensive player when he doesn’t think and just plays off of instinct. Him taking and MAKING these shots is huge for our general ability to run offense and I thought it set a great tone early in the game, especially important as our first bucket.
This has been a big point of our conversations for weeks now, but Dunn either shooting the open threes or driving/diving is necessary for a functioning offense (although less-so with Minor getting so many minutes). Here, his man is clogging that driving lane from the Beekman/Minor ball screen but Dunn is able to punish it.
And THIS punctuation on the put back was fantastic (I love the fire)! Dunn had 10 of our 29 rebounds in the game. Minor only had 2 but did a good job of boxing out/clearing space. Him (Minor) being around the rim here draws the box out and Dunn is able to crash down with free range of motion which is very effective. Again, with Groves on the floor, Dunn is always the bigger rebounding threat and draws more attention.
I really loved how Dunn played this game – smart, aggressive (most of the time), and very active on defense. Having Jordan Minor in the line up benefits him because he gets to cover the second biggest/most athletic player compared to with Groves and, contrasted with Buchanan, Minor commands more attention when he’s around the hoop on the offensive end which allows Dunn to roam/crash/dive more effectively. Sides with Minor minimizes the impact of the help off of him, but also just being willing to take those shots (and make on occasion) is big. His little push shot we saw earlier in tandem with McKneely in Sides was a good sign he was playing with confidence. I should also note that, while missing both free throws late was discouraging, I loved the dive/drive to draw the foul.
Jordan Minor, C
I’ve focused a lot on Minor since his insertion into the starting lineup so we’ll see a lot of similar themes here. I’ve also already talked in this piece quite a bit about how his interplay with Reece – creating better driving lanes, McKneely – creating better looks, Dunn – helping defensively and minimizing the efficacy of his man helping by being able to finish around the rim more reliable. So let’s just jump into some more of these looks featuring him:
He’s still finding his way, at times, on defense. In this one you see him hard hedge which, we started to work a more aggressive hedge back into this game at times. It wasn’t constant, you saw some flat hedging earlier, as well, and I don’t mind that/actually prefer the variability of the hedging so that opponents have to read the play rather than knowing what’s coming. This first hedge below is more of a show and retreat, which was good – he got back in good position. The second, however, he attempts to stop the progress of the ball handler and can’t, so he gets dragged way out to the GT logo. The recovery is actually okay because Rohde and Dunn do a pretty good job sagging in to be there on a pass, but after Minor recovers he drifts a bit to the hoop rather than staying plastered to his man. You can almost see him at 15 seconds here reverting to a zone mentality by staying in the restricted zone rather than pressing up on his man to deny an entry pass. He realizes too late and then, his recovery momentum makes him off-balance on the catch. His man is then able to use the bounce to create good enough positioning for the hoop and the harm.
This stuff is just polish and breaking old habits. He was close here and more reps, which hopefully he’ll get, will clean this stuff up.
Which he did, just later within this game. The first hedge still gets him caught out a little far, but he does flatten it out and because he’s not trying to actually cut off the dribble angle, he’s able to race back to his man by the time the ball gets there (shout out to Dunn being right under the basked on help side). Now, this time not off balance, watch THIS on-ball defense compared to the clip above. It’s strong and he uses his lower body to control the path/tempo of the ball handler without fouling. He’s able to maintain great defensive positioning throughout, force the dribble to stop, and the ball to be kicked back out. Again, one-on-one post defense without having to double! Then he comes out again to hedge and the ball screen is rejected and then slipped. He’s caught a little bit behind this one but Rohde is in great positioning to help on the catch and Minor does a really nice job of recovering to his man and getting into good defensive position again. Note, when Claude (#12) pivots his shoulder into the lane, Minor is already back between him and hoop to withstand the blow (rather than Rohde) while Rohde recovers back out to his man. The pass out goes to the original spot of the wing player who is in the process of readjusting to Rohde’s recovery angle, making the catch awkward, and he bobbles it out of bounds.
This is a really nice job throughout this offensive possession buoyed by Rohde’s ability to be impactful as a help side defender in the post through his size and through that chaos he created. Minor did a good job getting back into the play at the end and Rohde managed to create something positive out of the worst part of his defensive game – the recovery back to the perimeter after helping!
So hedging is a work in progress but something where he’s definitely improving. He’s ALSO learning and improving with his positioning in the system. Here’s a good example of him rotating on the back end and making a break on a pass to a cutter that creates a turnover.
It’s not the most amazing play in the world – but it’s a very good read and, for someone whose adjustment to man-to-man defense has been cited regularly for his lack of playing time earlier in the system, it’s very encouraging to see him reading and making a play like this – supporting Dunn on his man’s dive.
Offensively, I’ve spoken a lot about his ability to finish in the pick and roll, which he did in this game as well. These two clips, however, are instances where the advantage created through the offense was mostly negated and he just ended up with the ball near the hoop one-on-one against a defender. The biggest benefit of playing Minor is that he isn’t just reliant on the advantage created through screening action and can also finish pretty reliably from these positions. On this one, he gets the ball deep but his man runs up on him and umbrellas. He’s able to use his body/strength just to create the space needed to go right up and finish the layup.
And on this one, we set up Sides with Beekman and Dunn, Beekman drives baseline and finds Minor cutting from the elbow as he draws his defender. Ndongo gets back into the play, however, on the catch and Minor uses the dribble to stabilize himself rather than create an advantage. Rather than freezing and kicking it back out, though, he uses his pivot to create space and hits a nice little left-handed hook shot.
By contrast, recall some of those hook shot lasers Buchanan was firing up earlier in the season and how often any of our frontcourt players prior to Minor joining the core rotation would have probably kicked this ball back out rather than scoring here.
I don’t mean to make the case that he’s amazing – it’s more a contrast with what we’ve had on the roster for years – but Minor’s quality screening and ability to finish from a neutral position inside are both attributes that we haven’t had reliably (in one player) on the roster for a while now. Shedrick was a better rim-runner and overall finisher, but he wasn’t as good at playing through contact. Caffaro was probably as good of a screener but wasn’t as good at converting the opportunities they created for him. Gardner couldn’t reliably play against length around the rim and had to rely more on the midrange. Point being, he’s his own unique player that’s filling a niche and combination of skills that certainly compliment what this team needs – and that’s a very positive development.
In Conclusion
I do think that this is going to be the starting five that we see for a while and that we’ll lean into their combined minutes quite a bit (at least as long as the positive trend in play continues). So, hopefully this was an interesting look at how all of those pieces work/play together viewed through the lens of each individual player. Keeping to clips where all five of them were on the floor together (except for the few McKneely cheats) helps to inform the total picture of each while still looking at those individual contributions.
I do think this is the best starting five with which to run, while we do have a lot of bench options with which to respond, depending on the need. It’s mostly that the current lineup (especially with the addition of Minor to it) dramatically minimizes a lot of the biggest pain points we’ve felt this season; from post defense, to rebounding, to the offense struggling to create quality looks due to no inside scoring and teams sagging off of Dunn. And it allows our best players in Beekman, Dunn, and McKneely all more room/freedom to do what they do best, and gives Rohde more ability to help glue it all together and facilitate.
I’m very interested to see how Jordan Minor translates to our ability to defend DJ Burns on Wednesday – hopefully it will result in exactly zero double-teams at the three-point line!
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