Shooting 3’s

One of the worst things that could happen was Days making every three he looked at early. He thinks as soon as it hits his hand it should go up.

Wow. I knew he was bad , I didn’t think it was that bad.

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This team needs to understand their strengths are inside.

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Can't agree more. I'd much rather this team play the amazing defense that is has been playing and push the ball inside. I'd rather win 60 to 40, rather than trying to throw up 3's. Shoot them every so often, but this is a top 5 defensive team!

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It’s the type of threes we are taking that kills us. Wade was pretty pissed about it last night. I don’t mind this team shooting threes when the ball moves to the open shooter but the no pass or one pass possessions that end with a three are killer.

The one pass threes mean the defense will be in position for the rebound. If we move the ball around make their defense work and slide them out of position we have a good shot at the offensive board. Which is why I don’t mind this team shooting the three when they move the ball around to get to the open three.

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Yep.

Cam, Smart, Tremont were guys who were just as comfortable (maybe more) in shooting 3's off the dribble. Days is a catch and shoot guy, Pinson is somewhat inconsistent, and right now Gaines is just not a good 3 point shooter. Like you said, I don't think Wade is mad because they are missing threes. He's mad because the shots are bad and not even giving themselves a chance to make them or grab the miss.

But to put things in a little perspective because we are often blinded by the present, LSU is currently shooting 3's at the same % as the 19-20 team and slightly BETTER than the 18-19 team (SEC champs). The point is LSU has rarely been a good 3 point shooting team under Wade. Yet, they have found ways to score in bunches.

At the beginning of each season Wade gives his players more freedom on offense to see what works and what doesn't. Then, he tweaks the approach to fit what the personnel is best at doing. This was ALWAYS going to be a team that had to rely on ball movement and assists more than the last two teams to generate offense. They have gotten away from that in the last few games and I fully expect Wade to get it fixed. In 18-19 LSU started out taking a lot of questionable 3's. As the season went on the 3 point attempts started to wane a bit while the FT attempts went up. I wouldn't be surprised to see that same trend begin with the Georgia Tech game.

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And please tell Gaines that he is 7 for 40 (17.5%) in shooting 3's

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he's probably a decent 3 point shooter when he isnt' taking stupid step backs or other 3's trying to show off. If he limited himself to just catch and shoot 3's, he'd probably be a good 3 point shooter, but that's not how the majority of his shots are taken. Even when he takes catch and shoot 3's, he rarely ever pulls the trigger immediately, it's usually a wait and see if the defender sags off after i pump fake, then shoot the 3 out of rhythm.

I want to see more of Reid/Days/Eason on the court together, and force mismatches in the post and let them go to work down there. Put Pinson and Murray out there with them and play inside out. catch and shoot 3's from passes coming out of double teams in the post are acceptable.
And i don't mean come down the court, dribble for 20 seconds, no one moves, then decide to feed it into the post. Run some offense and move the ball and players around to get the defense moving and out of position so you can make an easy post entry pass that hopefully allows our offensive guy to make a quick move before any double team comes.
We are too talented down low to not make teams pay for it. We could very easily make a team run their arse off on defense scrambling to guard us after double teams, yet we allow them to rest on defense more often than not. We should be forcing the other team to have to work hard and wear them down so that they are tired by the end of the game.

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Defense is great and inside game is great.

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Inside game has potential to be very good, but I hesitate to say it is right now. Right now, we do not effectively get the ball inside to Reid. We missed several opportunities last night when he was open and had a path to the rim. When we did get it to him, he had to work hard to get his jump hook off - a shot which could be devastating once he gets even more confidence in it and we design more opportunities for him.

Eason is a beast going to the basket and we need to open the middle up for him a bit more. Good 3-point shooting would help there.

Fudge has the potential to slash to the basket and receive a pass and finish. He is not the driver that Eason is, but he is athletic and quick.

In short, there is great promise and flashes of potential greatness, but there much work yet to do to compete with Duke, Gonzaga, and other basketball elites and I hope they do it. This team has the potential to compete for a championship.

They need to get Wilkenson more shots

Parker Edwards should be the only player with the green light.