KSR on best and worst lineups, "wouldn't throw a kid under the bus"

[Soupbean]

Reed’s first look is to Dillingham when they play together and it diminishes Reed. I’ve said this repeatedly. It’s criminal that Reed doesn’t take 6 threes a game.. It’s glaring how fast he defers as they cross miidcourt almost every time and once he catches it, Dillingham puts his head down and looks to score or throws a fastball that is either a very hard catch or a turnover. Love Dilly but you talk about a guy that will send you home a early in March and that’s your guy.

Yeah but if you remember at the beginning of the year Rob or Reed wasnt doing that as much when we were playing four guards (with Reeves) and Mitchell and spreading the floor. Like myself we've all forgotten already how beautiful and fun that was to watch with the floor open and those buys driving and kicking to each other like poetry in motion. Only Cal could kill that by forcing in the bigs, slowing things down, an clogging up the middle again.

That said, Reed has to stop deferring so much. He defers so much he gets himself caught forcing bad passes just to get rid of it sometimes.

 

[Cold Stout Beer]

Yeah but if you remember at the beginning of the year Rob or Reed wasnt doing that as much when we were playing four guards (with Reeves) and Mitchell and spreading the floor. Like myself we've all forgotten already how beautiful and fun that was to watch with the floor open and those buys driving and kicking to each other like poetry in motion. Only Cal could kill that by forcing in the bigs, slowing things down, an clogging up the middle again.

That said, Reed has to stop deferring so much. He defers so much he gets himself caught forcing bad passes just to get rid of it sometimes.

He's got too many mouths to feed but is just short of being able to platoon. This is one of the biggest issues.

 

[Kyhoward]

Cal’s mindset - my players have more “stars” combined than your players, so we just roll the ball out. I like my team!

 

[FitchandMurray29]

Yeah but if you remember at the beginning of the year Rob or Reed wasnt doing that as much when we were playing four guards (with Reeves) and Mitchell and spreading the floor. Like myself we've all forgotten already how beautiful and fun that was to watch with the floor open and those buys driving and kicking to each other like poetry in motion. Only Cal could kill that by forcing in the bigs, slowing things down, an clogging up the middle again.

That said, Reed has to stop deferring so much. He defers so much he gets himself caught forcing bad passes just to get rid of it sometimes.

Not disagreeing with you and I think the underlying point that the good version of Tre changes this team is spot on imo. But when did we have Reeves guarding opposing 4s? I must have forgotten or it couldn’t have been much time against anyone good.

It’s been a long season with A LOT of lineup jumbling so I easily could have forgot.

 

[CatsnRoses]

They're not kids. They're adults getting paid good money to perform. Criticism of their on-court play is more than fair.

 

[EliteBlue]

And yet, we are 12-2 when Dillingham plays less than 24 minutes, 3-4 when he scores more than 18.

But, I agree that I think those 3 are the best perimeter trio you can put on the floor. Cal has slowly deteriorated this team to the point that they now second guess themselves on almost everything they do. They are turning down open shots for drives and last second heaves. They are turning down transition opportunities for half court one on one play. The offense was so beautiful at the beginning of the season, but now is at times hard to watch.

Instead of focusing a bit on gettiing the offensive jugernaut to play slightly better D, he starts trading offensive firepower for minimal gains on the defensive end. This team isn't built to play smothering defense, it is built to put a ton of pressure on you by scoring almost every time and in a blink of an eye. Play straight up man to man, quit helping, and turn them loose on offense, that is the key going forward. That trio mentioned is the best rio, but it has to play helter skelter basketball, up and down the floor, scoring in the first 10 seconds they have the ball, but that isn't how Cal wants to play.

Right now I would donate a portion of my yearly intake right now to get rid of Cal and get a new coach, frankly any coach at this point. Seeing this guy waste talent year after year is old.

That Dillingham stat is misleading. The reason we are 3-4 in the games he’s scored more than 18 is often bc it’s games we are struggling to score and we turn to him to go get buckets bc he can get a shot anytime he wants one.

He got extremely hot and gave us a chance at AM in a game we didn’t have business having a chance to win at the buzzer. He hit circus shots to get us back in it.

Same for Kansas. He went off…and cal benched him and we blew the lead.

 

[treyforuk]

Cal knows he can't have Wagner and Edwards in there late if the game is on the line. So he starts them because their gonna get their mins and by starting them both halves that gives him the best chance to course correct and satisfy their mins..

The idiot is putting us in a hole every game. Just his lineups and mins distribution cost us 8-10 pts/game. Against LSU Rob and DJ played the same mins. How's that possible?

Great defense?

 

[Wonky]

Dean Smith coached at unc for 37 years and won 2 titles. He won 1 title with Jordan n 3 years. He had all his stars 3 and 4 seasons.

Don't understand the logic.

Here’s the logic:

Dean Smith: 37 years at UNC, 25 first-round draft picks

Cal: 15 years at Kentucky, 37 first round draft picks IF you assume Dilly and Reed are the only first rounders this year. That’s an average of 2.5 first-rounders PER SEASON, compared to Dean’s average of 0.7 per season. HUGE difference. Yeah Dean had the benefit of upperclassman, but so did all his competition back then. So with much less talent stretched over many more seasons, he STILL was able to get a second title (of course it took the creation of the AFAM department to make it happen). I don’t know, brother. They both suck, but I’m leaning Cal on this one.

 

[OmahaCats]

Cal knows he can't have Wagner and Edwards in there late if the game is on the line. So he starts them because their gonna get their mins and by starting them both halves that gives him the best chance to course correct and satisfy their mins..

The idiot is putting us in a hole every game. Just his lineups and mins distribution cost us 8-10 pts/game. Against LSU Rob and DJ played the same mins. How's that possible?

This is very true

 

[Blue_2_the_bone]

LSU won because Cal refused to call a timeout when they started their run and then again when he left Reeves out too long with 3 fouls. Reeves was hot. He’s a Sr and should have been trusted to continue playing. Cal cooled him off just like he has Dillingham in other games. We struggled to score and they made a run to put UK in a hole. Cal’s foul rules on hot players has lost us several games this year.

 

[DeerTurkHunter1]

At one point he had UGO, Bradshaw, Theiro, and Edwards I believe.

Yes and…..Burkes

 

[JRCAT14]

At one point he had UGO, Bradshaw, Theiro, and Edwards I believe.

It's very possible. I remember at one time seeing Ugo, Bradshaw, either Theiro or Edwards, Reeves and Wagner. This crazy lineup just made a bad night even worse for DJ and even hard on Reeves during that time.

Simply guard Reeves closely (switch defenders on any screens set by the offensively challenged trio) and DJ is left with few options and either chucks up a 25 footer or drives into a lane already occupied by Ugo's defender and two others waiting to slide over and help without any fear of leaving Theiro and Edwards.

I do know Edwards hit two threes early and one at the start of the second half, but if I'm an opposing coach I'll live with that every time. Don't know, but probably first game with three threes and I believe that was his entire stat line for the night.

DJ should only play when at least two of the three R's are on the court with him. I personally would like for Z to get his few minutes that Cal gives him to be with this group. A lot of options are there with the pick and pop with Wagner and Z while you have two of the three R's on the wing.

 

[SkyPrince1]

I agree 110% that Klutch (mainly Lebron) tried to steer AB to USC to play with Bronny.

According to Pilgrim (I think he has good info) was that Klutch discouraged Livingston from leaving UK, and would have been happy with him returning to college another year. That info was from Pilgrim.

I'm guessing Wagner goes pro and I don't what will happen with Edwards. I would love to see him return, but we both know that rarely happens.

My point is all the people who make it seem that Cal is making decisions to make Klutch happy. If so, he's doing a poor job of doing it while he's parking those players beside him on the bench.

Again, this is not me defending Cal. There's plenty things that frustrate me without us having to make up things that are not true. I don't have a clue what Klutch says or thinks about Cal. However, they can't use player development against him when Rob and Reed are miles ahead of where they were projected to be in the draft.

I haven't watched 1 minute of NBA since last year's finals. I MAY watch 5 minutes of finals this year. But, you know Klutch can't use NBA development against Cal when half the All-Star team consists of UK players.

I AM NOT a NBA fan, except if it help us in recruiting.

There's plenty to be frustrated about! Klutch isn't one of them.

The only reason Klutch would be upset is because they know there's not going to be a big payday on Edwards and Bradshaw's first contract .
IMO the "reports" of Bradshaw to USC centered around UK' s recruitment of Hunter Dickinson more than just teaming up with Bronny.
Situations like that are going to arise when you attempt to sign the top end HS players and the top end portal players.
Someone is not going to be happy.
I don't believe Klutch is nearly as involved with other clients as they were with Chris. He's an Akron kids who Lebron, Paul had a personal interest in.

 

[Princecal]

Here’s the logic:

Dean Smith: 37 years at UNC, 25 first-round draft picks

Cal: 15 years at Kentucky, 37 first round draft picks IF you assume Dilly and Reed are the only first rounders this year. That’s an average of 2.5 first-rounders PER SEASON, compared to Dean’s average of 0.7 per season. HUGE difference. Yeah Dean had the benefit of upperclassman, but so did all his competition back then. So with much less talent stretched over many more seasons, he STILL was able to get a second title (of course it took the creation of the AFAM department to make it happen). I don’t know, brother. They both suck, but I’m leaning Cal on this one.

To have a player go in the first round, they have to declare, if players are all waiting 3 to 4 years before declaring, as long as there are limits to how many players you can have on your team, you're not going to have anywhere close to the same number. And .7 is right in between 1/3rd and 1/4th of 2.5. seems they are producing first round picks at the same rate with relation to their respective era.

 

[Cold Stout Beer]

The entire world disagrees with you. Rob is a projected top 3 pick, thinking he is negatively affecting Reed is brain dead.

Did the entire world see how Reed did last night playing 35 minutes to Dillingham’s 16 and not deferring to him all the time? You eventually learn the game.

 

[JwUKFan11]

Did the entire world see how Reed did last night playing 35 minutes to Dillingham’s 16 and not deferring to him all the time? You eventually learn the game.

You're an idiot and have no basketball knowledge.