I just got back from the game.
It's no wonder the coaches are calling Hunter Thompson D.T. He does look different. He's in the best shape I've ever seen him in. His minutes were kind of limited because it looked like he was in foul trouble. He could have a huge year and be in contention for MW player of the year. Linder is playing him to his strengths. I can only remember one play all game where Hunter posted up and got the ball.
Marble and Foster didn't play due to Covid.
Marcus Williams could have went for 50. They didn't have a player that could keep him from going to the rack whenever he wanted. He made some nice hustle plays and some sneaky steals as well. He just missed on a monster Oop to Oden. They'll dial in the chemistry on the oop, but he's an explosive point that likes to distribute the ball. If you collapse to help with him attacking the rim, the ball goes straight to the open man. He's an assist machine. It will be interesting to see who starts when Marble is back. Maybe Marble will start at the two and Jeffries will go to the bench. It's only one game, but it looks like Marcus needs to be on the floor. His ability to attack the rim and find the open man makes this offense click. Kwane is pretty damn good at attacking the rack as well. It will be fun to see how it shakes out.
Maldonado's numbers might suffer this year. The last few years, he was one of the best offensive weapons we had. In this offense, he's not going to have to take a lot of shots. They'll still post him up and isolate him. He's still great at attacking the rim. He just isn't anywhere near one of the best three point shooters on this team. I think we'll see a lot more of Maldonado in the post, and a lot less of him shooting from the three point line, unless his outside shot has improved(too early to tell).
Drake Jeffries can shoot it. He could average 20 points a game for us this year.
Eoin(Owen) Nelson impressed me more than I thought he would. He's pretty damn big and showed nice touch around the rim for a guy his size with limited experience.
One of the benefits of having that many good shooters on the roster is free throw percentage. It looks like we have a bunch of guys that will hurt you at the free throw line. That looks like a team strength.
I was surprised that we didn't have a lot more turnovers. The first game of the season it can get pretty ugly. I don't know what the final the final numbers we're, but it wasn't a noticeable problem.
Like turnovers, I didn't feel pissed off about our lack of rebounding. It's too early in the season to tell, but we didn't get destroyed on the boards like we have been the last few years.
They had a few slow stretches(the start of the second half) which is to be expected for a season opener. You would love to see them focused for the entire game and more consistent, but it was a good start.
Not the toughest opponent, but at least we jumped out on them early and the game was never competitive. You can't really tell what kind of team we have yet, but it was a good start.
