Roster management (Looking ahead to the 2019-20 basketball team roster-best and worse case scenario)

Da_Lucky_One

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Best case scenario:
Dewan Hernandez returns for his senior year, Kam McGusty does not get kicked off the team in October 2019 and Harlon Beverly commits to Miami.

Roster Breakdown (12 scholarship players):

Hypothetical Starting Five: Chris Lykes-PG, DJ Vasiljevic-SG, Kam McGusty-SG/SF, Deng Gak-PF and Dewan Hernandez-C
Hypothetical Bench: Isaiah Wong-PG, Harlond Beverly-SG, Anthony Mack SG/SF, Sam Waardenburg-SF, Anthony Walker-PF, Rodney Miller-C and Willie Herenton-SG.

Miami has 1 scholarship left (should be two but I already posted my thoughts on Herenton gets scholarship thread) and they should use that scholarship on a grad transfer big. If for some reason or another, Willie Herenton is removed from scholarship then Miami should add a 2nd grad transfer big to the roster. We all know Sam Waardenburg is not a traditional 4. A stretch 4 is becoming a stretch. I know someone will reply that he is not a 3 either but in a reserve role, some of his deficiencies will be hidden, hopefully. I still think he will improve soon. Given Coach L says he has a foot injury but his play this year has been a step backward. No pun truly intended. Deng Gak is returning from injury and still needs to add muscle. Rodney Miller is still a project until he shows otherwise. Anthony Walker could be good and possibly start but will Coach L play him is the question.

A grad transfer big or bigs would definitely play a lot of minutes and could possible start considering Coach L does better with older players. Given the uncertain production of Wardenburg, Gak and Miller, I would rather have a grad transfer big or two and not need him than to need him and not have him.

Hope for the best but prepare for the worse.
 
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Worse case scenario:
Dewan Hernandez turns pro and no one else commits to the 2019 recruiting class.

Roster Breakdown (10 scholarship players):

Hypothetically Starting five: Chris Lykes-PG, DJ Vasiljevic-SG, Kam McGusty-SG/SF, Sam Waardenburg-S4 and Deng Gak-C
Hypothetically Reserves: Isaiah Wong-PG, Sam Mack-SG, Willie Herenton-SG, Anthony Walker-PF and Rodney Miller-C

Miami will have 3 scholarships available. Miami should add 2 grad transfer bigs and 1 grad transfer wing. The worse case scenario could get worse if Kam McGusty gets kicked off the team in October 2019. Let's hope not but we have to wait and see. That drops the number to 9 scholarship players if Kam was dismissed. The grad transfer bigs would again get significant playing time and possibly start. The grad transfer wing would get some playing time off the bench if Kam is still on the team. I don't see Willie Herenton as a rotational player. Then Miami will have 4 or 5 available scholarships for the 2020 recruiting class. At that point, the stink of the FBI investigation should be off of the program and recruiting should be able to get back on track.

Take the Louisville approach under Chris Mack, take grad transfers as a stopgap until you can get recruiting back on track.

Hope for the best and prepare for the worse.
 
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Main question is: Will the 2020 product look better than this year's poor showing? What's going on with this year's team? They look like a team that will not make the NCAAs or the NIT!
 
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Absolutely no chance Dewan's still on the team next year. ****, I'd be mildly surprised if he makes it to the end of THIS year. At this point, he'd probably be better off just withdrawing from school and playing pro somewhere.

I agree that Waardenburg should improve. Could be a useful role player as long as he's actually used as a stretch 4 and nothing more.

Not that there's a better option, but Gak starting makes me cringe. Dude looked like he barely even knew the rules half the time. If by some miracle Dewan sticks around, I would think they'd start either Sam or Walker at the 4, or punt on a power forward altogether and just go 4 guards.
 
Main question is: Will the 2020 product look better than this year's poor showing? What's going on with this year's team? They look like a team that will not make the NCAAs or the NIT!

Good question. The answer depends on how the coaching staff approaches the roster and it is the purpose of this thread. Considering that freshman recruiting could be done for 2019, I would like to see the coaching staff add grad transfers to infuse some depth and talent to the roster to become a more competitive team along with giving fans a better product to cheer for.
I have no interest in regular transfers as they would have to sit out 2019-2020.
I hope they use all available scholarships to add talent to the roster. If not and we experience another season like 2018-2019 (record wise) then it may be time to consider a coaching change. In fairness, let's give the staff a chance to learn from this experience and correct the problem.
 
Absolutely no chance Dewan's still on the team next year. ****, I'd be mildly surprised if he makes it to the end of THIS year. At this point, he'd probably be better off just withdrawing from school and playing pro somewhere.

I agree that Waardenburg should improve. Could be a useful role player as long as he's actually used as a stretch 4 and nothing more.

Not that there's a better option, but Gak starting makes me cringe. Dude looked like he barely even knew the rules half the time. If by some miracle Dewan sticks around, I would think they'd start either Sam or Walker at the 4, or punt on a power forward altogether and just go 4 guards.

Anything is possible and that is why I wanted to look at it in a best case and worse case scenario so everyone could get an idea of what direction the basketball team is heading.

I agree with you about Gak and Anthony Walker could be the answer. With so many unproven bigs, signing two grad transfer bigs is probably the best route to go to give the team a better chance to succeed.

I could see a 4 guard lineup in some situations but without a legit big who rebounds, it is tough to succeed with a 4 guard lineup. Especially since our current group of guards don't rebound that well.
 
What is this Kam getting kicked off news about? I'm usually tapped in but am blanking on this.
 
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Good question. The answer depends on how the coaching staff approaches the roster and it is the purpose of this thread. Considering that freshman recruiting could be done for 2019, I would like to see the coaching staff add grad transfers to infuse some depth and talent to the roster to become a more competitive team along with giving fans a better product to cheer for.
I have no interest in regular transfers as they would have to sit out 2019-2020.
I hope they use all available scholarships to add talent to the roster. If not and we experience another season like 2018-2019 (record wise) then it may be time to consider a coaching change. In fairness, let's give the staff a chance to learn from this experience and correct the problem.
I agree! Thanks for your feedback.
 
I agree that Waardenburg should improve. Could be a useful role player as long as he's actually used as a stretch 4 and nothing more.

Sam played 30 minutes last night and got 2 rebounds. I'm hard pressed to think of a weaker 6'10 player we've had. Stretch 4 or not, he needs to add at least 20 pounds, 15 of it muscle. Don't think he can do much about his slow reflexes.
 
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Sam played 30 minutes last night and got 2 rebounds. I'm hard pressed to think of a weaker 6'10 player we've had. Stretch 4 or not, he needs to add at least 20 pounds, 15 of it muscle. Don't think he can do much about his slow reflexes.
Sam played very well last night. Probably will never be a star but his game has improved a lot as the season has gone on.
 
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Sam played very well last night. Probably will never be a star but his game has improved a lot as the season has gone on.
I think he played much better last season (when he was surrounded by better talent) so ... I don't see the improvement. Never be a star? At this point (two seasons in), I'd settle for him turning out be a role player who can give us 5-7 stronger (and I mean that literally) minutes off the bench each game.
 
Sam, DJ and Anthony Mack are very jumpshot dependent. As long as they see their jumpshot fall, the rest of their game improves. When they are not making jumpshots, their contribution is minimal.

You are correct though, all three will be better players when they are playing with other guys who can create scoring opportunities for them. None of them can create their own shot and they struggle in Coach L's ball screen offense when they have to do something other than catch and shot.

It is also a bad idea to have all three of them on the floor at the same time.
 
Sam, DJ and Anthony Mack are very jumpshot dependent. As long as they see their jumpshot fall, the rest of their game improves. When they are not making jumpshots, their contribution is minimal.

You are correct though, all three will be better players when they are playing with other guys who can create scoring opportunities for them. None of them can create their own shot and they struggle in Coach L's ball screen offense when they have to do something other than catch and shot.

It is also a bad idea to have all three of them on the floor at the same time.
I don't disagree, but think it's interesting that every so often DJ will make a nice drive to the basket and score on a lay-up. I think he may be trying that special drive-in that Coach L recently taught Dewan, and he (Dewan) had some success in the exhibition. I forget the special name Coach L calls it.

If DJ got a little more fluid and expanded his game to things like this with regularity, we would ofc benefit greatly from that added dimension.
 
I'm OK with Dejan as is. I mean, he led the entire ACC in 3 pt FG% last season (if I heard the TV announcers right in the Clemson game). That's a pretty big testament to his value.
 
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