Is there any buzz about possibly another player being added?

[SilentsAreGolden]

Reason I ask is because on the MJ show this morning Matt was talking about Murray being the key player for this year's team, and Drew Franklin said he thought it was Poythress, with part of the reason being that we don't have much depth at his position. And then Matt said "Not much depth yet". And he kind of let that sit there for a couple seconds.

At first I thought maybe he was talking about Wynyard, but everybody knows he might join in December, and the way Matt said it, it sounded like he was hinting at something. Might be reading something into it that isn't there, but I thought I would ask. I don't know of anyone, but maybe someone is gonna transfer who can play right away.

 

[CELTICAT]

Lots of people are assuming Wynyard comes in December. Personally, I hope we see Brad on the team, bombing away at the end of blowouts.

 

[LineSkiCat]

I mean, do we really want another player? I'm kind of excited to run a shorter lineup with more minutes. To be honest, I wasn't even that upset when the false news was breaking that JM was going to Oregon. I want to see 6-7 players getting 30+mpg. I think the platoon system worked well for most scenarios, but no guy ever emerged who could really take the game over, and none of our shooters really found a rhythm in the 2nd half of the season. Kind of excited for this new lineup.

 

[Teachable Moe]

I mean, do we really want another player? I'm kind of excited to run a shorter lineup with more minutes. To be honest, I wasn't even that upset when the false news was breaking that JM was going to Oregon. I want to see 6-7 players getting 30+mpg. I think the platoon system worked well for most scenarios, but no guy ever emerged who could really take the game over, and none of our shooters really found a rhythm in the 2nd half of the season. Kind of excited for this new lineup.

I have no way of knowing if it's true but I think our players looked tired in the Wisconsin game. The body is a creature of habit. If you want to play your stars for 30 minutes in the tournament then you'd better play them 30 minutes in the regular season.

 

[Poetax]

Yeah I hope we are done, I like our team.

 

[wild mandu]

Depth is the most overrated aspect of basketball. I wouldn't dare have said this last year because of the negative feedback, but it's only important with an injury or foul trouble. Now, Poythress got hurt and we were fortunate to have the depth, but that doesn't happen every year.

I prefer a tight rotation, 7-8 players, of elite talent. Play your best players as much as you can. We have enough guys to accomplish that. Unless the addition would be a real superstar, I'm not sure it's worth doing.

 

[Blueblood22]

Lots of people are assuming Wynyard comes in December. Personally, I hope we see Brad on the team, bombing away at the end of blowouts.

He mentioned this yesterday, but said it was for certain Wynyard played this year or redshirted after coming in at mid-year.

 

[Catzman]

I like the 7 deep and everyone played 30 minutes a game mind set for rhythm and star power but at the same time look at the last 3 years. We've been 1 man down due to injury which kept us from reaching our potential. The Noel team makes it to the ncaa tournament and tue last 2 teams win it all. If a team that went 11 deep can miss the title by 1 hurt player I definitely dont want to run that risk with only a 7 man deep team.

 

[LineSkiCat]

I mean, we can't possibly have 4 tournament de-railing injuries in a row, can we? We deserve a good 5 years of healthy teams after Noel, WCS, and Poythress...

 

[bucsrule8872]

I like the 7 deep and everyone played 30 minutes a game mind set for rhythm and star power but at the same time look at the last 3 years. We've been 1 man down due to injury which kept us from reaching our potential. The Noel team makes it to the ncaa tournament and tue last 2 teams win it all. If a team that went 11 deep can miss the title by 1 hurt player I definitely dont want to run that risk with only a 7 man deep team.

You can't worry about injuries.

It doesn't matter how deep you are, if you lose a KEY player, you are toast.

If we lost Davis in 2012, we would not have won the title. I don't care who we have behind him.

And as you said, we were 11-12 deep last season, and we still ended up snake bit. If that team is vulnerable to injury, isn't every team?

Adding one more player isn't going to insulate us from injury. We lose Labissiere and we won't win the title, IMHO. It doesn't matter who you have behind him, they aren't as good, so we won't be as good.

We had Lyles behind Poythress and it still hurt us.

Injury is unpredictable. You just hope you avoid it, especially the season ending kind.

 

[bucsrule8872]

I mean, we can't possibly have 4 tournament de-railing injuries in a row, can we? We deserve a good 5 years of healthy teams after Noel, WCS, and Poythress...

You would think we are due to have an injury free season. We have had a player have a season ending injury in the last four seasons (2012- Hood, 2013- Noel, 2014- WCS, 2015- Poythress).

 

[*Bleedingblue*]

Lyles was sick what seemed like 5-6 games and it put him behind for a little bit.
That's why you need a bench and the bench should all be capable of playing. Injuries happen, sickness happens, discipline happens etc

 

[bucsrule8872]

I can see us having a rotation similar to 2012:

Ulis(Teague)- 32.6mpg
Labissiere(Davis)- 32mpg
Murray(Lamb)- 31.2mpg
Briscoe(Kidd-Gilchrist)- 31.1mpg
Poythress(Jones)- 29.3mpg
Lee(Miller)- 26.1mpg
Matthews(Wiltjer)- 11.6mpg
Mulder(Vargas)- 6mpg

Note: I know the positions don't line up perfectly, but that is not the purpose. I'm just comparing how a 7-8 man rotation probably works out in this situation.

 

[stuway]

I personally am good with what we have. If Poy looks healthy ans solid, maybe we even get away with red shirting Wynard. And that kid has showed lately he can ball. He is almost an after thought. But I bet his UK career is very solid!!

 

[kats23]

I think after Poy went down last year it caused him to have to make a lot of lineup changes during the game depending on fouls, matchups, and who was just playing better. It was very easy for him to just run 5 in and 5 out and mix and match when needed. But having that large of a rotation took it's toll esp in the ND and Wisconsin games where they took advantage Cal's switching man to man. Think it caused him to overthink it a bit in both games.

Cal likes him a shorter rotation. I like the team as it is now.

 

[BigKari]

Matt Jones knows as much as any regular on this board and nothing more. If he thinks we are adding another scholarship player in the fall, I'd say he is wrong.

 

[JonathanW]

I'm sure if Jones was hinting at anything, it was Wynard in Dec/Jan. People on this board may be familiar with that situation, but his listeners maybe not so much. Plus you got to have to give the listeners reason to listen next time too.

 

[bucsrule8872]

I'm sure if Jones was hinting at anything, it was Wynard in Dec/Jan. People on this board may be familiar with that situation, but his listeners maybe not so much. Plus you got to have to give the listeners reason to listen next time too.

This.

 

[C1180]

Teams need depth and to build depth you have to give the reserves some playing time. Most years Calipari does not give his reserves enough playing time and this is the reason he has trouble getting second liners like other teams to build depth.

I understand the reason is he needs to play the inexperienced one and done type players a lot of minutes to prepare them for the NCAA tournament. This however makes it unlikely that he will develop Miller and Jorts type players and I think teams needs those type players.

 

[ZZBlueComet]

Cal, himself, says Poythress is 5 months away and the Wynyard deal is a rumor - yes, I'd like one more front court player.

 

[Sithlyone]

Matt was certainly hinting at something. Not sure of what or if he is correct but you could tell that he thought he knew something behind the scenes.

On a separate note, this thread is hilarious. Two years ago or so many were complaining that Cal needed to utilize a deeper bench and that a 7 man rotation wasn't deep enough. We're a fickle bunch.

 

[CUT-NETS]

I can see us having a rotation similar to 2012:

Ulis(Teague)- 32.6mpg
Labissiere(Davis)- 32mpg
Murray(Lamb)- 31.2mpg
Briscoe(Kidd-Gilchrist)- 31.1mpg
Poythress(Jones)- 29.3mpg
Lee(Miller)- 26.1mpg
Matthews(Wiltjer)- 11.6mpg
Mulder(Vargas)- 6mpg

Note: I know the positions don't line up perfectly, but that is not the purpose. I'm just comparing how a 7-8 man rotation probably works out in this situation.

Great post, and why I think its crazy to think that Willis will play. HE WILL NOT PLAY ANY SIGNIFICANT MINUTES THIS SEASON.

 

[bucsrule8872]

Cal, himself, says Poythress is 5 months away and the Wynyard deal is a rumor - yes, I'd like one more front court player.

Where would you fit another post player?

If he is good enough to play for us, is he going to come in and play behind Labissiere and Lee?

If he isn't that good, then why not just give Willis the few minutes behind Labissiere and Lee?

Wynyard is the best option.

If he comes in December, he would not expect to get 30 minutes per game. He would be learning the ropes and should be content with 5-10 minutes per game. That kind of talent willing to come in and play limited minutes, is hard to come by. It's a major bonus for us to get a guy like Wynyard to fill that role.

If he comes, it's a huge bonus. If we don't, it doesn't hurt us.

 

[UKGrad93]

I can see us having a rotation similar to 2012:

Ulis(Teague)- 32.6mpg
Labissiere(Davis)- 32mpg
Murray(Lamb)- 31.2mpg
Briscoe(Kidd-Gilchrist)- 31.1mpg
Poythress(Jones)- 29.3mpg
Lee(Miller)- 26.1mpg
Matthews(Wiltjer)- 11.6mpg
Mulder(Vargas)- 6mpg

Note: I know the positions don't line up perfectly, but that is not the purpose. I'm just comparing how a 7-8 man rotation probably works out in this situation.

Seems about right. 8 man rotation, 5 guards, 3 bigs.

 

[bucsrule8872]

Seems about right. 8 man rotation, 5 guards, 3 bigs.

I kind of figured a lot of people would jump on Mulder not getting many minutes.

I just think Matthews emerges as the top guard reserve.

 

[buckkiller]

I wouldnt mind having that big greek kid he is solid nothing soft about him other then his shooters touch.

 

[bucsrule8872]

Seems about right. 8 man rotation, 5 guards, 3 bigs.

Some might say that three bigs aren't enough, but if you dissect the minutes, you'll notice that the 3 bigs would get 87 minutes total. Considering that there's only 40 minutes per position, then that's over the 80 minutes available at the 4 and 5 spots. That puts Poythress getting some minutes at SF.

That's how I see it. Our top six get most of the minutes with Matthews and Mulder fighting over the leftover minutes.

 

[W2R]

I'm sure if Jones was hinting at anything, it was Wynard in Dec/Jan. People on this board may be familiar with that situation, but his listeners maybe not so much. Plus you got to have to give the listeners reason to listen next time too.

Looks,like it wasn't wynard after all

 

[ZZBlueComet]

Where would you fit another post player?

If he is good enough to play for us, is he going to come in and play behind Labissiere and Lee?

If he isn't that good, then why not just give Willis the few minutes behind Labissiere and Lee?

Wynyard is the best option.

If he comes in December, he would not expect to get 30 minutes per game. He would be learning the ropes and should be content with 5-10 minutes per game. That kind of talent willing to come in and play limited minutes, is hard to come by. It's a major bonus for us to get a guy like Wynyard to fill that role.

If he comes, it's a huge bonus. If we don't, it doesn't hurt us.

It's probably too late to add anyone, but even a Vargas type of player would be some good insurance - now, if Willis has dramatically improved, problem solved, but who knows how that is going?

 

[buckkiller]

This Greek kid is,way better then Vargas ever thought about being. What I have read and researched he is more then a project. He can score from both sides of block and above average touch for big man. Plus he is physical as well. I really hope we add him.