It'll be nice to have 3 bigs share the minutes in case of foul trouble.
RELEASE: Rasir Bolton will play for the Cyclones this season
- Thread starter JStanz51
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It'll be nice to have 3 bigs share the minutes in case of foul trouble.
Bolton...
Wigginton...
I hope Bolton improves greatly from freshman-to-sophomore. But the numbers are what they are between the two of them. Comparatively speaking...
-- Wigginton was/is a much better finisher at the rim
-- neither is particularly impressive about the long twos, though Bolton thankfully seems not to be the "chucker" that Wigginton was as a freshman from the two
-- to be fair, Wigginton kind of had to be... the offense had little else going on
-- I bet Bolton would be a pretty similar ~40% from three if he had a higher assisted rate, which I imagine he will with Tyrese Haliburton around for him
I honestly think Bolton's greatest strength right now might be as a spot-up outside guy to space the floor, rather than somebody who can get to the rim and finish.
Looks like he got to the rim lots last year... he just did not finish that much. That stat of 5% assisted at the rim tells me the kid has a lot of Leeroy Jenkins in him.
I could also be reading into the CCL too much and obviously only saw his makes and none of his misses from the highlights shown. It just seemed like he had a plan when he got into the lane more than Wigginton. I could be wrong however.
I do agree though, I think Bolton is going to be able to stretch the floor very well for us and he seems like a guy who's not afraid to take any shot on the floor, which I like.
It is hard to imagine somebody having less of a plan than Lindell Wigginton did when he drove it into the lane, especially as a freshman, but we might have a contender.
You are right there are many similarities, however, physically and statistically...
-- both springy athletes (though LW > RB, obviously, LW was a pogo stick)
-- both might be a SG trapped in a PG body and kind of refuse to accept that
-- both are probably overrated in their ability to go to the rim and create and underrated in their shooting in terms of the quality and impact they have on the offense
-- both probably were at their best when deferring to a real PG... glad we have one
I imagine Bolton is going to come with a lot of the triumphs and frustrations that LW did.
Bolton was really inefficient last year, though, and Nixon was not much better his last year playing at Colorado State. The Bart Torvik projections are sour on us for next year because we project playing each of those guys 30+ MPG and relying on them heavily for our guard rotation, but having two "bad chuckers" out there (instead of a good chucker like Marial Shayok) can really kill your offensive efficiency with clanks and turnovers and ruin your night.
Both of those guys are going to have to play in fundamentally different ways if we are going to have success next year. They both need to play within the offense, choose good shots and make them more often than they have in the past, realize they are SGs and not the PG with the offense and the ball mostly flowing through Tyrese, and be at least serviceable defenders to make up for our reduced firepower on offense. We do not have a guard who can score at will and efficiently this year, probably, like Marial and Naz could. We will have to play differently.
More offense from the big men is one obvious solution, too.
Good information. If Bolton is going to be “better” than Wigginton on offense, or even just as good, it’s going to need to be more about what Bolton doesn’t do imo. I’m more optimistic he’ll be better on the defensive side.
Wigginton was athletic enough he would have eventually developed into a one of the premier scorers at the hoop (assuming the refs stopped swallowing their whistle). His 3P shooting was nearly elite for jot being a specialist. It’ll be tough for Bolton to surpass that.
Hopefully Bolton’s inefficiency at the bucket we’re largely due to freshman adjustment and PSU’s offense.
I completely agree. I also think having Jackson, Lewis, and maybe even Grill step into their needed role will help immensely. If Bolton or Nixon are playing poorly one of those 3 can step into their position and contribute in some way. If Lewis plays up to even half of his potential that he had coming in as a freshman, I think we could be very salty.It is hard to imagine somebody having less of a plan than Lindell Wigginton did when he drove it into the lane, especially as a freshman, but we might have a contender.
You are right there are many similarities, however, physically and statistically...
-- both springy athletes (though LW > RB, obviously, LW was a pogo stick)
-- both might be a SG trapped in a PG body and kind of refuse to accept that
-- both are probably overrated in their ability to go to the rim and create and underrated in their shooting in terms of the quality and impact they have on the offense
-- both probably were at their best when deferring to a real PG... glad we have one
I imagine Bolton is going to come with a lot of the triumphs and frustrations that LW did.
Bolton was really inefficient last year, though, and Nixon was not much better his last year playing at Colorado State. The Bart Torvik projections are sour on us for next year because we project playing each of those guys 30+ MPG and relying on them heavily for our guard rotation, but having two "bad chuckers" out there (instead of a good chucker like Marial Shayok) can really kill your offensive efficiency with clanks and turnovers and ruin your night.
Both of those guys are going to have to play in fundamentally different ways if we are going to have success next year. They both need to play within the offense, choose good shots and make them more often than they have in the past, realize they are SGs and not the PG with the offense and the ball mostly flowing through Tyrese, and be at least serviceable defenders to make up for our reduced firepower on offense. We do not have a guard who can score at will and efficiently this year, probably, like Marial and Naz could. We will have to play differently.
More offense from the big men is one obvious solution, too.
don't forget the potential defensive improvement. THT and LW will be missed offensively....but on the other end of the court? Should be some room to get better there, I'd think.....
Griffin is going to be the pivot piece this year. He fills a whole in our main rotation. If he can come in to his own we will have a main 7. As it stands now we’re going to have a main 6 eating up all the minutes:
Bolton
Nixon
Haliburton
SY
Jake
Conditt
Lewis and Griffin will get the rest of the minutes and everyone else are going to be the guys that CFers constantly wring their hands over and can’t grasp that they aren’t quite good enough to play that much yet and complete the dream of a 10 man rotation.
Bolton
Nixon
Haliburton
SY
Jake
Conditt
Lewis and Griffin will get the rest of the minutes and everyone else are going to be the guys that CFers constantly wring their hands over and can’t grasp that they aren’t quite good enough to play that much yet and complete the dream of a 10 man rotation.
I know we like to pump the "ride the hot hand" and "having options on a given night" line, but history says that is not really how basketball works in the real world.
Coaches will give every guy a chance and a try early in the season, experiment with line-ups and rotations some, but they usually lock in 7-8 men by conference season and shorten that down to like 6-7 by the time you are approaching and into the postseason.
"Toggling" between guys at that point (e.g., Lewis one night, Bolton the next) is pretty rare. Most teams want to get a system and rotation mastered and run it into the ground. College basketball games are short compared to NBA games, the games themselves are infrequent, there are many timeouts and TV breaks, and these are spirited young athletes in the best shape of their life. A guy should be able to effectively play 30+, if not 35+, minutes per night.
So you put your best 5-6 out there when it really matters, which starts increasingly early.
There are likely four guard-wing spots available in the rotation and three big men spots. That is it. Prohm will make his "stack" and pick from the top of it -- as he well should.
This reminds me of some axiom I heard (and probably from Fran originally)...
"Depth is overrated in games but underrated in practice."
Having Jackson and Grill develop quickly and/or Lewis finally find what he "should" be, at the very least, keeps Bolton honest in practice and makes him better. Campbell wants competition across every spot on the roster, not necessarily because the backups will play much, but because they will make the starters better. The same is true in basketball.
"Play hard, play better, and behave better or I will bench you" is a lot more credible threat when your backup is serviceable or nipping at your heels. Rhoads never had that luxury.
Griffin? Don’t be one of those CFers constantly wringing their hands over back-end rotation guys.
I completely agree with everything above. I bolded some of the text because in football, especially on the defensive side of the ball, having depth is extremely important. On a long drive by the opposing offense, the defense might substitute guys on every level of the defense multiple times. That was a ginormous issue for Paul Rhoads here, and especially during the Big 12 slate of games. There was a very big drop off from our first string to our second string guys and it killed us.
I don’t disagree with you. I’m not that high on him. Imo it’s just as likely as he’s a nobody again this year as he is that 7th guy in the main rotation. His measurables just make him that pivot guy for me. We’re missing a big wing/small 4 right now.
I don't even care if Griffin doesn't show a ton on offense, rather he becomes a good rebounder / defender. It'd be awesome if he'd be able to guard the stretch 4 on the other team.
I can already see the uproar coming on Jake’s perimeter defense this year. “Why don’t we play a zone!” “We need to press to get opponents out of their offense!”
I think he is a good rebounder from what little we've seen of him. If he can play defense alright, and shoot 30-35% from 3 I'd think he be okay playing some this year.
Funny how every year we start out thinking we have a 8-9-10 man rotation but in the last game of the season, wherever and whatever it is, we basically play six men, eh?
I would hope that Lewis and Griffin develop, and I never give up on a player while he is still a Cyclone. But Lewis showed little on a bad team two years ago with all the opportunity in the world for minutes, and neither of them established an imperative to play them when we were so banged up early in the season last year. Griffin at least has injury to point towards. Neither of them has shown a fraction what another "late bloomer" like Matt Thomas showed.
I hope I am wrong, but I am very glad we picked up Bolton. He is going to have his flaws, but he showed much more at PSU than either of those two have shown in Ames.
Jacobson actually did alright last year on the defensive end, especially for having to guard the opposing team's big man most of the year. He also rebounded okay too, averaging around 6 per game.