Who's the next Chaz Lanier/Dalton Knecht

#4
#4
UTFranklinVol said:
my favorite surprise of every season is figuring out what genius move coach Barnes made to reload the team. who do we think the next man up will be? Abram? Gillespie? or will it be the 5* Ament?
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I think the easy answer is Gillespie, but in a less traditional role because of the position he plays relative to the positions Lanier and Knecht played, which allowed them to primarily focus on scoring the ball.

Gillespie is also tasked with facilitating the offense, but with a scoring mentality. I'd say he is pretty easily the most efficient shooter on the team, but he has to work others into the offense, as well.

I also think you will likely see a more balanced attack than you have in the two previous seasons. Our depth and offensive skill in the post, especially if JP Estrella can stay healthy, will be a welcome addition. Okpara is mostly going to be a garbage man under the basket. Same with Carey and Phillips, though they have a little more offensive skill. Dewayne Brown could add some punch there, as well. Ament can score at all 3 levels, but may take a little bit to adjust to being a primary threat. If he comes out of the gates scoring the ball efficiently, watch out! The SG spot will be hit or miss, most likely, but if we can get the other spots contributing, we can hopefully rely on the guards at that position much less than in years past.
 
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#7
#7
NATE AMENT is my choice! Not to put too much pressure on him, but he is the type of freshman that we have never had before.

Chaz avg 18 ppg
DK avg 22 ppg

I think Ament will avg around 16-18 ppg. If he truly is a top 3 pick here's a list of other top players who averaged around that amount of ppg as freshman top 10ish recruits....

Cooper Flagg 23 ppg
Brandon Miller 18 ppg
Paolo Banchero 17 ppg
Jabari Smith 17 ppg
Chet Holmgren 14 ppg (Ament's floor imo bc of how thin both are/were... Chet was thinner tho)
Cade Cunningham 20 ppg
Anthony Edwards 19 ppg
Zion 23 ppg
RJ Barrett 23 ppg
Trae Young 27 ppg
Ayton 20 ppg
Marvin Bagley 21 ppg
Collin Sexton 18 ppg
Jayson Tatum 17 ppg
Brandon Ingram 17 ppg
Wiggins 17 ppg
Jabari Parker 19 ppg
 
#8
#8
To answer the original question, I believe we have two: Gillespie and Ament. By the end of the year we will be cooking.
If we can catch a few breaks this is a final four team. We should be better on offense than the last TWO years.
We can finally score in the post if needed, plus I would say Gillespie/Ament/Abram are better scorers than Zeigler/Lanier/Mashak.
 
#9
#9
I’ll take this in two directions.

As far as someone frantically running off screens to catch and shoot, I’ll say Abram fills the Chaz role and really surprises with his shooting % and PPG numbers.

For the DK role of just straight up going at the defense and scoring at will, I’ll take Gillespie. He’ll be distributing much more than DK, but he’ll be the guy we go to late in the clock to get a bucket or get someone else wide open by penetrating.

Obviously don’t think that either of these guys will replicate the scoring of Chaz or DK, but I think the overall production between the two will more than match what we got from the former transfers, plus we’ll be adding a lot of other offensive production. Really excited to watch this offense.
 
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#15
#15
VolArmy74 said:
I'm going to guess 18.4 for Ament, and 15.9 for Gillespie.
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Nearly 19 points a game for a true freshman seems like a lot. I mean Cooper Flagg averaged 19.2 and he was widely considered one of the best prospects in quite some time. If we get 18.4 from Ament with how deep the rest of the roster is, that’s a national championship roster.

I think 14-16 feels like a more realistic outcome. I think Ament is going to take some time to really show out and adjust to the speed of the college game.
 
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#16
#16
TheMookieMonster said:
Nearly 19 points a game for a true freshman seems like a lot. I mean Cooper Flagg averaged 19.2 and he was widely considered one of the best prospects in quite some time. If we get 18.4 from Ament with how deep the rest of the roster is, that’s a national championship roster.

I think 14-16 feels like a more realistic outcome. I think Ament is going to take some time to really show out and adjust to the speed of the college game.
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I was thinking the same thing and was going to say Cooper Flagg avg 19... but then I dove deeper and saw that guys like Marvin Bagley dropped 21 ppg. Look at my list above.
 
#18
#18
bleedingTNorange said:
Jabari Smith & Brandon Miller are the best comps/expectations imo , Ace Bailey also, 17-18ppg range
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I guess the 18.4 isn’t that far off similar comps then, but I’m still not all the way there yet to buying in that we’d have a freshman of that caliber on our roster. I fully expect Ament to be good, but I think setting my expectations at Jabari Smith or Brandon Miller feels like setting myself up for disappointment.
 
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#20
#20
UTFranklinVol said:
my favorite surprise of every season is figuring out what genius move coach Barnes made to reload the team. who do we think the next man up will be? Abram? Gillespie? or will it be the 5* Ament?
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Hopefully, Kobi and Ament are exactly what they're expected to be and Abram and/or Burg will be the surprise. If that happens, we'll be in great shape.
 
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#21
#21
TheMookieMonster said:
I guess the 18.4 isn’t that far off similar comps then, but I’m still not all the way there yet to buying in that we’d have a freshman of that caliber on our roster. I fully expect Ament to be good, but I think setting my expectations at Jabari Smith or Brandon Miller feels like setting myself up for disappointment.
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Our pace is pretty middling. I care more about the efficiency. Scoring 16 ppg at our pace is like having 19.5 ppg at say, Alabama’s
 
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#23
#23
TheMookieMonster said:
I guess the 18.4 isn’t that far off similar comps then, but I’m still not all the way there yet to buying in that we’d have a freshman of that caliber on our roster. I fully expect Ament to be good, but I think setting my expectations at Jabari Smith or Brandon Miller feels like setting myself up for disappointment.
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I’d probably go on the lower end, like 17ppg, but he’s a projected Top 5 pick in the draft and was a consensus Top 5 recruit. Those things both line up historically with a minimum of 15ppg as baseline, given the number of minutes he’s going to get here and the freedom it appears Barnes is giving him (trust), I’ll be pretty surprised/disappointed if he’s not 16+ppg.
 
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