Post by FLHoya on Aug 7, 2007 22:20:11 GMT -5
There's always the question of whether the Kenner League is useful as a way to evaluate players and project performance for the upcoming season.
On one hand you've got the readily apparent lack of offensive structure, tending towards me-first play by greedy guards galore. The quality of teams can vary widely (although this year I felt had the most parity of the four Kenner Leagues I've watched). Players can decided on a given day they'll not show up for a game...or "not show up" for a game.
But on the other, Kenner can be a very useful chance to refine one's game if done properly. For as many one-hit-wonders like Josh Thornton (okay, first year Josh Thornton) that never pan out in a Hoya uniform, there are cases like Roy Hibbert's when KL success previews greater glory in the regular season.
I didn't have enough good data to do what I felt was a solid end of KL recap last season. It so happens this year I got lucky (or I have no life, depending on how snarky you feel tonight) and made it to all 16 of the "regular season" KL games involving Tombs and/or Clydes and kept stats.
So below what I've done is make a big player evaluation for each GU player on either Tombs or Clydes based on the regular season games. Stats are included, and I think some interesting conclusions can be drawn from a look at them. I don't draw all or even most of them I figure, but it's nice to have as a discussion point.
All the normal caveats I have apply here--the stats were as good as I could keep them during the summer, I'm not the final authority on anything ever in the history of everything, I tend to favor comparisons to Drew Hall, etc...
...most of all though feel free to ask any questions or make clarifications. I have all the stats in a big file somewhere so if you want to get more specific I can do that.
Anyways, hope it starts some decent discussion about these guys' prospects for next season.
Tonight we'll start with the returning players:
JONATHAN WALLACE (8 games)
17.3 PPG, 2.6 RPG, 3.3 APG
52.1% 2-pt FG (25-48)
44.4% 3-pt FG (24-54)
83.3% FT (15-18)
1.04:1 A-TO Ratio (26-25)
9 steals
Jonathan Wallace as a senior point guard on a National Championship caliber team running a complex offense is going to have an important leadership role this coming season. I think it’s fair to say Jonathan has already distinguished himself on the court as a leader and a strong “quarterback” for the Princeton offense. So what can you possibly learn from exhibition summer league games about someone who is at this point a well-known quantity?
Well, for one thing you learn how he works with Chris Wright. Chris is uber-talented—he has a gear (or two) that Jon simply does not possess. He’s also nowhere near the player Jon is right now—but if he or anyone watches and learns from Wallace, there’s no reason he can’t be successful.
What Jon Wallace has learned to do, and that he showed the entire summer league, is something that only comes with experience and the proper approach. Jon Wallace is efficient, he’s precise, and he knows how to manage a game.
This is a summer league—there is a championship and standings and all, but the games don’t really count. The most important thing a player can take away is the skills he adds. Jon Wallace didn’t exactly break any new ground in the Kenner League—he still shoots the three pointer with deadly accuracy off the same type of screens, he still pulls up from the same distance, etc. Sure, he threw some nice assists and he was surprisingly effective in full-court pressure defensive situations. But Jon’s skill set is largely the same now as it was in April.
What Jon Wallace did this summer was manage games. And in so doing, he helped improve the skill set of Chris Wright.
Jon stuck to his strong point of three point shooting—he took almost 7 three pointers per game—while giving the reigns of the offense to Chris Wright for prolonged stretches. Meanwhile in the seven games they played together, Wright shot more two point field goals than Wallace six times. It was Wright making decisions, penetrating, drawing fouls, committing egregious turnovers, pinballing around the lane, making ridiculous shots, getting swatted into next week…in general, learning and improving his skill set.
Across most of the recaps I wrote of Wallace, the same two themes pop up—he managed the game well…and Chris Wright in some way was the better for it.
Incidentally, last year Rick Majerus constantly cited the “180 player” stat when referring to Wallace—essentially you add the FG + FT + 3PT percentages and Wallace I believe was the only D-1 player to have a figure over 180. What was Wallace’s total this summer?
179.8
He’s slacking!
VERNON MACKLIN (7 games)
11.7 PPG, 7.3 RPG, 1.7 APG
67.8% 2-pt FG (40-59)
25% FT (2-8)
1.2:1 A-TO Ratio (12-10)
6 blocks
The Vern had a solid stat-line this summer, although you have to wonder if things would have been even better if he hadn’t been whacked across the nose in the opening game.
If there is a case of not being able to extrapolate from a summer league performance, Vern would seem to be it. Even as he was turning in impressive stat lines (18 and 11, 18 and 9 in the twin matchups against DC Jammers) I was still writing how Vernon seemed to lack aggressiveness on the interior. As odd as it is to be saying a guy who went for a double-double (one of three for Hoya players this summer) could have done more…I did in fact write that he could’ve gone for 25 and 15 if he’d been playing at 100% and not half-hearting it on some rebounds. Was it the mask? Was it the “summer league” effort? Who knows.
The Vern has an interesting offensive game. The genesis of “That’s The Vern for Ya!” last year was his habit early in the season of seemingly scoring exclusively on offensive putbacks and cheap layups—he was the King of Right Place Right Time. The consequence is that it felt to me like, for a guy who came in as an All-American caliber recruit, we never learned exactly WHAT Vernon’s offensive game was.
Well we got a glimpse of some of that offensive game this summer. For a while it seemed like he was a one-trick pony, constantly going from the high post to a running hook shot, something out of the Kareem meets Jeff Green vs. UNC playbook. Two schools of thought emerged here—one expressed by a non-Hoya fan in the crowd who felt Vern was a bunch of wasted motion in the post, another that contended he was making maximum use of his athletic advantage over certain big men.
It probably depends on matchups. On one hand, some of the more rotund Big East post men (I’m looking in your direction, Harangody) are gonna have trouble with an athletic 4/5 position player like Vern. On the other hand, the one player in KL who completely neutralized Macklin was a guy who matches his size-athleticism combo: Rob Diggs of GW.
By the second DC Jammers game opponents were catching on to Macklin’s tricks, and he started to break out more traditional back-down post moves, and quicker hook shots from a variety of angles and set-ups. He also started to use the glass much more frequently. This led to an 18 point performance that tied his summer-high.
All in all, 40-59 is a highly efficient shooting mark for an eight game stretch…but his success varied wildly from game to game. His FGs taken went 5, 14, 6, 14, 5, 5, 10. It would seem as if The Vern will always provide the athleticism, it’s the volume that may not be as consistent initially.
A final note—aside from Jon Wallace’s 7-assist performance against DC Jammers, Vern had the high single game assist total with 6 against Meyers & Alterman. He passed very well out of the post throughout the summer.
On one hand you've got the readily apparent lack of offensive structure, tending towards me-first play by greedy guards galore. The quality of teams can vary widely (although this year I felt had the most parity of the four Kenner Leagues I've watched). Players can decided on a given day they'll not show up for a game...or "not show up" for a game.
But on the other, Kenner can be a very useful chance to refine one's game if done properly. For as many one-hit-wonders like Josh Thornton (okay, first year Josh Thornton) that never pan out in a Hoya uniform, there are cases like Roy Hibbert's when KL success previews greater glory in the regular season.
I didn't have enough good data to do what I felt was a solid end of KL recap last season. It so happens this year I got lucky (or I have no life, depending on how snarky you feel tonight) and made it to all 16 of the "regular season" KL games involving Tombs and/or Clydes and kept stats.
So below what I've done is make a big player evaluation for each GU player on either Tombs or Clydes based on the regular season games. Stats are included, and I think some interesting conclusions can be drawn from a look at them. I don't draw all or even most of them I figure, but it's nice to have as a discussion point.
All the normal caveats I have apply here--the stats were as good as I could keep them during the summer, I'm not the final authority on anything ever in the history of everything, I tend to favor comparisons to Drew Hall, etc...
...most of all though feel free to ask any questions or make clarifications. I have all the stats in a big file somewhere so if you want to get more specific I can do that.
Anyways, hope it starts some decent discussion about these guys' prospects for next season.
Tonight we'll start with the returning players:
JONATHAN WALLACE (8 games)
17.3 PPG, 2.6 RPG, 3.3 APG
52.1% 2-pt FG (25-48)
44.4% 3-pt FG (24-54)
83.3% FT (15-18)
1.04:1 A-TO Ratio (26-25)
9 steals
Jonathan Wallace as a senior point guard on a National Championship caliber team running a complex offense is going to have an important leadership role this coming season. I think it’s fair to say Jonathan has already distinguished himself on the court as a leader and a strong “quarterback” for the Princeton offense. So what can you possibly learn from exhibition summer league games about someone who is at this point a well-known quantity?
Well, for one thing you learn how he works with Chris Wright. Chris is uber-talented—he has a gear (or two) that Jon simply does not possess. He’s also nowhere near the player Jon is right now—but if he or anyone watches and learns from Wallace, there’s no reason he can’t be successful.
What Jon Wallace has learned to do, and that he showed the entire summer league, is something that only comes with experience and the proper approach. Jon Wallace is efficient, he’s precise, and he knows how to manage a game.
This is a summer league—there is a championship and standings and all, but the games don’t really count. The most important thing a player can take away is the skills he adds. Jon Wallace didn’t exactly break any new ground in the Kenner League—he still shoots the three pointer with deadly accuracy off the same type of screens, he still pulls up from the same distance, etc. Sure, he threw some nice assists and he was surprisingly effective in full-court pressure defensive situations. But Jon’s skill set is largely the same now as it was in April.
What Jon Wallace did this summer was manage games. And in so doing, he helped improve the skill set of Chris Wright.
Jon stuck to his strong point of three point shooting—he took almost 7 three pointers per game—while giving the reigns of the offense to Chris Wright for prolonged stretches. Meanwhile in the seven games they played together, Wright shot more two point field goals than Wallace six times. It was Wright making decisions, penetrating, drawing fouls, committing egregious turnovers, pinballing around the lane, making ridiculous shots, getting swatted into next week…in general, learning and improving his skill set.
Across most of the recaps I wrote of Wallace, the same two themes pop up—he managed the game well…and Chris Wright in some way was the better for it.
Incidentally, last year Rick Majerus constantly cited the “180 player” stat when referring to Wallace—essentially you add the FG + FT + 3PT percentages and Wallace I believe was the only D-1 player to have a figure over 180. What was Wallace’s total this summer?
179.8
He’s slacking!
VERNON MACKLIN (7 games)
11.7 PPG, 7.3 RPG, 1.7 APG
67.8% 2-pt FG (40-59)
25% FT (2-8)
1.2:1 A-TO Ratio (12-10)
6 blocks
The Vern had a solid stat-line this summer, although you have to wonder if things would have been even better if he hadn’t been whacked across the nose in the opening game.
If there is a case of not being able to extrapolate from a summer league performance, Vern would seem to be it. Even as he was turning in impressive stat lines (18 and 11, 18 and 9 in the twin matchups against DC Jammers) I was still writing how Vernon seemed to lack aggressiveness on the interior. As odd as it is to be saying a guy who went for a double-double (one of three for Hoya players this summer) could have done more…I did in fact write that he could’ve gone for 25 and 15 if he’d been playing at 100% and not half-hearting it on some rebounds. Was it the mask? Was it the “summer league” effort? Who knows.
The Vern has an interesting offensive game. The genesis of “That’s The Vern for Ya!” last year was his habit early in the season of seemingly scoring exclusively on offensive putbacks and cheap layups—he was the King of Right Place Right Time. The consequence is that it felt to me like, for a guy who came in as an All-American caliber recruit, we never learned exactly WHAT Vernon’s offensive game was.
Well we got a glimpse of some of that offensive game this summer. For a while it seemed like he was a one-trick pony, constantly going from the high post to a running hook shot, something out of the Kareem meets Jeff Green vs. UNC playbook. Two schools of thought emerged here—one expressed by a non-Hoya fan in the crowd who felt Vern was a bunch of wasted motion in the post, another that contended he was making maximum use of his athletic advantage over certain big men.
It probably depends on matchups. On one hand, some of the more rotund Big East post men (I’m looking in your direction, Harangody) are gonna have trouble with an athletic 4/5 position player like Vern. On the other hand, the one player in KL who completely neutralized Macklin was a guy who matches his size-athleticism combo: Rob Diggs of GW.
By the second DC Jammers game opponents were catching on to Macklin’s tricks, and he started to break out more traditional back-down post moves, and quicker hook shots from a variety of angles and set-ups. He also started to use the glass much more frequently. This led to an 18 point performance that tied his summer-high.
All in all, 40-59 is a highly efficient shooting mark for an eight game stretch…but his success varied wildly from game to game. His FGs taken went 5, 14, 6, 14, 5, 5, 10. It would seem as if The Vern will always provide the athleticism, it’s the volume that may not be as consistent initially.
A final note—aside from Jon Wallace’s 7-assist performance against DC Jammers, Vern had the high single game assist total with 6 against Meyers & Alterman. He passed very well out of the post throughout the summer.
