Kerr, Ramey, Boswell

[arxpert]

Everyone has their opinions here, but there's only 1 prevailing fact that matters:

It is a major problem and there's no solution for this problem this season.

Ideally I would play Ramey at PG and Kerr at SG. This would take Ramey out of full time casual jack ups and catch and shoot fodder and put Kerr into it (which if Kerr won't take any shots but 3s then it makes sense to switch the role). Let Kerr run around, get himself open on the arc, take some attention away from the bigs, find a spot, receive a pass and let it rip. He acts like Luka Doncic sometimes shooting random shots, but he won't enter the arc to help anyone else.

That's our best bet. Ramey is willing to enter the arc and create. As long as Tommy can beat it into him to not do running layups from 10 feet out, and to pass, he would be just fine at PG.


There is no actual logic to Kerr being on the court with Ramey other than Boswell isn't ready enough. But in reality, if Boswell was deployed with the sole mission of driving to the rim and dishing, then the complexion of the "assists" Kerr provides would completely change. There's no reason Boswell can't dump the ball off to a big.

Kerr gets assists by tossing up moonballs to Ballo. There is nothing special about that. It can be replaced. Even by Pelle, but Pelle needs to come off the bench. It is part of the "problem".

Mind you, all of this assumes Tommy will continue to bring in Pelle off the bench which is the correct way to do things and continue to banish Henri and Dylan for whatever reasons people want to make up that don't fully make sense.

In a perfect world -

Ramey
Pelle
Henderson
Tubelis
Ballo
Kerr 6th Man with energy and scoring injection.

But this isn't a perfect world and Pelle is not reliable in that setting - however he is taking his role off the bench seriously and is playing heavy minutes as a result, just in a much better and confident way.

So it must be the other way. Again, this is a problem that cannot be fixed with what we have. Boswell could however play more minutes and Kerr can be limited to 5 3pt shots a game with a strict limit. Tommy just has to grow a pair and put him on the bench when he wastes attempts. Some might call that the Miller Dog House treatment, but it is now the Tommy Dog House. Henri resides there. It is a real place.

Now on the flipside, if Ramey could hone in his talent, I believe we would have a killer inside-out game.

Ramey - in a ball handling PG role with the ability to hit some bail out 3s when needed and switch it up with Kerr at times when he can catch and shoot
Kerr (can handle the ball in transition, maybe find Ramey on the fly as we see sometimes now)
Hendo (energy plays, defense, take-fouls on doubles protecting Ballo/Tube early)
Tubelis
Ballo

Entry passes to Tubelis by Ramey then back out for some 3s as opposed to force-creating his own in the PG role is the name of that game. There is also a chance Tommy could get smart and utilize some Kerr ball handling at times and set up the run + catch and shoot (think Rip Hamilton) with Ramey. It is entirely too much to ask of Ramey, but in reality it is our best bet overall.

This puts a ton of pressure on Ramey, but he is the experienced old man technically. I think this approach would limit his bad shooting nights as he would bear the responsibility of needing to average 6 or 7+ assists a game instead of watching Kerr lob balls into the low post, but he would still be in there scoring at his similar rate.

Again, this is just a potential solution for a problem that can't realistically be solved without players making plays and Tommy not sitting back letting everyone jack up casual 3s and have lazy inbounding / lazy turnovers / lazy defensive rebounding. Sometimes the best way to fix a problem is to distract the problem with a different utility or role. It is working with Pelle. I think it will work with Kerr if Tommy tries it.

[KansasCityCats]

There hasn't been a solution to "who plays PG for Arizona?" since TJ McConnell was here.  Even when TJ ran the show, he was purposely left open because his shot was awful.

We haven't had a true PG intimidate opponents since Jason Gardner dominated the Pac-10.

Plenty of talent came through Tucson over the years. 

Fortunately, Kerr has already shown doubters that he can be an efficient PG.  He leads the league in assists and handles the ball MUCH better than when he initially showed up on campus.  I can't wait to see if Boswell embraces the role as a 4-year player.  He has the potential to dominate in the future...

[Eurozona]

Oddly enough you see the same phenomenon with other players.

Zu vs quad 1: 49%
Zu vs quad 4: 68%

Ballo vs quad 1: 66%
Ballo vs quad 4 : 75%

You tell me what these stats mean?
[/quote]
Now do Ramey.

[Eurozona]

"I did not use Nov, because Ramey was out the 1st 3 games. You can use Pac 12 games (like I did) or games since Dec 1. Does not matter to me."

Please don't even pretend that that is the actual reason why you did not use the whole season to make your point, like everybody else would. You skipped November for the same reason why you skipped December. You wanted to show the worst possible Kerr numbers. We all know it, you know it. So stop with that lame Ramey explanation.

So, you want to compare players using incomplete stats. You will understand that does not work when you finish school.

"If he shoots better in Europe vs in college, then maybe the college kids defend better than guys in Europe?"

Let me see if I can understand your point here. You are saying that the kids who play for WSU, USC, Oregon,... defend better than guys like Franz Wagner, Giannis, Doncic who play in the NBA or the other players that have been playing professional ball for years? Are you serious? When Kerr played Croatia he was facing 3 NBA guys, one guy who was the MVP of the German league two years ago, and another guy who played pro ball for a decade. You honestly believe they play worse defense than guys who would take their jobs in a heartbeat? That is quite some opinion you have there. Not sure if you share that one with anybody who knows basketball.

How many euro players are there? You cherry pick 0.002% of them to try and prove your point? You lack understanding in more than just the English language.

"Kerr, Pelle and HV all performed better in their Euro leagues than they are at Arizona vs college kids. Why is that?"

This whole sentence just tells me that you don't have any knowledge whatsoever when it comes to international basketball. You keep referring to euro leagues, because you can't differentiate the different competitions. I have never heard anybody call a tournament like the Eurobasket or world cup qualifiers ,,leagues". Also bunching Kerr, Pelle, and HV together to make a point does not really make sense here. HV's numbers were not even good in the world cup qualifiers. They were not good when he played for his youth club team versus adults. May I suggest not to have opinions on matters you don't know shit about?

I could care less about euro leagues. Pro's play in them to represent their country; not because it makes them better players. You are the one who brought them up to justify how good these guys are.

"I just look at performance. You tell me what these stats mean?
Kerr vs
Q4 teams: 51.6% (54.2%)
Q3: 44.8% (46.2%)
Q2: 32.1% (31.8%)
Q1: 29.4% (25%)"

Wow, that looks like a lot of work to make a very obvious point. When you play against good competition OVER TIME your numbers will be worse than when you play against bad competition. DUH. When you play against a BDU team I am sure your numbers would be better than when you play against Arizona basketball. This seems quite obvious to me. Show me a player who has better averages against very good defense than against poor defense and I will show you a player whose attitude you probably have to question.

Oddly enough you see the same phenomenon with other players.

Zu vs quad 1: 49%
Zu vs quad 4: 68%

Ballo vs quad 1: 66%
Ballo vs quad 4 : 75%

You tell me what these stats mean?

I understand you do not comprehend things well due to being from another Country, so I'll give you a small pass. The point is not the rise and fall of averages, it's that some players fold and some rise to the occasion. Some are just limited and incapable to rise to the occasion because they lack the talent to compete.
Ramey for example rises to the occasion because he has the talent to compete at higher levels.
Ramey
vs Q2: 50% (44.4%)
vs Q1: 40% (46.2%)

[WerderBremen]

Holy shit. You are even dumber than I thought possible. Congrats. Focus on breathing. That should be enough of a challenge.

[Eurozona]

Holy shit. You are even dumber than I thought possible. Congrats. Focus on breathing. That should be enough of a challenge.

Hah. You have no validity to your argument, so you resort to calling your opposition dumb? You don't understand your 1st instinct is to interpret things in a way that confirms your bias opinion, no matter how stupid or incorrect they are. Not only that, you feel the need run to the chat to gain some sort of comfort and affirmation from Deb and ZN. You are a meek and cowardly little man WB.

[arxpert]

Holy shit. You are even dumber than I thought possible. Congrats. Focus on breathing. That should be enough of a challenge.

Hah. You have no validity to your argument, so you resort to calling your opposition dumb? You don't understand your 1st instinct is to interpret things in a way that confirms your bias opinion, no matter how stupid or incorrect they are. Not only that, you feel the need run to the chat to gain some sort of comfort and affirmation from Deb and ZN. You are a meek and cowardly little man WB.

LOL.

Constant running back to the safety of the clique and echo chamber...

[arxpert]

There hasn't been a solution to "who plays PG for Arizona?" since TJ McConnell was here.  Even when TJ ran the show, he was purposely left open because his shot was awful.

We haven't had a true PG intimidate opponents since Jason Gardner dominated the Pac-10.

Plenty of talent came through Tucson over the years. 

Fortunately, Kerr has already shown doubters that he can be an efficient PG.  He leads the league in assists and handles the ball MUCH better than when he initially showed up on campus.  I can't wait to see if Boswell embraces the role as a 4-year player.  He has the potential to dominate in the future...

I still believe Ramey as primary PG is the best coaching move to make. Kerr as a catch and shoot SG and transition PG works better. I would like to see the change. Kerr's assists are largely invalid. Deep moonball lobs are not a skillset limited to only Kerr. Boswell might be more raw, but the only way to learn on the job is to get in there and build chemistry. There is no way this team will look the same next season so there is no point in holding Boswell back unless he is playing his way out of minutes.

Jerryd Bayless was a force. Momo Jones was a good PG. We can't just limit what a PG means to a token fan favorite type. Every year is different these days. If Boswell were to be here for 4 years then something must have seriously gone wrong in his development or health. "Bam Bam" is bigger than any 17 year old I have ever seen play college basketball at his height. He isn't the future. He is the Now.

[KansasCityCats]

Boswell reclassified and specifically said he is NOT the "now" because he wanted to learn the system and rehab from his injury. Since he'll be a senior at age 20, I wouldn't assume that anything went wrong if Kylan is still around and running the show for 4 years. TJ McConnell hung around and I loved every minute of it.

Momo played with energy but he was not a good point guard. He could drive to the basket; that's about it. Bayless only hung around for a year and he was solely a scorer that took the ball up the court.

I'm not trying to define the PG  position yet Arizona fans doubted the idea of Kerr being a distributor. He has drastically improved at the point...and we can't discount the skill of tossing a lob into the low post. It isn't easy to feed bigs that are regularly double teamed.

Ramey at the point and Kerr at SG would be perfectly fine. As long as those two get a majority of the backcourt minutes and Boswell's playing time slowly increases, Our staff did their job.