Aloha,
It is too early to tell if there will be trades or what free agents we can land. But one hire that needs to happen is a all world shooting coach. All of our young guys showed a lot of potential in certain areas. The one area they all need help in is shooting. If these young guys can be elevated into the 35% range they could become a very useful core. Perhaps a great coach could help Russ with his 3 point shot. What is clear, trade or no trade we will need contribution s from at least a couple of these guys. I believe in their abilities to defend and even improve in that area. It’s the shooting that will tell how far we can go with these kids.
LakerTom says
Great point, Michael. The fact that we did not bring back our shooting coach Mike Penberthy confirms we were not happy with his work. So far, we have not seen Ham add anybody to replace the shooting coach. We could certainly use somebody who could get our low 30’s shooters hitting around the 35% league average.
I also think it’s going to be critical that the shooters we bring in also help fill out other two major needs, which is for defense and size. Shooters who can’t defend or lack positional size are not the answer. We need legitimate 3&D players who have size to get their shots off and defend their positions. We got shooters last summer but not guys with the size and defensive ability we needed. Must do better this time around.
Buba says
I agree with both of you. But while helping players become good shooters is of paramount importance, it is also important for a coach to know how to get them involved in the offense. That’s an area Vogel didn’t do well. We had a bunch of shooters but never utilize them offensively. I Hope Ham could address that.