A lot is still TBD with this team. We could be anywhere from an opening weekend exit team, to an in the Championship game team.
PG: The most important position for most of Cal's teams, hell for most teams period. While there is no clear superstar here, there is a lot of positives.
1) we have 2 very capable PGs, who offer different styles, but quality-wise there is little difference in them. SGA leads in minutes (2nd on the team), and is showing to be a very good defender (2.5 Stl/gm). But Green is 5th on the team in minutes and may be our best shooter, and so this 2-headed PG monster (obviously they play together some, so some of this is at the 2G) average 51.9mpg, 20.0ppg, 7.3apg, 6.0rpg, 2.9spg, 4.9topg, 3.1fpg, make 51.7% of the FGs, 42.3% of their 3's, and 87.1% of the FTs. Make that per 40min stats, and that is still 15.4ppg, 5.6apg, 4.6rpg, 2.2spg, and 3.8topg. What's not to like about those #'s, except for the TO's. But they are FR, and that is the area most FR PGs tend to improve on the most as the season progresses. Wall, Knight & other FR PGs turned it over a lot in Nov & Dec.
SG/2G: We will call this 2G from here on out, because "shooting guard" is not a description of Diallo. He doesn't shoot it well. The form looks ok, but he needs to be open to have much chance of making a 3 (29%). Despite that his overall FG% is still 45%, so he isn't horribly inefficient. He does average a nice 4.8rpg, and 1.0spg. So he does contribute more than just scoring.
SF: For the first time in Cal's 9 seasons at UK, SF is the position of our best player. Knox isn't great at anything, but does a lot of things well. He's our best scoring option, out 2nd best shooter, is also 2nd in steals, 2nd in rebounds. The 19 TOs is a bit of a concern, but that may just be him trying to shoulder too much of the scoring load. As his teammates improve, I expect his TO's to go down. He leads (by far) in minutes, 35.3mpg.
PF: Probably our weakest position so far. Washington has been inconsistent, has turned it over a lot (2.75topg), and is horrible at the line (46%). Gabriel has been no better. If we can get some improved play at this position, the team automatically is a lot better.
C: This hasn't been a bad position for us, and may also have the most room for growth. Richards and SKJ have both had good games, and like the PG pair the 2 seem to complement each other. Combined they average 34.9mpg, and score 13.5ppg, 10.9rpg, & 2.75bpg. So their 40 min average is 15.5ppg, 12.5rpg, & 3.2bpg. Those are some nice numbers from what many thought pre-season may be our weakest position.
