Heineken-Ashi said:

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You guys were sure last year that Manny was trash and would transfer.

Who knows how long it will take him to settle in. But the one thing he has going is age, maturity, and experience. I'd be willing to guess his game clicks A LOT earlier than last year.

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It's his fourth season.

I don't get how he doesn't have at least some ability to hide himself in a game at this point. Play defense, set some screens and take open shots (which he's actually pretty good at), etc.

Like Carter was out there 30 minutes and you barely noticed him. He wasn't catastrophic on defense, he hit a few open shots, he got a handful of rebounds, just a basic replacement level game from your three spot. That's not ideal all the time, but it's fine.

But Manny is either good or absolutely cataclysmic.

Manny plays street in the offseason and has to relearn everything at the end of summer every year and it takes him to February to start clicking. My best guess as to what we see as fans.

greg.w.h said:

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Manny plays street in the offseason and has to relearn everything at the end of summer every year and it takes him to February to start clicking. My best guess as to what we see as fans.

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Yup.

He still plays like a junior high kid. Leroy Jenkins style. Gimme the ball and let me score.

It's infuriating.

I agree that he didn't play well, but it was just one game y'all, maybe don't draw huge conclusions about MO with such a small sample size.

Thing is it's not really a small sample size is it? Like MarcAg said, this is how he plays most of the time.

Now of course he could come back over the next month and ball out of control and then we'll all be singing his praises, but it's definitely concerning, especially since we don't know when Phelps is going to play.

A lot of the hope of this team being a top four seed type of team is based on Manny being at least decent most of the time.

The Marksman said:

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I agree that he didn't play well, but it was just one game y'all, maybe don't draw huge conclusions about MO with such a small sample size.

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Did you get the Men In Black memory wipe?

bobinator said:

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I don't get the point of people losing their mind over a close loss on the road in the first game of the season.

We're gonna be really good, but it's gonna take some time, especially until Phelps comes back.

Payne is going to have to play smarter, he's way too important offensively to foul out.

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It was compounded by the SC football loss but also with how they played in the Houston scrimmage. I think the roster has talent but our offense is stagnant and we can complain about the fouls but we were often lazy on defense late in the game. Lots of reach in fouls and could not cut UCF driving to the basket. The fouls slowed the game down. You can cast stones at people by saying they are casual basketball fans but it doesn't take a basketball expert to see we have flaws and some of the flaws are consistent with previous years.

bobinator said:

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Thing is it's not really a small sample size is it? Like MarcAg said, this is how he plays most of the time.

Now of course he could come back over the next month and ball out of control and then we'll all be singing his praises, but it's definitely concerning, especially since we don't know when Phelps is going to play.

A lot of the hope of this team being a top four seed type of team is based on Manny being at least decent most of the time.

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I mean my answer is that ... most of us are just accepting it because what else are we gonna do?

Method Man said:

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He still plays like a junior high kid. Leroy Jenkins style. Gimme the ball and let me score.

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Nicely done with the Leroy Jenkins reference!

I can still visualize that egg room…

When you can't make a single bucket in the last 5+ mins of a game, I don't care who you are, you should be a little concerned.
That's not the kind of thing that "just happens" to a respectable team