5 Observations after 5 games.

1. Days has been better than expected on offense, but what he has shown on defense may be better. He looks to have become and elite defender and is doing so without fouling, which was probably his biggest knock coming into the season. In hindsight some of that could be contributed to them giving him some tough assignments on teams that could not defend at all.

2. Defense rotation is amazing, and we are still a young team(in terms of time playing together). That will only get better as we go. It’s enough to blow yourself mind when you compare them to the rotation of the 20-21 team.

3. Gaines has made a leap, and I still believe he is well below his ceiling. His development reminds me some of Tryus Thomas, where he is really just still learning the game and once he really starts seeing the ball go in the basket watch out.

4. The stamina of our teams under Wade has always been impressive, rotating eight makes it down right scary. We just look like we are wearing teams down quickly with extended ball pressure. Add to that we either make them run in transition, or make them guard if the early offense isn’t there. We are just flat out working teams to death on both ends.

5. There are lineups out there that have the potential to make us better we have used sparingly. First one that comes to mind is Gaines, Days, Eason, Fudge and either off guard. That could be an elite defensive lineup, and if they can find a half way decent rhythm offensively watch out. Fudge has also shown the ability to guard the 2 so far which means we could play him at the 2 with Days, Reid and Eason in the front court(which we have done a couple of times). If this becomes possible, we can also play some 3 guard lineups too since we can give two of them a blow at the same time.

I know this is long, but I really see infinitely more upside than downside with this team so far. Some here say we need to shoot the three better, which I don’t think is going to be a huge deal if we don’t. But if we get to the 40% clip those ranters are searching for, I don’t know how we lose.

Well that’s enough SS pumping for one night,
BootUp and Geaux Tigers