He certainly did not have great night and his starting spot and minutes were cut. However, this team is going to need him this year. They didn’t need much from him last night, but they will later. JMike is still a freshman and Derek may need to pick up the slack when JMike’s having off nights. I see those two being in a bit of a rotation through stretches of the season, such as today is a JMike game or it’s a Simpson game today. I was most impressed by Simpson as a team leader last night as he was the biggest cheerleader on the bench for JMike whenever he made a play. He didn’t mope, wasn’t angry, as it was all about we and not me as he was jumping off the bench and clapping for the guy who replaced him and took his minutes. Simpson will have his good moments for us too this year…..they will need him for sure.
Derek Simpson
- Thread starter RAC93
- Start date
They’ll need Derek to close out games when the other team starts fouling. Davis is young and not shooting free throws particularly well at the moment, and Williams is a career 60% free throw shooter. They’ll need him and Noah on the floor to knock down free throws late.
I think last night was signal that Pike isn’t thinking about being an 80 pt team anymore. He put his best defensive guards on the floor and right now that’s not Derek. But, to your point, we will need Derek at some point. He can score 20 and I don’t see that in JMike’s game right now.
Hard to score 80 when the game is so physical. He played the right players last night. Next game is a new day.
