It's a charity intrasquad on September 28th so I'm calling it an overreaction, but my biggest takeaway from the day is that Pike has to acknowledge our center play isn't what it needs to be and go small sooner rather than later. At least until Acuff comes back, I think the clear best 5 are Dylan, Jwill, Hayes, Ace, and Martini. I also want to say that this isn't exclusively a negative towards Ogbole because I definitely think he got better, but more that Hayes impressed the hell out of me. He made a couple nice 3's(the shot looks as advertised), but what stood out to me was how much better he looked physically and athletically than he did 6 months ago from his SD tape. He's by no means a + defender but it looks like he will be able to hang and also got to the rim nicely when needed.
The concerns with having 2 non shooters on the court with Ace and Dylan are legitimate and I don't think Ogbole does enough defensively to warrant him being on the floor a ton. He will still have an important role this year having to bang down low with some bigger 5's for stretches but his usage should be more game to game situational dependent. The defense would obviously be a concern with Martini playing an undersized 5 but he's shown he can do it at a solid level and having 3 big athletic switchable players on the court will help elevate him. The ability to open up driving lanes for Ace and Dylan and surround them with more shooting far outweigh the defensive concerns IMO. I'd love to hear other's opinions of those who attended. We're in for an exciting year.
The concerns with having 2 non shooters on the court with Ace and Dylan are legitimate and I don't think Ogbole does enough defensively to warrant him being on the floor a ton. He will still have an important role this year having to bang down low with some bigger 5's for stretches but his usage should be more game to game situational dependent. The defense would obviously be a concern with Martini playing an undersized 5 but he's shown he can do it at a solid level and having 3 big athletic switchable players on the court will help elevate him. The ability to open up driving lanes for Ace and Dylan and surround them with more shooting far outweigh the defensive concerns IMO. I'd love to hear other's opinions of those who attended. We're in for an exciting year.
