So, just looking at who we've lost, and who we have coming in to replace those minutes:
At guard, we're losing Daniels, Goode, and Grier... but keeping Sanders/Williams.
Last year: Sanders and Williams accounted for 1772 minutes, so we're looking for about 900 more minutes at the guard position, since a lot of Daniels/Grier's minutes were spent at the SF spot.
This year: Expectations are that time will come mostly from Johnson, with possibly some time from Bullock. Our guard rotation will be focused on guard minutes, though, without having to double over nearly as much to SF.
At small forward, we're losing no one...and getting Laurent back in his natural position, plus Thiam, Omoruyi, and Bullock.
Last year: We had a platoon of guards at the SF spot, usually Grier and Daniels, with Laurent taking up some minutes during rare stretches with two bigs in the game.
This year: We'll have Laurent, Thiam, Bullock, and Omoruyi competing for time on the wing... which is a huge step up at that position, mostly because we were mostly having smaller guards play out of position last year but also with an expected upgrade in talent.
At power forward, we're losing Foreman... but getting Freeman back from injury, and Sa.
Last year: We were mostly seeing Laurent for most of the season, playing out of position. Freeman looked good for the first 8 games, but we lost him for the rest of the season... and Foreman had some time there once Diallo came back and we could have two bigs on the court at the same time. Still, we probably had a true PF in that position less than 30% of the time.
This year: We'll be seeing Freeman and Sa sharing minutes, with possibly some time from one or more SFs if we go small or one of the Cs if we go big. This is also a huge step up at this position, mostly because we were undersized at this spot most of the year last year but also because we'll have much more flexibility to go big/small at different points.
At center, we're losing Lewis... but gaining Gettys and Doorson, and a healthy Diallo.
Last year: We had an ailing Lewis and out-of-position Foreman for most of the season, with Diallo coming in later in the season off his injury. We even had Laurent at the five some of the time. We really didn't have a healthy true center for most of the year, and were constantly battling foul trouble even once Diallo came back.
This year: We'll have a rotation of Gettys, Doorson, and Diallo at center, allowing us to pretty much always have size in the middle... while also maintaining size at the PF spot. That's an upgrade in performance over Lewis (because of his injury) and Foreman (who was out of position), but also gets rid of the foul trouble issues.
We're basically keeping our best player at the PG spot, expecting a slight improvement to the minutes at SG, and expecting a huge improvement in the productivity of our minutes at the 3, 4, and 5. And that ignores the likely improvement in overall quality of play with the switch to a staff made up of Pikiell / Hobbs / Knight / Young (and even just the ability for the players to run complete practices without a short/injured roster).
Expecting leaps and bounds improvement in the quality of the product on the court this year - truly a night and day difference. Will that translate to wins immediately? That remains to be seen. (As an example, we could lose @Purdue by 18, and that'd be a massive improvement over losing by 50 at home... but it'd still be a loss).
Excited to see the team play this season - more excited than I have been in years. Really hoping we can get a strong start against a manageable OOC schedule to get some media buzz going and get people back to the RAC... this team could really use a little home court advantage this year.
