Simpson went backwards this year. JWill was the same he's been every year he played, except he shot more in less playing time than he ever had before. We are all hoping he takes a jump in productivity, if he can develop a passable outside game, we'd be very happy with him.
Basketball Rutgers Basketball G Derek Simpson enters Transfer Portal
- Thread starter kcg88
- Start date
Not really. Simpson shot much better from three this year than he did last year and JW had his worst three-point shooting season. Who is likely to improve more? I’d say Jay Will. He still coming off an injury, and he was forced into taking tougher shots this year, and his best season was better than any season that Simpson has had both in terms of overall shooting percentage, and three-pointers.
Last edited:
I can’t even believe this is being debated. J Will put up 12.2 ppg against all major conference teams. His FG percentage was identical to Cam Spencer’s 2022-23 season. I understand Cam took more 3s and made a high percentage of of them but both of them put the ball in the basket 44.4% of the time. Cam scored 13.2 ppg but his average includes preseason cupcakes and he played 5 more minutes per game. Cam was like our most efficient scorer ever so….
Or that other good option when you drive to the hole - pass to the open man.
First people said Gavin got tougher shots, now JWill who only shoots from inside 15 feet. Off season needs to end already.
You don't understand basketball, do you? More points on less shots = good. More shots, less points = bad. One guys usage was 25% higher and he produced less points per game than the other guy. His true shooting % and Efg% were 10% lower. One guy is the point guard but jacked up more shots per 100 possessions.
I will say, play both guys together and they'd probably thrive.
I feel like I have said this a million times, but it is an open look because the other team is giving to you. They very much want you to take an inefficient shot that you can’t even hit. As @Scagg said, it is as good as a turnover.
You don't understand basketball, do you? More points on less shots = good. More shots, less points = bad. One guys usage was 25% higher and he produced less points per game than the other guy. His true shooting % and Efg% were 10% lower. One guy is the point guard but jacked up more shots per 100 possessions.
I will say, play both guys together and they'd prosper
Are you responding to my post where I talked about shooting percentages from 2 and 3? Or is this something new?
They both put the ball through the hoop 44.4% of the time. For a team that historically suffers huge scoring droughts that metric is very important. And Cam is one of the most efficient players out there. I’m not saying J Will is as efficient but he’s a completely different type of player. And he scores at the same rate as Cam.
Derek Simpson only scored on 30.5% of his attempts - worst in all of college basketball. He was not the better player to retain. 44.4% vs 30.5% are galaxies apart. This shouldn’t be hard to comprehend. J Will isn’t a 3 point shooter. He hasn’t attempted that many over his whole career. Simpson is an even worse career 3 point shooter though and has attempted more 3s in a shorter time period.
Sorry, wasn't referencing you in particular, more a statement. You mentioned JWill getting the tough shots, I've had others say Gavin got nothing but tough contested looks. It just seemed to me that people think Simpson's misses were all open (many were) but everyone else shot below average because their degree of difficulty was so much higher than normal.
The 44% means nothing when one of the two is taking shots worth 50% more.
I JWill is a career 25% shooter from three. His 44% doesn't mean much because there are no extra points there, just two's. His Efg% was lower than the conferences 13th rated team %. THIRTEEN teams in the conference were more efficient! I've said it repeatedly, just because he was better than Derek and JMike doesn't mean he was good.
I have no problem with JWill being the one to be retained, one of the three had to go, I didn't particularly care which one, but I will almost always prefer the guy that chose RU from the start.
That def wasn’t my point. My point was that Simpson, now and previously, shot worse than JWill in every metric.
JW scored more PPG and had a better FG%and FT% this year than his years at Temple. He also did it against better competition in the B1G.
Watching the Colorado /boise game and Colorado guard Simpson has missed the last 4 shots from about 6 ft. Does the name Simpson have a curse on making easy baskets?
Was at Princeton UNLV game
Went over to King Rice and Rick Callahan (Asst coach) - who were at the game - and recommended they go after Derek Simpson.
Got a little wink.
I think Derek would fit in well at Monmouth.
Went over to King Rice and Rick Callahan (Asst coach) - who were at the game - and recommended they go after Derek Simpson.
Got a little wink.
I think Derek would fit in well at Monmouth.
I don't think anyone really questioned that, I more question the future value of each. JWill is good at what he does. Simpson, IF, he ups his 3 point shooting, could be more valuable. Something fun to watch in the future.
Well, the ppg, I'd hope so, he took 25% more shots a game than he had in the past. His fg% was higher because he took more 2's which he's good at, and dropped his % of 3's, which he's getting worse at. He shot FT well this year.
He’s only taken 110 threes his whole career.
As far as efficiency - why would you compare a PG to a whole team which includes bigs who typically shoot 50%+? Also - most of his “inefficient play” occurred when the entire team had packed it in. The difference between his “efficient” first 3-4 games and Simpson’s outlier stand out performances is that when Simpson occasionally played well on offense he made acrobatic shots. William’s can penetrate and score. He can finish in transition. We have 2 iso playmakers coming in. He’s an excellent complement. Simpson - who can’t put the ball in the net to save his life and prefers an iso style himself would not be a good fit. If you don’t see this well I don’t know what to tell you.
And if you think two iso players added to a iso pg are good fits, I don't know what to tell you
OK we’ve now come full circle.
If Simpson became a quality three-point shooter, and JWill stayed the same, then you’d be onto something. But Why is Simpson likely to improve his three-point shooting, and JWill not?
Derek has played significantly more games than JWill. Other than the fact that he’s short compared to JWill, nothing to suggest one is more likely to develop their outside shot than the other.
Last edited:
And if he grows two feet taller, gains 75 pounds, develops post moves to complement his new long range game he might make Big10 third team.
Unless that happens, two more years of JW is much more valuable than the same with DSelfish.
Talent gap is very wide.
It pains me to agree with Shelby...but that's a good analogy.
If Simpson becomes a good shooter from 2 point range, and from 3 point range, and develops into a better passer and distributor, then he'd be better than JWill. And he'd be a different player altogether.
Go watch the first 3-4 games he played. J Will isn’t an iso PG. He started out entirely pass first. There was nobody to pass to. Nobody could execute.
J Will has actually played more minutes in his career. Simpson improved his 3 point % by seven points this year. JWill's has dropped each year. That's the only basis, one showed signs of improvement, one regressed.
I believe Simpson is already a better passer and distributor, but yeah, long way to go on overall shooting.
Shelby is the TKR Messiah. Every once in a rare while you do agree with the truth. Good work on this one.
Sorry but no - he’s not better at anything. You clearly didn’t watch J Will play when it actually mattered - first Nebraska game, NW etc.
Did you punch him in the face for allowing those sideline bench antics at the RAC?
Guessing not.
More of this four game stuff. Game one, JWill scored 10 points on 12 shots and had 2 assists (Simpson had 19 on 13 shots and 6 assists). Both Cliff and Mag had 15. Game two, JWill had 14 points and 1 assist (highly pass first). Mag w 15, Derek w 3 assists and two less to's than JWill. Game 3, JWill played well, taking 15 shots to score 18, but did add 7 assists. Cliff went 13/13/and 8 blocks, Noah scored 17 on 6 shots, Mag w 12, Hyatt 11, Simpson w 3 boards, 5 assists, 3 steals - EVERYONE contributed. Game 4, was another good JWill game w 15 and 6, and five other guys scored 8 or more. Believe this was game where Oskar had 9 points in 1st half to keep us in and J Will played well in the 2nd? Simpson and Noah w 3 assist each also.
While JWill led team in scoring those four games, that was more because he took 12 more shots than Cliff and Mag didn't play game 4. Simpson led in assists and had double the steals anyone else did those four. Everyone contributed, but JWill was a nice breath of fresh ajr.
The most interesting thing to me, in those four, with lots of guys contributing, Gavin went 1-16 w 2 points scored. Nothing from him.
JWill has 110 attempts in 1530 career minutes (.255). Simpson has 131 attempts in 1515 minutes (.252)
Neither are deep threats.
Go watch games 1 and 2 again. Don’t just look at the stat book. J Will may not have officially recorded that many assists but his distribution of the ball in those games - fresh off having not played in years gave the offense a fresh start. He looked to pass in all those games. Most of his iso moves were with time expiring on the shot clock. He executed several of them.
Simpson’s numbers are as bad as they are because he can’t finish simple lay ups. It’s a massive liability. Dealbreaking level if we have hopes for a special season.
If you think I'm watching any of this season again, you need your head examined.
One of them had to go, no doubt, but I wouldn't hold my breath for "special season" Team needs a lot right now, so we need to see what comes. I would have had much higher expectations if one of Cliff or Mag came back, they both need replacements and we still need a shooter too. Can we find a defender who rebounds excellently and shoot 3's in one guy, which would be ideal? I'm not sure.
All I know is after seeing J Will play only a handful of games, my entire outlook for next season changed. And I wasn’t alone. The team fell apart down the stretch and J Will was no better than the rest at the point when we quit thereafter but I don’t think any one guy could’ve made a difference based on where we were at. What I saw from J Will in 4 straight games tells me we found our starting guard to play alongside Dylan and we’ll probably bring in a wing / combo guard type who can shoot to play the 3. That’s how I see it. I didn’t see this optimism until J Will stepped on the court, so no, I do not think comparatively Simpson could’ve been that guy. J Will is simply a better player and that will prove true next year provided we’re able to replace Cliff with someone who isn’t a historical utility player. Or a mid major move up who doesn’t pan out. To green’s point - if we don’t have a presence down low nothing else will matter. That’s the biggest priority.
That's fair, his play didn't have that much of impact on me, other than he was better than A Will who had started the last couple games, but that's OK. Just listened to Richie's POD and they make it sound like Ace will play the 3, which means a knock down shooter would come in the form of a back up or the forward role. That, to me, is a scary thought in that I don't expect JWill, Dylan, or Ace to be extremely efficient scorers. Jwill and Dylan I expect to be stronger in the midrange/rim, and don't see Ace as a 40% shooter from 3 year 1. Definitely need the big man first and foremost, but have a feeling we are looking at depth pieces otherwise and may be looking at JWill, Dylan, Gavin, Ace, and big man. Would be a long lineup, and Pike can work with that from a defensive POV.
Should be fun to see what can be pulled from the portal.
Yeboah averaged under 24 mpg. That’s the type of forward we need. Suppose we find that - it still would leave plenty of time available for Ace to slide over to play the 3. if Ace is getting 28 and new transfer 24, that would leave 28 or so total minutes available at the 3/4. At guard, Dylan and J Will will probably play 28ish each which still leaves another 24 guard minutes.
So figure 28 + 24 = roughly 52 minutes in total to be split amongst new sharp shooter, J Mike, Gavin and the two incoming frosh. There’s no reason a proven Cam type should be concerned about getting beaten out for starter minutes. The playing time is there.
I think Gavin is getting 24 min next year too, so take that down to 28 for new guy, JMike, and the freshman.
