I think a lot expected this team to be better offensively than last year's team. But I don't think it is right now

Things a lot of people expected:
Phelps is going to get into the paint and be a big scoring threat
Payne is going to give us a nice scoring threat on the block
Wilcher is going to give us a big shooting threat off the bench
Manny hopefully is closer to the guy he was at end of year than the guy we saw most of the last 3 years.
Solo showed some offense late last season and could be double digit scorer this year
Andy will show more offense.
Mills could give us a scoring threat off the bench.

Honestly none of those have materialized as many thought. But it's still early. I will say Henry's play is significantly better.

I think this team is better right now than last year at this time. But I'm not sure why. I don't think they are better offensively right now. I don't think they are as good rebounding as last year right now. Are we just better defensively? Or are we not any better than last year?

So far, yes.

Last years team closed strong offensively but we v rough early

We are sequencing our strengths to more key secure baskets. But it's a grind because we miss too much. Players need to seriously consider private shooting coaches.

I feel like we have been almost the same team for 3 years now. We certainly are not significantly better offensively. Maybe just 3 years worth of perfecting our style has made us a little better at winning the way we do it.

We're not better offensively but we're WAY better defensively. We also have better continuity so far. We had people in and out of the lineup injured, suspended or otherwise the first couple of months last season so even if we're not better overall I think we have a much better idea of who we are and we stick with it.

One reason I'm staying optimistic on the offense is one thing that's been fairly consistent under Buzz is it takes newcomers a semester or so to really get going. Q, Dex, Garcia, Coleman (other than the first game), etc. And it seems like every year we have one we're slow to get the posts involved (Nebo the first year, Marble two years ago) so there's still some optimism for Payne to turn it on.

Also Taylor has been very good. Percentages are up, turnovers are down, assist percentage is way up. And Coleman has been very good and he's a guy that was hurt in non-con last year.

I definitely haven't given up on the offense. I don't expect Phelps to be as bad the whole season as he has been. He might not be as good as I expected, but he will be better than he has been. I still think Payne can give us more offensively too. And I think Solo will give us more going forward.

Also much of which you say we have at least seen and we haven't even gotten to January.

Phelps is absolutely a scoring threat in the paint. He's just too chaotic and turnover prone.

Payne is absolutely a nice scoring threat on the block just not a great defender.

Wilcher is a good shooter who won't shoot. Weird.

Manny I think is somewhere between the two.

Solo and Andy have been better offensively and as Solo showed at Tech can score, I think the offense itself doesn't get to them often (enough).

Some of these things also interconnected, any one of them getting better would also help the other ones. Phelps finishing better would create more space for Payne, which would also create more opportunities for Wilcher.

The big one is Phelps just being a slightly better passer and not dribbling into traffic. When he doesn't turn it over, even if we're not shooting well, we're going to be hard to beat.

IMO we're deeper and healthier which helps with the defensive and rebounding efforts . Buzz always plays with a lot of different combinations early in the season trying to figure out what works best in specific situations and against certain types of opponents and this year seems to have been no different . Offensively it hasn't been pretty to say the least but we have said the same in the past and it has come together generally in February . I feel like we have a broader array of weapons available than we have had. Whether or not that will blossom into something more effective … only time will tell.

We have a few guys that I feel like could be more effective on the offensive end if they can nail down their roles more firmly … specifically Phelps, Payne , and Solo. I have always felt like Solo could be a consistent double digit scorer if the coaching staff wanted it to happen but I feel like he's such a huge asset defensively that they seemingly just haven't focused on it.

We kind of know Wilcher and Manny's roles offensively and I don't think those will change

The offense still stinks but it has a lot more upside.

AggieCrew44 said:

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At this point in the season? Yes.

Compared to the offense towards the end of last season? No

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This right here.
As of right now, we don't have someone who is playing up to the Boots role, and that's holding us back from end-of-last-season offense, but it's much better than it was this time last year.

Quote:

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I think this team is better right now than last year at this time. But I'm not sure why.

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Better defense. The defense and rebounding has kept us in games. I think we're further along on the defensive end. And we're only going to get better.

On offense I think we'll get better. If anything it will be as a result of knowing the rotation and guys will gell better as a team.

bobinator said:

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The big one is Phelps just being a slightly better passer and not dribbling into traffic. When he doesn't turn it over, even if we're not shooting well, we're going to be hard to beat.

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This is will be one of the biggest factors between having a good season or a great season!

Mikesyracuse1

It's a better, much deeper team. There's no let up in intensity or ability regardless of who is in the game.


Buzz has built a solid top to bottom team he can keep fresh with the equivalent of hockey shift changes. And it's awesome.

Hopefully we stay healthy and continue to slowly strangle good teams all year.

Yes. Better overall team. But all the competition is now better too

we do everything a bit better because we are an older team with many returning players. so what buzz has them doing is being done abkut as efficiently as it can be done. are we bette offensively? if payne can be that player every game then it gives us that potential. now we are deep and very diverse.