I just wrote a piece focusing on each of our five starting guys and how they all work together, supposing that was the starting five that we’d be seeing for a while. Literally one game later, Andrew Rohde played just 12 minutes, by far his lowest total of the season, and we’re once again up in the air about best options for our SF position! Things can change fast.
I’ve written previously (as recently as my last piece) that, when playing well, Andrew Rohde has a very positive impact on our team but that, when he isn’t playing well, that I wished we’d be a little more willing to scale back his minutes and to explore other options during any given game. Well, this game vs. N.C. State was really the first time we’ve seen him do this to a serious degree, and who knew that the solution would be Taine Murray (some people yelling at me “I did!!!”)?
To me, this development represents a bit of a double-edged sword. On the positive side, CTB was really willing to rotate through all of his options to fill that role until he found one who was playing well (although one of them almost burned us which we’ll discuss later) and he was willing to make some significant changes to his core rotations in order to do so (mostly, a willingness to play Rohde less and playing his hot hand, Taine, 19 minutes). On the negative side, we really had a good number of guys not playing very well all at once and had to go pretty deep into the bench to find that solution. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if we see Taine Murray starting against Louisville due to his play in this game, but given how the season has gone, I don’t think we should be viewing this as “the solution” that we’re necessarily going to stick with. In fact, I think we’re going to need all four of these guys (Rohde, Bond, Harris, Murray) to play key roles throughout the season and are just going to have to see who is on/having the most impact within any given game (and this is assuming that we won’t look to Elijah Gertrude, but I wish we would considering how everything shook out Wednesday night). The “hot hand” approach, if you will, appears to be the best option for us right now and, rather than viewing Rohde as a 25-30mpg lock in the lineup, CTB embraced this fully in this one.
One of the most challenging things for anyone observing a sport, fans or coaches, is to assume that what we’ve seen recently is what we will see again moving forward. It’s recency bias and it fails to take into account the variability of game-to-game performance as well as environments and matchups with the opposition. You think you’ve learned something by what happened but really the full picture isn’t that linear. It’s why sports betting is such a challenge. ”Oh, team X just blew out team y by 20 and team z is worse than team y! Surely team x will blow out team z by more!” But that’s very often not how it works. My point being, that in this piece I’m going to talk about each of the four SF options in this game and how they were utilized and how it went – but the conclusion is not that we can’t/shouldn’t play these guys moving forward. There will be games when they’re playing better and matching up better. But, it will be a reflection of the dynamics within this game. That will be the main focus of this piece and then I’ll do another section talking about Minor and Dunn and how they were actually the big difference between the first game @N.C. State and this one (Buchanan played pretty well too!).
In fact, let’s lead with that one…
Frontcourt Play!
After being the weakness of our team as we played under-sized all year, conceded wide rebounding margins, were forced to send double-teams, and failed to threaten to score inside, that changed dramatically in this game. We crushed N.C. State on the glass, holding a 54-32 advantage with Dunn, Minor, and Buchanan, collecting 29 just between the three of them. Offensively, Dunn and Minor actually outscored Beekman and McKneely by 2 points (23-21) on much more efficient shooting (11-19 from the floor compared to 8-28). Defensively, we were able to defend DJ Burns this time without double-teaming, allowing our back-end rotations much more room to suffocate and freelance (Dunn had 6 blocks!) and also allowing Blake Buchanan to play almost exclusively against Ben Middlebrooks instead of Burns. Bolstered again by the contributions of Minor, the unit was our strength in the game, flipping the script entirely from earlier this season, and even just vs. the same opponent 18 days prior. Let’s take a look at some of the developments.
The first thing I want to show is the first possession of the game where we just ground out offensive rebound after offensive rebound. It’s a longer clip than I normally include spanning several out of bounds plays and nothing came from this sequence other than Beekman drawing a foul at one point; we left with the scoreboard still a zero – but it set the tone for the game.
Think about opening the game with this sequence. They block McKneely, we get it back with 3 seconds to shoot. McKneely shoots a desperate shot and misses, Minor deflects the ball out to Beekman to reset, Beekman misses a shot in close but grabs his own rebound, they block his next attempt out of bounds, Rohde misses a three, Minor collects the board, then Reece draws a foul. That’s exhausting to write, let alone to play through! But, yeah, I thought that our energy and toughness and determination to start the game was very good and set the tone throughout.
Here’s a good look at an impactful board (of, again, our 54!) a little later on where they force Burns into space defending a ball screen situation. Harris rejects the screen and drives the lane, but misses the runner. Minor is able to beat Burns back down the lane crashing hard, though (despite a full on push in the back with extended arms from Burns), sky for the rebound, and then finish on the other side of the rim.
This was a good example of putting a player with less mobility like Burns into space and pulling him away from the hoop, but also just Minor being willing to hustle on the crash from outside of the free-throw line.
In fact, we did multiple things better inside during this game than we did in the one prior. For one, Minor did a great job defending DJ Burns one-on-one in the paint. He gave up 11 points in total, which was actually more for Burns than in the first contest, but held him to 5-12 from the floor.
Here’s Minor holding his ground on a few of those power dribbles, then giving a really good contest on a spin move and fadeaway.
Here’s him, below, really just giving Burns the business and I love it. It’s a good hedge and recovery to start the clip (can’t see the full action because of the coverage) and then he’s working hard to front Burns, really making him expend energy just to get the ball. Once he does, Minor is SO strong to resist this back down. You’ll notice that Burns make headway on his back down for a few dribbles, but around the 4th-5th dribble when he starts to pivot/change direction, Minor pushes him back out, messing with his balance and forcing the shot to be a fadeaway hook rather than with good momentum leaning in toward the hoop. Really impressive stuff/strength from Minor here.
He did it a lot over the span of the game…
And this possession, below, was just huge in OT as Burns had been a little more successful in the second half and we were trying to close out the game. Trying to get something going again, N.C. State just attempted to just clear out and isolate Burns but Minor stayed with the multiple pivots and got a great and physical contest in to force the miss. Side note, good crash down by Taine to help secure the board here.
The fear last time appeared to be Burns getting the ball away from the hoop and just being able to use his size and agility to methodically work his way in. Minor is just built for this kind of defense, though, with his incredible lower body strength, which allowed him to couple that with his superior quickness to control Burns and force so many of these attempts to be fading away from the hoop.
Much more importantly than the extra 5 points conceded to Burns, though, was that we didn’t have to warp our entire defensive strategy to contain him as we did previously. Recall, in the first contest, we were sending double-teams to the three-point line on Burns and he was killing us passing out of it. That difference – just being able to play the post straight up – allowed everything else from a defensive standpoint to click into place. For example, Dunn was guarding Casey Morsell in OT and was able to smother him, like in this absolutely suffocating display below, in no small part because N.C. State didn’t just automatically start their offense through Burns (because it wasn’t a clear advantage) and because Dunn didn’t have to worrk about leaving a player like Morsell to help with a double.
How awesome is it to have a PF who can defend a player like Morsell like that?
It’s worth noting that we actually scored one point less in this game than we did in the first contest despite playing 5 extra minutes… and won by 6 compared to losing by 16. We held N.C. State to a whopping 23 fewer points in 45 minutes. That was everything, really.
Ryan Dunn was effectively unleashed working in this context on the defensive end, sure. The 6 blocks tells a big part of the story and he was also hunting down plays like this and then barking at Blake for not identifying the switch in men, which I also loved (especially because he later took a softer approach).
They were both killing the offensive glass just before that, too, only for Dunn to sprint back and both erase this shot and get the ball back. He certainly seemed to be playing with a lot more freedom on that end.
For Dunn, though, I want to highlight his contributions on the offensive end. All season I’ve been calling for Dunn to attack off of the dribble more and to use his size in a more aggressive way around the rim. Basically, just to be more aggressive in general creating for himself and, where possible, others. His doing so has the potential to unlock some things in our offense, especially since the opponent’s best rim-protector is now guarding Minor rather than him.
On Wednesday, he did just that and he did so with a higher level of frequency rather than a flash here or a flash there. He just looked more comfortable and assertive. This was one of the first buckets of the game and it’s him just fully exploding past his man on the perimeter and using his reach to extend the ball out for a nice finish (I thought this should have been a foul with the body as well).
It’s a nice rip through and very good downhill speed to get past his man with the area around the rim completely cleared out. This is actually our Triangle offense just with Blake and Beekman playing higher and Dunn taking advantage of the open space from the screening action.
Here’s a good one later in the game where he uses his dribble to draw defenders and then kicks it out to McKneely for the clean three. Watch how when Dunn starts his drive to the right, four N.C. State defenders pull even with him in a line, allowing McKneely to get free even without Minor catching a good screen on Morsell.
I was struck by how fluid his handle was here, which allowed him to stop on a dime and kick it out in rhythm to eliminate the chance at a good contest. We saw this a few other times in the game (and in recent previous games) as well. This is the kind of thing that will provide the offense a needed lift that it hasn’t had much of this year if he continues to increase his utilization.
Additionally, he played and attacked out of the post more, especially when N.C. State was playing small. Earlier in the season, he would often pass up these opportunities no matter the mismatch and kick the pass back outside. Here, he uses a really fluid set of moves to get the ball in closer and then elevates over the top of his defender and sinks the fadeaway jump shot.
Now, personally, I’d still probably rather he get something going toward the basket here – but when you have this kind of a size advantage sometimes just elevating is as good as a clean look. What matters most is that he’s playing with confidence and not over-thinking it.
And this one I thought really set the tone of OT with N.C. State playing four guards around Burns. Dunn makes a strong move going toward the basket this time and his man can only get out of the way and swipe at the ball. This leaves Burns going two-on-one with Dunn and Minor for the rebound and, even though Dunn misses, there’s a quality tip-in from Minor (but it could have been either) to seal the deal.
We definitely need more of this from Dunn, especially when facing such mismatches.
He wasn’t the only one, though, and we’ll see Blake get in on the action later, but I wanted to show one more quick look at Minor creating his own offense as well. Here he is just on the straight back down getting back to that left-handed hook that he’s been shooting so well around the rim in recent games. I like that even though he’s not going to take that jumper at the foul line (nor should he), he doesn’t stand around and pass it out – he dribbles in, eliminates the space between the defender, and works his way to his shot.
While I’m going to spend the rest of this piece sorting out the mystery that is our SF position, these developments above (along with Blake playing a little better getting to get his run vs. backups) are the most important evolutions to our team as the season continues to progress. If our frontcourt can go from being almost strictly a negative that basically had to play smallball most of the time to a strength with some versatile pieces, that has the potential to be a big deal.
Small Forward Timeshare
N.C. States guards were pressuring us full-court virtually all of the game, making it hard to get into our offensive sets, forcing Beekman to exert energy, and creating some chaos when he didn’t. Isaac McKneely had a pretty poor game himself, turning the ball over 3 times and struggling to get into his offensive game, going 4-16 from the floor. That being said, we established with the Georgia Tech game how quickly that can change and how it appears he’s an immovable staple in this lineup for CTB. He led the team with 42 minutes on Wednesday and, while I don’t think he needs that many minutes on a regular move-forward basis, I have come around to the idea that you mostly just ride with McKneely because you really never know when he’s going to heat up.
But Andrew Rohde played poorly enough early on that CTB decided to rethink his rotations, and we’re going to take a look at those decisions now:
Andrew Rohde
Rohde just had a rough game in general. Many have lamented his lack of scoring himself but, when playing his best this season he’s been a quality defender who takes care of the ball and facilitates well to the rest of his teammates. There have been several games this season, however, where he just hasn’t looked as effective on either side of the ball. When it crops up most on the defensive end, you see it on-ball where he’s normally solid. In this game, Casey Morsell was roasting him.
This is the first bucket of the game and it really just shouldn’t ever come this easily against our defense. There’s nothing exotic nor complicated about the offense or any rotations. Morsell just has the ball static on the wing and gets a first step on Rohde, then rides him under the hoop and finishes with the right hand.
Way too easy.
He sat pretty early for him due to another reason I’ll cover momentarily, but this was after he came back in. Again, he just loses the first step to Morsell, can’t get into good defending position and gives far too easy of a layup.
Now we have seen Rohde in a defensive funk like this previously, most notably over the period during the exam/holiday breaks. And, while we saw his minutes dip to 22 against Northeastern and 23 against Memphis, we never saw them dip as extremely as 12. Some of that was due to Dante Harris not being available then, and some of it was that he was also being careless with the ball in this game.
This was still very early on and he was subbed out right after. It’s a great defensive play by Reece to get in on the dribble and start the transition the other way. He finds Rohde on the run out who is normally very solid with his decision making here, but he tries to catch the pass from Beekman and deliver a pass of his own one-handed. He never really controls the ball and short-hops it at Minor’s feet. This leads to a run-out the other way – a 4-point swing and a momentum killer.
It’s this kind of carelessness or, at least, unsoundness, with the ball that CTB will not endure and earned him the quick hook. He came back in three game minutes later and had the continued defensive struggles as shown above, sat the rest of the half, didn’t start the second half, got one more run as a first sub in, turned the ball over again, and at 10:22 left in regulation never came back on.
I do think there was just a general sense of not being ready for this game with Rohde. Not only did he not take care of the ball and struggle on defense, but he also struggled to break N.C. State’s pressure and it often disrupted our offensive flow, making us late at getting into sets. Altogether, it was a tipping point for CTB turning to other options. Now, we know that Rohde is going to remain a big part of this rotation moving forward (at least, I think we do). But this is a sign, and a positive one I believe, that he’s no longer entrenched at a high number of minutes even when he’s off his game.
Leon Bond
Bond’s story was short-lived this game. He only played 3 minutes and got a quick hook for similar reasons that Rohde did – ball security. Here he is on his first offensive possession of the game. They’re running Inside Triangle with McKneely, Minor, and Bond in the mix and with Harris and Groves on the wings. They post Bond up in the mid-post on the 6’6″ Dennis Parker Jr. (#11). I absolutely love this concept as, even though they’re the same size, Bond typically thrives in the post when he’s able to get players his size or smaller on him. He starts to back Parker down while Minor sets a back screen for McKneely that catches Morsell. Morsell calls out the switch to Burns, though, who is already sagged deep and is able to get a hand on the Bond pass, deflecting it off of McKneely for the turnover.
The execution on this play was lacking. It was too risky of a pass and Bond didn’t read what Burns was doing or, if he did, tried to fit the ball into too tight of a window. It’s still one of those things where I like the concept, though, and feel like more reps for Bond would help.
He had another bad turnover in short succession, though, after missing an open mid-range jumper earlier. Here, he just doesn’t have the court awareness/fails to notice Groves’s man sagging into the play. Now, on this play, Minor sets a really good screen for Bond and both he and Minor should have a two-on-one on DJ Burns going at the rim. Between the two of them, they should have been able to get a shot close to the rim or drawn a foul. If you pause at 9 seconds into the clip you can see Morsell lingering a little bit to tag the Minor curl, so Bond could have just stuck with his dribble a little longer or kicked a return pass to McKneely, depending on what Morsell did. Instead, Bond flares his dribble out wider with the goal of elevating into his jumper. Now, I’ve been pretty critical of this philosophy in general with our guys and will continue to be but, given that Bond isn’t as good with his handle as our other guards and does have a very nice mid-range jumper normally, I still don’t really mind this as much, in theory. I still think him just trying to explode by Burns with the left hand there or waiting for Minor to free up would be better but, either way, he has to be aware of the corner help there. If he was, he could have even dumped this ball off to Groves for an open corner three. There were lots of options but, instead, he gets the shot stripped on the way up.
Bond was pulled after this and didn’t return which I definitely get. He wasn’t going to provide the ball security that CTB was looking for in this game. What I will say, though, is that especially the way things progressed, I would have liked to see him get one more shot in the second half. Against Wake Forest Minor had two equally bad plays out of the gate and was pulled, but we went back to him and he played better, paving the way for the bigger role he’s carved out here. I’d like to see us go back to Bond more often and give him more shots to get comfortable offensively because he has shown in the past that he can provide a pop there and he hasn’t really had the chance to demonstrate it for a sustained period against like-sized players in conference play.
On the flip side, his defense acted as a deterrent (during the short time he was out there). We had just pulled Rohde because N.C. State was isolating and attacking him with Casey Morsell. When Bond entered guarding Morsell, they went away from him entirely. We got possessions like this one, below, where Morsell went from being a key point of attack to camping in the corner.
That’s not good spacing or a good close out by Groves and we were probably lucky to have State miss there, and it’s not really evidence of Bond doing anything other than collecting the rebound… he just wasn’t on the floor that much. But he did collect two defensive boards in 3 minutes and State did go from playing heavily through Morsell previously to not really involving him while Bond was on the floor.
My main thought here is that, while I understand why we didn’t see more Bond, I’d like to get him in line for the Minor plan where we’re willing to give him a try down the road if/when we’re still looking for solutions at SF. We’ve tried this periodically over the past several games and the defense has always been good – we need some more offensive reps.
Dante Harris
Now things start to get a little sticky. Dante Harris played 20 minutes in this game and appeared to be the option that CTB wanted to be his answer to how State was playing us. And it makes sense; Harris’s ball handling and quickness were better at breaking the N.C. State pressure and he was able to give Beekman 5 minutes of rest in this one. And he played fine in his just over 9 minutes in the first half. He had an assist to Minor that was nice, and another one to McKneely, grabbed a couple of rebounds, missed a couple of jumpers, but largely faded into the background as that solid ball-handler. But in the second half he came in with 13:05 left in the game and the team up 35-21. He left the game with 4:25 left and we were down 40-41. The team took the lead back with him sitting, making it 47-43, and he came back in at 1:39 and played most of the remaining time when they tied it up. He sat for all but three seconds of OT.
This almost cost us, and I took some criticism for pointing it out that I didn’t like us putting him back in the game at 1:33. What I also should have said is that we needed to identify and get him out of the game while State was continuously chipping away at our lead and when we scored FIVE points over that almost 9-minute stretch he was in. He was also the only player in the game for the totality of this stretch of time. No, it wasn’t all his fault. He didn’t chase down Buchanan and block him from behind on the open dunk. He didn’t take or miss every shot and he didn’t concede every bucket the other way. Yes, we needed someone to handle the ball, Rohde wasn’t playing well, Bond was turning it over (Taine was playing well which was the ultimate solution that we’ll get to). But the danger that we missed was a player not overtly making (too many) mistakes, but also not being effective and making things harder for our overall team to function, which can be a hard thing to find live.
In fact, he even started off pretty well with this nifty find to Buchanan for the finish off of the ball screen rejection. I like how he hesitated here to hold the defender before finding Buchanan on that pass (and also liked Buchanan going right up for that finish).
Fine first half, good ball handling against a pressing team, making this play… it makes a lot of sense that CTB wouldn’t initially question what was going on. But, as the scoring drought persisted and State continued to get back in it, it definitely would have been good to make a change. Let’s take a look:
Here’s a possession as the game is starting to get tighter. We had been up 14, are now up 7. The only two points we’ve scored since just under 15 minutes to go were the Buchanan bucket above. Dante rejects the ball screen and takes this midrange shot with about half of the shot clock left. Now, this is the first clip in part of a larger discussion/theme. I don’t mind a midrange jumper from Dante toward the end of a shot clock when we’ve been able to get nothing else and he creates something, but this shot felt rushed and he also had other options. You’ll see that McKneely’s man comes all the way across the floor to help on this. Harris could have taken a few more dribbles to keep him coming and then dished to McKneely for an open three in the corner (or Beekman on the wing if the rotation came soon enough).
This shot really isn’t what you’re looking for in this situation even though, in a vacuum, it’s not terrible. It’s quicker than you want, it’s a lower % than you want, and it could have created a better look if he’d been reading the defense better.
Next, we see a look out of the Triangle with Beekman and Harris on either wing. Minor hits Beekman with a good backdoor cut and both Dunn and Harris’s men help on the drive. It probably could have been passed off to Dunn here but pause at 8 seconds into the clip and see how far Morsell is under the hoop when Beekman picks out Harris. His lack of an outside shot really hurts here and is a great example of what Taine was offering in this game as we’ll see later. Instead, Harris pump fakes the shot to take Morsell out of the play and drives in on the baseline but there’s really not much threat for him to do anything at that point other than to take another mid-range jumper, which misses.
This play starts to show the bind that our offense was finding itself in because we were creating opportunities but Harris just wasn’t the right piece to convert them on this day.
To be clear, it’s not like he also didn’t turn the ball over during this time…
So, yeah, keeping Harris on the floor for a full straight almost 9 minutes while the offense just continually struggled and settled for the kinds of shots above was something I thought we needed to catch onto, especially since at least Taine had been playing well. But, after we conceded the lead, Dante came out, and then we re-took the lead and built it back up to 47-43, with Taine on the floor. It was a big surprise to me, then, to see us put Dante back in for offense at 1:39 left to go in the game. Again, it made some sense to break the pressure, but we just played the past almost 3 minutes without issue and had all of the momentum both offensively and defensively. Not just breaking the pressure, but then we went with a look designed to isolate Harris and not Beekman. This is the look we got, below.
Now, personally, I disagree with even having Harris on the floor at this point given how everything progressed – but never would I ever want Harris in this position rather than Beekman. Especially considering he’d just made a great play two offensive sets before where he hung, finished in the lane and drew contact. Harris was 0-4 from the floor, 0-5 after this shot and hadn’t done anything all game to indicate that he was up for this moment – certainly not to take the ball out of the hands of the best player on your team who has done this for you many times in the past.
Then N.C. State gets the ball back on the weird call, we sub Taine in for defense (why not Bond if we’re going offense/defense? That’s just a musing, though, really I think you just leave Taine in on both offense and defense at this point), Burns gets a bucket in the paint, we bring Dante back in on offense and isolate Reece who misses a good look, Dunn misses the put back, and N.C. State gets the ball. This time we keep Dante out on the floor on the defensive side and then this happens where he doesn’t box out at all on the rebound and gives up the board and put back to 6’2″ Michael O’Connell (#12):
So, yeah. I do think our utilization of Harris in this game almost cost us the contest and, while certainly not the only, was the biggest reason N.C. State was able to get back into the game. I don’t write this to make the case we should stop playing him longer term or even that turning to him was a mistake, at least initially. Ostensibly, it made a lot of sense given N.C. State’s ball pressure and how his more trusted option in this case, Rohde, wasn’t in the position he thought that he could play him. But there were also a lot of signs that the team was struggling with Harris on the floor for a prolonged period of time that weren’t as visible as a bad turnover (and were much more felt on the scoreboard than when either Rohde or Bond were playing). Most clearly, the drought. If you’re watching a 15-point swing in the game real-time and then the team’s play improves again after making a specific sub, it’s probably worth sticking with that change. It’s not like there were NO alternatives. There had been plenty of signs that the team was playing well with Taine on the floor – enough that he started the second half – so to go away from him for so long while things were going so poorly and then go away from him again after we got back into a good position with him was all a little slow to react, in my opinion.
Harris finished a team worst -11 BP/M on the game in 20 minutes played in a 6-point victory. Rohde was -5 in 12 minutes and Bond was -1 in 3 minutes. Taine Murray was +19 in 19 minutes!!! So, while BP/M can be a misleading stat and often doesn’t tell the whole story, in my opinion, the story that it was telling was very accurate this time around and matched just watching how the team was functioning offensively. It was such a difference that Taine’s minutes on the floor were a 30-point differential better than Dante’s!
Now, again, this story as a whole is one of victory and success. All of the credit in the world to CTB for finding Taine as the best option and for trusting it toward the end of the game and throughout most of overtime. With that, huge credit for breaking his tendencies around Rohde. Those of you who have followed my stuff will know that I have not been a big advocate for Taine playing time and I probably wouldn’t have found this solution in this game. So please don’t misunderstand my point; I’m not expecting any of our decision makers to be infallible. I’m just saying that, while the decision to increase Taine’s playing time in this game absolutely won us this contest, there is still a lesson to be learned from it and a tale of caution. Not moving off of Harris soon enough almost had the opposite impact. And, as we continue to evaluate who earns and sustains playing time at the SF position during any given game, ideally using the “hot hand assessment” (I say SF, when Harris plays he kicks McKneely to SF but it’s the same lineup opening), I’d like to see us emphasize overt mistakes a little less and overall impact on how the team is able to execute collectively and performing a little more.
Alright, now for the fun stuff!
Taine Murray Extravaganza!
So, Taine Murray was exactly what the doctor ordered in this one. Now, don’t worry, I’m about to gush about the stabilizing (and clutch) factor that he provided as well as some other things first, a couple of notes. There was still this, which was a lot like what Rohde experienced earlier in the game he just got better help on the blowby from Dunn:
Taine’s biggest liability is always going to be his defense and I do think it’ll be the thing that keeps him off of the floor more than on the floor if/when he’s not on his offensive game. It’s for that reason (at least mainly) that I’m not sitting here expecting that Murray is going to be the long term plug-and-play solution at the SF. But, I do think he’s put himself in position to be called on more regularly and given the opportunity to earn chunk minutes – even over half of the game as I think he probably should have been utilized in this one.
One other note – and this isn’t just specific to Taine – this is a good and necessary pump fake on the three-point attempt, but rather than stepping in and launching from the midrange, I want Taine sliding up the three-point line away from the defender, remaining outside of it, and shooting that shot. Here’s a good example of where that was applicable:
Pump fake and re-locate, absolutely, but do it such that the shot is worth the same amount of points.
Okay, but those things noted, this was Taine’s first defensive possession of the game, it was on Morsell, and it was a good one. First he fights through two screens chasing Morsell, then he collaborates with Dunn to defend a dribble hand-off ball screen. Dunn shows well and Taine angles very well to beat Morsell to the spot at the free-throw line. He’s very strong on the ball, holding his ground when Morsell contacts him, bouncing him backward with his strength and then getting a good contest on the shot, forcing an airball.
That’s heady and strong defense right there! It was definitely a good sign that he was locked-in and ready to play.
He played solid to very good defense most of the contest, most importantly in OT, below, this possession against Morsell again where he fights through a screen, and stays on his hip enough that, when Minor shows as help, Morsell has to take that fadeaway that Murray contests well; forcing the miss.
I really love that clip because it’s against a very good player in a big moment and it’s good persistence and recovery to get back into this play defensively and then force a miss.
And just recently I was comparing his effort on rebounds to McKneely’s, the latter soaring in to secure contentious boards. Watch Taine now with us up four points and trying to salt away a win fly in there similarly and strongly to secure the glass:
He hit both of those free throws, too!
But in a game where points were so hard to come by, his efficient offensive contributions were most felt with his 11 points on 3-4 shooting from the floor. Here he is earlier on knocking down this three in the corner – so important that we’re able to convert these kinds of opportunities and none of the other three guys we’ve discussed above have been doing so reliably.
And then here he is, below, playing off of that with the pump fake but, rather than taking those couple of steps in and launching the midrange jumper, he’s able to be patient, draw two defenders to him, and then find Reece back in the middle of the lane for a quality shot that misses but draws enough defense that Minor can collect the offensive rebound and finish (more Minor rebounding!).
Here he is back in the game for Dante Harris right after N.C. State had taken the lead. Jordan Minor makes a nice play denying the entry pass to Burns and McKneely runs out ahead on the break. Taine does a nice job presenting as the trailer and then calmly navigating the transition finish at the rim. This bucket took the lead back after having lost it for the first time since early in the first half – breaking almost a 4 minute scoring drought.
And then this, likely the biggest shot of the game, below. They’re running Sides and Taine passes to Beekman on a curl screen. As Reece probes the lane, Taine’s man sags off of him to bother Beekman’s drive, and Taine relocates to the opposite side of the logo at the point to create more space between his defender so that when he takes the kick out from Reece he can nail the dagger:
As someone who has said that I think Taine Murray should flat-out be out of the rotation at this point, this is a mea culpa. There were no other options on the roster on Wednesday night who were going to be able to deliver the same result. We don’t win this game without him.
We’re nearing that time of the season where CTB typically narrows his rotation down to about 7-8 players but I’m not sure that he can this year nor do I want him to. This SF position is too tricky and each of the players offer things that the others don’t, have different matchups that favor them, and are inconsistent with their quality of play. There are going to be games where each of the four of them are the perfect solution for the moment and are on top of their game. My only hope is that we’re fluid enough to find that right solution and take advantage of it… as we were Wednesday night, but almost weren’t.
In Conclusion
Small Forward continues to be a work in progress with many options to address the need. I hope we stay flexible and allow that solution to remain variable as the season progresses – but Jordan Minor’s addition to the core rotation has made a lot of improvements in the frontcourt. Ryan Dunn, especially, is feeling the benefits of less responsibility/burden defensively and is playing more freely and with better matchups offensively. Blake Buchanan, who I didn’t show a lot this game but that will change if he keeps improving, is benefitting from getting to match up with backups as opposed to starting centers. His energy and aggression are improving as a result, also correlational to Minor’s emergence. Jake Groves’s time appears to be diminishing, but he’s also been able to play his natural position at PF more often, still fills a specific role on the team, and his veteran experience are well-equipped to step into the moments where he’ll be needed even without much repetition leading up.
We don’t know, yet, and I don’t believe we’ve seen how good this team can be this season; but it does feel now like we’re on the right path forward. Unfortunately, there is no room for (significant) error left, which makes this game against @Louisville an absolute must win… before February. Here’s to staying open…
Leave a Reply