peegeepee said:
My take on this season is this. Early this year, Patrick was going with Betson, Hamoda and Powell as the offensive weapons (Mawein was knicked and couldnt play big minutes). Betson was either turning the ball over or shooting, very little playmaking from him. Hamoda was forced into handling the ball way too much and he was turning the ball over even more than Betson. Powell was getting his points off the boards or on the rare occasion that Betson entered the ball to the post. Somewhere, Betson went south and Skytta was drafted into the point role. He did a good job of cleaning up the turnover situation partially but had no outside shot so the defense started backing off him and packing the paint. He did defend and he is really athletic. If he can develope a dependable outside shot, he will be a good piece to stick in at point and some 2 guard. I think Powell got knicked up sometime late Jan or early Feb as his stats tanked. Patrick was forced to play the freshmen more and more, first Wilson got a decent run at backup point then, finally Nunn started to get minutes and has done a real good job at point in the last 7-8 games. He has been able to drive and dish better than anybody else we have which has opened up the offense a bunch. Hamoda was able to slide back over to shooting guard and not forced to handle the ball as much so his turnovers came down. All the while Mawein was getting healthy, Holt was playing hard and making an impact when he was in (has foul problems too often but they are hustle fouls), and Beatty was learning on the job the whole season. While Beatty hasnt got a go to move in the post yet, he has rebounded and defended decently for his weight. If he can put 20-25 lbs of muscle on his frame, I think he'll be a beast. For a 7' kid, he is pretty darn athletic and seems to have the desire to be good. Patterson, while he has always been sort of a steadying influence, has finally been positioned to get more shots off, which has opened up Hamoda for more open looks too. 3 pt shooting is a weak point at times but when it is on, we are hard to beat. For most of the season, Kovatchev has played great defense and rebounded far above what a 6' 4" guy usually does. His shot has far too little arch and he will have to work on that in the off season. If you watch close, you can almost tell when he will make or miss by how much arch is on the shot, same with his free throws. All in all, I feel that, even if Powell leaves, the Hornets are positioned to be a threat next season and a champ contender the year after that. That's about all I can think of right now. The jury is still out on Patrick for me. He has recruited great but earlier this year I was having a hard time figuring out what his offensive plan was. It seems to have a better flow with Nunn running the point. First 2/3 of the season we lost a lot of games in single figures due to inexperience and just flat not knowing how to close out and WIN games. I'm hoping, these last 5 games has been an indication that they have finally figured out how to win. That might sound a little dumb but believe me, if you havent experience winning together, it is hard to crack the old habits of tightening up and choking off leads and games. Hey, we have a decent chance of pulling off a miracle. Let's do it Hornets.
I think Patrick has done a great job recruiting fresh talent -- I think he has missed a bit in the Portal. I think Betson's previous stops should have been red flags four teams in four years prior to us
While Powell is one of the best offensive rebounders I have seen in a long time, he was basically our leading scorer most of the year with putbacks and dunks. He's a great piece to a team, but at certain points this year we were playing through him and it just didn't work.
Mawein the last few games looks both confident and healthy for the first time in his Hornet career. Sure, he was almost a double figure scorer last year, but I wouldn't say those were confident shots most of the time. This year there was a time where he was unable to practice but still playing somehow for a few minutes. Over time he's gotten healthy, and because he has nothing to lose, I think we are seeing the Akol that must have impressed the previous OU staff when he was dominating at the JC level.
Beatty is the big get in my eyes -- he's still growing. According to the staff he is close to 7'2" now and has grown over an inch since the season started. He has confidence in himself to knock down threes and is has a very soft touch all of a sudden from everywhere. I did not think this was possible early in the year, but I think he was just rushing everything and the game has finally slowed down for him.
I think the Australians have bonded and have been playing well as a unit, and as Nunn becomes more confident, he can really grow into something if he gets some consistency with his shot (the free throw shooting between Nunn and Kovatchev has been an adventure).
With these guys doing what they can to contribute offensively, Zee has been able to expend more energy on defense, where he is incredibly valuable to us. Skytta can guard four positions and really steadies the offense and knows how to make it work. He reminds me a lot of the backup point guard you often see in the Euro League, who plays defense as hard as he can for 15-20 minutes -- flows the offense and never shoots. I know he needs to keep the defense honest, but I think for now we hope a summer spent shooting with Loren Leath will provide some dividends.
