AJ Lopez - Transfer Commit - 1 year of eligibility

I feel that Lopez will be on the court and will contribute as he did play well against three A10 teams last season. Granted all 3 were in the bottom half of the league.
 
My biggest question is whether he plays essentially as the "other guard" next to Johnston or Tyne, or does he play as a "wing forward". I know I know, we are in the era of positionless basketball - but - not to start the debate again - we need guys who can guard a wing forwad on the floor. As noted in another thread, my preference is that he is in the "guard" rotation - and Bryson steps in at the 3. That would give us pretty good size at the 2/3 spots.
 
post some highlights that previously posted on reddit board:

A lot to like about this guy. One thing I found funny - we know he put up good numbers vs Richmond, but had season high in 3 point attempts and makes vs us. boy our D was bad last season. Hoping it improves this season.

Watched some other highlights and one thing I really like is he has a signature mid range move. Its a bit unorthodox where he drives in the lane and then takes a couple steps back and seems to be automatic on a 10 to 12 footer. I know mid range is a bad word now, but it seemed/seems to work well for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Michael Jordan, Kawhi Leonard, Curtis Blair, Kenny Atkinson, Lamont Butler, etc. It's atypical now and harder to guard.
Looking at his stats from last season at Maine, in addition to good games against the A10 teams, he also excelled vs. Vermont, Umass-Lowell and Bryant - which were all pretty good teams last season I believe.

Thinking he will be day one starter at the wing - and also hoping he is in the back court a lot too.
 
sounds like a great kid and the stats look good, but man. I haven't seen a kid with form like that past the 5th grade. I guess nobody wanted to change it since it works. if I'm covering him though, I'd make sure he never got one off. much younger me, anyway.
 
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*23* said:
post some highlights that previously posted on reddit board:

A lot to like about this guy. One thing I found funny - we know he put up good numbers vs Richmond, but had season high in 3 point attempts and makes vs us. boy our D was bad last season. Hoping it improves this season.

Watched some other highlights and one thing I really like is he has a signature mid range move. Its a bit unorthodox where he drives in the lane and then takes a couple steps back and seems to be automatic on a 10 to 12 footer. I know mid range is a bad word now, but it seemed/seems to work well for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Michael Jordan, Kawhi Leonard, Curtis Blair, Kenny Atkinson, Lamont Butler, etc. It's atypical now and harder to guard.
Looking at his stats from last season at Maine, in addition to good games against the A10 teams, he also excelled vs. Vermont, Umass-Lowell and Bryant - which were all pretty good teams last season I believe.

Thinking he will be day one starter at the wing - and also hoping he is in the back court a lot too.
Click to expand...
I love his focus when playing, he's all business.
 
sman said:
sounds like a great kid and the stats look good, but man. I haven't seen a kid with form like that past the 5th grade. I guess nobody wanted to change it since it works. if I'm covering him though, I'd make sure he never got one off. much younger me, anyway.
Click to expand...
Yep, will be very interesting as to how it converts this season. Crazy slash line last season 48%FG/40%3PT/88FT%. I guess the defenses last year did not figure it out.
 
*23* said:
Yep, will be very interesting as to how it converts this season. Crazy slash line last season 48%FG/40%3PT/88FT%. I guess the defenses last year did not figure it out.
Click to expand...
my complaint about so many defenses (including ours) is the over-helping. I'd rather give up a contested 2 over an open 3 to a really good shooter.
 
sman said:
my complaint about so many defenses (including ours) is the over-helping. I'd rather give up a contested 2 over an open 3 to a really good shooter.
Click to expand...
100%. You have to trust the man guarding to do his job. Leaving a guy wide open for a 3 in this day in age is going to bite you.
 
sman said:
my complaint about so many defenses (including ours) is the over-helping. I'd rather give up a contested 2 over an open 3 to a really good shooter.
Click to expand...
This is one of the very hardest things to coach. You have to coach help defense and it has to be a core defensive principle, so its very hard to coach kids not to overhelp. Kids are focused on their job and its a fine line between not overhelping and just plain missing your help assignment. So kids do their job and help anytime it looks like they should. Asking them not to help in certain situations etc. that require instant recognition of multiple factors is not really achievable and its also not really duplicable in a practice scenario. Its doable to tell a kid who is guarding a great shooter to simply not help today, but that messes up your defense in a lot of ways as everyone else is taught, for example, to force their man to their help etc. and then the help isn't there and that kid looks like a bad defender when he did what he was coached to do. Some kids can intuitively do it and others can be somewhat taught, but most need to just now a "rule' and follow the rule!

One reason we are probably especially bad at this is because Moon absolutely coaches a lot of instinct out of players - - he wants them following the rules, running the plays right, being in the right spot etc. (and many coaches are like this) and if that's the way you are coached, as a player you have a team rule about help and you are going to help when the rule says help - - no instinctive "maybe I don't need to help against that guy right here right now when my guy is a great shooter".
 
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