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Post by boubacarlaw on Nov 16, 2014 1:47:21 GMT -5
As a long-time lurker, I feel as though all of the Hopkins negativity is extremely short-sighted.
Let me start out by saying that Mikael is soft as hell on the offensive end. All finesse around the bucket.
But there is a reason JT3 has him on the floor. There's a reason the Hoyas need him on the floor.
About halfway through the 1st half in yesterday's game it was a 2 point ballgame. Peak missed a defensive rotation and Hopkins came off his man, closed out strong and under control, and St. Francis' best 3 point shooter missed long allowing DSR to get fouled during the rebound action. 1-1 opportunity led to 2 points - 5 point swing. On the next possession, PW13 gets beat off the dribble, Hopkins helps off his man and blocks the shot. It leads to DSR being fouled in a delayed transition opportunity and another 2 points. Next possession, Hopkins contests and alters the shot of a driving wing who beat Reggie off the dribble, then crashes the boards on a 50-50 ball off the rebounding action - deflecting the ball off the backboard, gathering the rebound, leading the break, and finding Peak on the wing for a 3 point play. Next possession Hopkins clears his man on the box out and deflects the ball to DSR leading to a Peak transition 3. Next possession, PW13 gets beat off the dribble and Hopkins strips the driving guard, on a 50-50 loose ball a St. Francis player gets it right under the basket and Hopkins commits a foul on the floor to stop a point blank opportunity. St. Francis misses 1-1. On ensuing offensive possession, Hopkins seals his defender to the high side, catches (gets blocked) and then gets fouled on 2nd chance. Makes 1 of 2. He gets subbed out. (St. Francis subsequently scores on next two possession in paint with Hopkins off the floor - he sits remainder of half with 2 fouls and lead is 6 at halftime)
3 minute stretch from the 9 and change to 6 minute mark, 2 point lead becomes 12 point lead. He plays a key role in every possession on both ends of the floor.
To open the 2nd half. He once again seals his defender topside, and 2 defenders rotate to help, he gets blocked but because of helping defenders ball goes right to Smith for an easy 2. Following possession, Peak gets beat off the dribble - Smith came over to help and missed block shot, Hopkins sags off his man and boxes out Smith's man on the weak-side rebounding opportunity, rebounds, outlets to Trawick leading to 2 more for Peak in transition. Two possessions later, Peak miscommunicates during the on-ball screen losing his man on the switch, Hopkins closes out to Peak's man, missed 3. DSR gets 2 on the other end. Two possessions later, Hopkins hustles back on defense forcing St. Francis PG to go baseline and into help on a transition opportunity, Peak steps into passing lane and runs out for dunk. Timeout St. Francis.
3.5 minutes, lead balloons from 6 to 15, game is essentially over.
During those two stretches combined, 7 minutes, Hopkins had 1 point, 3 Rebounds, 1 Block, 1 Assist. Overall stats that would not wow anyone in the box score. But both of our biggest runs of the game can be directly attributed to Hopkins presence on both ends of the court.
The overall basketball IQ on this board is refreshing (except for the threads that turn into a Edited measuring contest about a poster getting his panties in a bunch), but Hopkins importance is extremely undervalued.
The Hoyas are a better team with him on the floor. Period.
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biggmanu
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Post by biggmanu on Nov 16, 2014 7:20:40 GMT -5
Hop is the Nate of this year. Can't live with him can't get a rebound without him. Id like more Cope/Hayes less Hop/Smith as the season progresses.
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jwp91
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Hopkins
Nov 16, 2014 8:17:55 GMT -5
Post by jwp91 on Nov 16, 2014 8:17:55 GMT -5
Thanks for pointing it out. I will go back and look again for his contributions.
Naively, I was hoping for a Henry Simms like metamorphoses on the offensive end. It seems he has all the tools to be great if he could just pull it together.
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blueandgray
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Post by blueandgray on Nov 16, 2014 8:36:02 GMT -5
One heck of a first post!!
Agreed....we need Hopkins on the floor. For those who want more Copeland, you can't expect much from him down low. He's just too skinny at the moment and will get pushed around. Moreover, has anyone noticed what Hop has done to his body? Kid is now Dajuan Summers thick. Hop is going to be a huge defensive presence for us and will lead the team in rebounding. Outside of DSR and Peak, Hop is the most valuable player we have.
Now if he can only go up strong on his dunk attempts...
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calhoya
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Hopkins
Nov 16, 2014 8:43:13 GMT -5
Post by calhoya on Nov 16, 2014 8:43:13 GMT -5
Hopkins is going to be a solid contributor this year provided that he plays to his strengths and the fans temper expectations to a level more appropriate for his skillset. He is not going to be an offensive star. He has weak hands and is easily moved out of position by opposing defenders. He is athletic and quick and is the one big on this team capable of playing strong defense in the paint. It would be nice if he could develop a credible 5-7 foot shot while playing the 4. Reasonably good FT shooter, though streaky. This can be helpful as I expect him to draw fouls. Needs to avoid committing fouls by trying to be too aggerssive.
For a variety of reasons, I expect Hopkins to get as much time at the 5 as at the 4. This is due to Copeland's potential (and White's potential) and also to Smith's limitations. Persoanlly I prefer to see Hopkins saved for the 5 position because Smith's effectiveness diminishes greatly the longer he plays without a break. They could rotate every 5-6 minutes and let the Hoyas use a combination of others at the 4. With a Big East lacking alot of superstar bigs this year, the Hoyas could go small and use Copeland, White and even Bowen/Reggie at times at the 4. Not certain the rebounding would suffer that much.
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Post by daymondmyles on Nov 16, 2014 10:20:35 GMT -5
Thank you Boubacar! People need to stop hating on Hop. He busts his butt out there and, without him, we have zero bjgs that can defend and rebound. People tend to look at his offense and then just kill him for it. You'd think that being Georgetown fans, we'd value players that rebound and play D, especially bigs. And his deficiencies on offense are not due to him not putting in work (like Nate or Henry the first 3 years). He just has certain limitations. For me, it was a no brainer for him to be the starting 4. If anybody is in danger of losing time, it's Smith.
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SFHoya99
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Post by SFHoya99 on Nov 16, 2014 10:41:55 GMT -5
Thank you Boubacar! People need to stop hating on Hop. He busts his butt out there and, without him, we have zero bjgs that can defend and rebound. People tend to look at his offense and then just kill him for it. You'd think that being Georgetown fans, we'd value players that rebound and play D, especially bigs. And his deficiencies on offense are not due to him not putting in work (like Nate or Henry the first 3 years). He just has certain limitations. For me, it was a no brainer for him to be the starting 4. If anybody is in danger of losing time, it's Smith. Oh, God. I was going to stay out of this thread, because who needs realism of negativity right now? But then came the criticism of other players to go with the adulation of Hopkins. Welcome to the weird cult of Hopkins, where people feel to the need to tear down tons of players significantly better than Hopkins to make him look better. I have no idea how someone who has watched Hopkins' "development" can claim it's obviously not due to lack to hard work. How a physically talented player like him still can't make a wide-open lay-up or dunk without getting blocked by a guard is baffling. Hopkins played wonderful defense against St. Francis and rebounded well, and if that keeps up, we may be able to put up with the eight to ten points he simply threw away yesterday. Yep -- it was that bad on offense -- let's not give credit to Hopkins for Smith's putback when Hopkins gets blocked by a 6'5" dude like it was a designed play. But here's the problem -- this was a team with no one over 6'7". This happened last year -- Hopkins looked like a defensive demon. And when he started playing better players, he stopped rebounding, started fouling like mad and basically came in, put the opponent in the bonus, missed a couple of easy lay-ups and sat with foul trouble. He still committed close to 5 fouls/40 yesterday. I'd love to be wrong, but no amount of giving credit to Hopkins' for other people's nice offensive plays (Peak makes a great fast break make and Hopkins' easy D rebound is the 'cause"?) can change the fact that he's a complete zero on offense. You have to be pretty incredible on defense to make that up. And pulling Smith off the court? Ironically, the best time for Hopkins was when Smith was on the court -- he could defend and rebound and stay out of the way on offense. Smith creates spacing and double teams which create open guys. The fast break points will dry up against better teams -- we're going to need to not throw away possessions like we have with Hopkins for years.
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jwp91
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Post by jwp91 on Nov 16, 2014 10:59:03 GMT -5
I re-watched the game. Hopkins was a force on the defensive end and critical to our success. I didn't fully appreciate that on my first viewing.
He did struggle mightily on the offensive end in ways I wish a senior, 4 year starter didn't. The good news was that he was only used on 14% of offensive possessions.
I really do wish the kid the best. Hopefully, he will try to play within himself offensively without becoming the shell of an offensive player that Nate became.
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DanMcQ
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Post by DanMcQ on Nov 16, 2014 11:11:53 GMT -5
I was not able to actually see the game due to work and the unavailability of it in our area, but the developing beauty of this team is the upgrade in talent and athleticism. I don't expect them to click perfectly on either end for several weeks at the very least. There is enough depth of talent and enough versatility so that guys like Hopkins, whose strengths should be rebounding and interior defense, can flourish. He doesn't need to provide much on offense other than rebounding, setting screens, and finishing on passes and putbacks down low. I will be thrilled if he provides 8-10 boards and 3 blocks a game. Any other positives are gravy IMO.
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Post by daymondmyles on Nov 16, 2014 11:14:26 GMT -5
Because I've watched him every summer and he's putting in the work to try to become a better player. Nate did not. He spent a lot of time on internships (which I don't blame him for because his first priority should be to himself and his career) and when he did work, he just kept doing the same stuff. Henry did the same thing for the first 3 summers and that's work on his jumper. He didn't actually try to vary his game and put in real work until junior year summer. And it showed. Hop has been trying to evolve his game but he is what he is to some extent. He's not thick so he has trouble creating space. He's got bad hands and it's hard to improve that. And he's just not a crafty or instinctual player. Not everybody can become great with hard work. Regardless, I think he's important to this team and like his contributions.
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bmartin
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Post by bmartin on Nov 16, 2014 11:24:00 GMT -5
His positioning and foul avoidance and everything off the ball have improved, he just isn't good with the ball. He doesn't seem to be able to control the ball through contact. Maybe he just has bad hands.
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Post by hoyasaxa2003 on Nov 16, 2014 11:31:43 GMT -5
Because I've watched him every summer and he's putting in the work to try to become a better player. Nate did not. He spent a lot of time on internships (which I don't blame him for because his first priority should be to himself and his career) and when he did work, he just kept doing the same stuff. Henry did the same thing for the first 3 summers and that's work on his jumper. He didn't actually try to vary his game and put in real work until junior year summer. And it showed. Hop has been trying to evolve his game but he is what he is to some extent. He's not thick so he has trouble creating space. He's got bad hands and it's hard to improve that. And he's just not a crafty or instinctual player. Not everybody can become great with hard work. Regardless, I think he's important to this team and like his contributions. Unless you have connections to the team, you have no idea how much work Nate or anybody else put in. Sometimes it's obvious, such as where Josh Smith clearly lost weight. But wait - Josh Smith improved himself AND had a summer job! Just because somebody works or does an internship doesn't mean they aren't working hard or putting in gym time. Nate's problems likely were the result of his physical limitations, not hard work. Hopkins' value is in defense and rebounding, and that's what he should be doing. We actually could stand to have Hopkins take the Lubick approach - take very few shots and only when he has open looks. He still gets blocked or stuffed on many of those possessions, but I realize he's going to take some of those. This team is way too talented for Hopkins to have a high usage rate. If that happens, we will hurt as a result.
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SFHoya99
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Hopkins
Nov 16, 2014 11:41:39 GMT -5
Post by SFHoya99 on Nov 16, 2014 11:41:39 GMT -5
Because I've watched him every summer and he's putting in the work to try to become a better player. Nate did not. He spent a lot of time on internships (which I don't blame him for because his first priority should be to himself and his career) and when he did work, he just kept doing the same stuff. Henry did the same thing for the first 3 summers and that's work on his jumper. He didn't actually try to vary his game and put in real work until junior year summer. And it showed. Hop has been trying to evolve his game but he is what he is to some extent. He's not thick so he has trouble creating space. He's got bad hands and it's hard to improve that. And he's just not a crafty or instinctual player. Not everybody can become great with hard work. Regardless, I think he's important to this team and like his contributions. Unless you have connections to the team, you have no idea how much work Nate or anybody else put in. Sometimes it's obvious, such as where Josh Smith clearly lost weight. But wait - Josh Smith improved himself AND had a summer job! Just because somebody works or does an internship doesn't mean they aren't working hard or putting in gym time. Nate's problems likely were the result of his physical limitations, not hard work. Hopkins' value is in defense and rebounding, and that's what he should be doing. We actually could stand to have Hopkins take the Lubick approach - take very few shots and only when he has open looks. He still gets blocked or stuffed on many of those possessions, but I realize he's going to take some of those. This team is way too talented for Hopkins to have a high usage rate. If that happens, we will hurt as a result. Yep. For example, people bagged on Lubick for how his shot never got better. Neither has Hopkins -- his FT has declined since freshmen year. I'm not saying that Hopkins doesn't work - I'm saying that the double standard is weird. Look, here's the issue -- Hopkins basically threw away five possessions yesterday. Let's ignore that he had most of those two feet from the basket with no one in between him and the basket, and just use a point lost per possession. That's still five points he gave away. That's almost impossible to make up game in and game out. Perhaps he can make that up on D right now, but as the freshmen progress, I think they are going to cut into his minutes. I hope Hopkins can start to finish at the rim. We really do need his D and rebounding and minutes. And it was great to see him not try to force anything yesterday. But man, he scored 2 points and dished 1 assist across eight possessions. That's the difference between us having a Top 25 offense and a Top 5 offense.
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njhoya78
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Hopkins
Nov 16, 2014 11:47:21 GMT -5
Post by njhoya78 on Nov 16, 2014 11:47:21 GMT -5
It will be interesting to see, as the season develops, how JT3 allocates minutes. This team is far, far deeper than we, or he, have seen in years, and I would not be surprised to see Hopkins's minutes decrease. . .not due to foul trouble, but more likely due to player match-ups and getting minutes for others. I'm not talking about ten minutes a game less, but three to four minutes.
Hopkins was far more effective at the 4 yesterday, with Joshua Smith at the 5, but we have decried Hopkins at the 5 in the past. He has the heart of a lion, but can't play center effectively for more than a few minutes at a time. If Bradley Hayes can't contribute more at center, in a supporting role for Smith, I don't think that GU can successfully compete against the big teams.
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Post by boubacarlaw on Nov 16, 2014 12:10:12 GMT -5
I found it very telling that in JT3's post-game presser, he referred to Hopkins as the team's "best facilitator". That is both in defense leading to offense as well as off the ball in the halfcourt offense. I have zero inside info concerning the minds of the coaching staff - but I think many are off base if they believe Hopkins minutes will decrease. I find it more likely that they increase if Smith does not clean up his defense/rebounding for long stretches.
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Hopkins
Nov 16, 2014 12:50:11 GMT -5
Post by bicentennial on Nov 16, 2014 12:50:11 GMT -5
I agree with most of the above. Hopkins is best at the 4. He should try to remain a 10-15% usage player but when open should take his shot. If he avoids shooting he would become like Nate(black hole)on offense. I do love that he has taken up the Nate role on Defense which he really did not do as well last year. I hope that hustle translates quickly to the freshmen on defense. I was under the impression that SF-B was a senior laden team but reading the comments appears they had 7 new players on their team yesterday so that tempers some expectations. I really wish Hopkins and Hayes had mastered the jump hook by now.
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Post by hoyasaxa2003 on Nov 16, 2014 12:58:50 GMT -5
The problem with Lubick was that nobody in the frontcourt could score, so the fact that he had virtually no offense caused defenses to completely sag off him and ignore him, making it even more difficult for our other offensive players. The difference with Hopkins this year - if he's on the court with Smith - is that Smith commands so much attention that we will not have the same problem. Hopkins can afford to limit his offense without adversely affecting the team because of the talent around him. That was not possible last year.
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jwp91
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Hopkins
Nov 16, 2014 13:12:46 GMT -5
Post by jwp91 on Nov 16, 2014 13:12:46 GMT -5
I agree with most of the above. Hopkins is best at the 4. He should try to remain a 10-15% usage player but when open should take his shot. If he avoids shooting he would become like Nate(black hole)on offense. I do love that he has taken up the Nate role on Defense which he really did not do as well last year. I hope that hustle translates quickly to the freshmen on defense. I was under the impression that SF-B was a senior laden team but reading the comments appears they had 7 new players on their team yesterday so that tempers some expectations. I really wish Hopkins and Hayes had mastered the jump hook by now. Minor quibble.. Isn't a black hole on offense a player who when gets the ball never gives it back....the ball goes away as if lost in a black hole I thought I saw the beginning of a black hole, but it was Peak and not Hopkins. He went to the rim just about every time he got the ball. I loved the aggressiveness...just hope we didn't the beginning of poor judgement
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Hopkins
Nov 16, 2014 13:31:29 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by daymondmyles on Nov 16, 2014 13:31:29 GMT -5
I have heard from people with more access to the team than me that lubick did not put in the work so I'm not making it up. As for suggesting that he be MORE like Lubick and not even shoot is asinine. Yes, let's have 4 on 5 offense. I'd rather him be aggressive and at least keep the ball moving and let people grab offensive boards off his misses than just sitting there, scared to shoot and waiting for passing lanes that don't open because his man is not guarding him. Whatever. It is what it is. Some people seem to have a hard on for hating on Hop. I don't. And to that double standard accusation, that's just not true. I never fault somebody if they are working hard (I still love Vaughn to this day for how hard he worked despite his flaws). But we have had people that did not put in the work and those people are the ones I criticize.
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njhoya78
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Post by njhoya78 on Nov 16, 2014 14:07:33 GMT -5
I agree with most of the above. Hopkins is best at the 4. He should try to remain a 10-15% usage player but when open should take his shot. If he avoids shooting he would become like Nate(black hole)on offense. I do love that he has taken up the Nate role on Defense which he really did not do as well last year. I hope that hustle translates quickly to the freshmen on defense. I was under the impression that SF-B was a senior laden team but reading the comments appears they had 7 new players on their team yesterday so that tempers some expectations. I really wish Hopkins and Hayes had mastered the jump hook by now. Minor quibble.. Isn't a black hole on offense a player who when gets the ball never gives it back....the ball goes away as if lost in a black hole I thought I saw the beginning of a black hole, but it was Peak and not Hopkins. He went to the rim just about every time he got the ball. I loved the aggressiveness...just hope we didn't the beginning of poor judgement According to the official game statistics, Peak had three assists and one turnover. He was second on the Hoyas in assists, only behind D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera with six. Let's not call him a black hole just yet, because it isn't borne out by the numbers. I, for one, love seeing a Hoya drive to the basket with explosiveness, such as Peak; who has done that consistently since AI?
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