Offense and defense capabilities?

I think that answer is where we are in a dilemma . Our best defensive players are our worst offensive players but

Another part of the problem is our offense is an iso game and our defense is a system. So even if someone is a good one on one defender it doesn't necessarily mean they're good in our defense. Payne is the biggest example of this. Really high level on ball defender but gets lost and out of position too often in the system.

Also if a key part of that system breaks down, then it doesn't matter how good everyone else is.

People are talking about the threes, but that's the result, not the problem. The problem is we can't stop dribble penetration. It doesn't matter what kind of defense you're running if you can't stop the ball from getting into the paint. You're going to give up open shots somewhere.

We have a great player in Payne who is not utilized properly but we don't know how to run a real pick and roll. That kid is made for that type of offense.

This is an impossible question to answer.

Random Guess?

Phelps Phelps
Wade Wilcher
Solo Solo
Garcia Coleman
Payne Payne

It's hard to play Wade without having defensive compliments to him.

It's hard to play Solo without having offensive compliments to him. He provides nothing on offense.

It's hard to not play Payne cause he's the best offensive threat around the rim.

It's hard to not play Phelps cause he is most nights the most gifted player on the floor for A&M.

Things would be a lot easier if Hef / Jace / Solo could actually be counted on to hit shots. But every time they shoot you might as well assume the OREB is coming.

Payne and Phelps (yes can be TO prone) are two guys who must be on the floor is all I really know. The rest just depends on the night.

2nd Generation Ag said:

---

Offense and defense capabilities?

I think that answer is where we are in a dilemma . Our best defensive players are our worst offensive players but

---

Much of the fall and early SEC we had a consistent, ever-game starting lineup of Wade-Phelps-Hefner-Solo-Coleman(or Payne). It was fairly effective, and it made our platoon subs of Carter-Andy-Coleman/Payne-Manny a very different, more physical look.

But then Hefner got hurt for a game and we haven't seen that starting lineup even once, and may not at all, period.

Offensively, Solo at the 3 is murder. He doesn't move without the ball, can't shoot the 3 and can't really get to the hoop from the perimeter. At least offensively Hefner moves really well without the ball, and at the 3 he isn't a god-awful defender.

But the question with that lineup might be, does that take Solo out of his best position, defensively? Maybe.

We don't have asingle guy that you can lean on for a bucket who is also a great defender. We also don't have a single great defender who is even semi-reliable on offense.

Wade - Good to great offense - mediocre defense and foul prone
Phelps - Good to great offense - lazy uninspired defense despite the talent to be better
Solo - No offense, but phenomenal defender
Garcia - Some offense, but not reliable - above average defender and great rebounder
Coleman - Some offense, but often losing end of a mismatch - average defense as he can be slow footed
Payne - Great offense, great rim protection, should never be on the perimeter on defense
Hefner - Unreliable offense, doesn't fit system - average defender
Carter - Average defender (gets blown by repeatedly and often loses his man for wide open 3's) - negative offense
Manny - Unreliable offense, bad shots that lead to fast breaks, and turnover prone - could be a phenomenal defender but has happy feet and loss of focus routinely
Wilcher - Phenomenal shooter, unreliable other offense - below average at best defender

I think I agree with the guy last night that said the rotations need to be fixed.

We should start Wade, Phelps, Hefner, Solo, Payne

Wade - ball handling and scoring
Phelps - ball handling and scoring - some defense
Hefner - shooting and cutting to rim - some defense
Solo - lockdown defender, rim protection, STOP SHOOTING
Payne - Offense, defense, and rim protection

Bench rotation:

Coleman for Payne
Garcia for Solo
One of Wade or Phelps must be in at all times, first one out subs for the other and vice versa. Manny if foul trouble on one.
Wilcher for Hefner, Wade, or Phelps. Carter only if foul trouble on multiple players

That's not a bad starting lineup and rotations.

All guys have a reason to play them and a reason not to. I do think Phelps gives us the most considering both sides of the ball and Payne at least allows Wade and Phelps to not be the central focal point for opposing defenses.

Solo at least has dominant capabilities on one end of the floor but the big problem is he's always a 0 on the other end.

TjgtAg08 said:

---

2nd Generation Ag said:

---

Offense and defense capabilities?

I think that answer is where we are in a dilemma . Our best defensive players are our worst offensive players but

---

Much of the fall and early SEC we had a consistent, ever-game starting lineup of Wade-Phelps-Hefner-Solo-Coleman(or Payne). It was fairly effective, and it made our platoon subs of Carter-Andy-Coleman/Payne-Manny a very different, more physical look.

But then Hefner got hurt for a game and we haven't seen that starting lineup even once, and may not at all, period.

Offensively, Solo at the 3 is murder. He doesn't move without the ball, can't shoot the 3 and can't really get to the hoop from the perimeter. At least offensively Hefner moves really well without the ball, and at the 3 he isn't a god-awful defender.

But the question with that lineup might be, does that take Solo out of his best position, defensively? Maybe.

---

This is exactly what I've been begging for for weeks. Hef is useless off the bench because he can't dribble and is usually out there with Manny. His skillset really compliments Phelps and Wade though. He's the best on the team other than Wade at moving off ball. He was giving us consistently about 10 ppg when he was starting, something we are lacking right now. It never made sense why we just stopped what was working

We'd bring Jace, Coleman, and Andy off the bench and just blitz the others teams backups on the glass

My only disagreement with you there is on Phelps, he has been a very solid defender for us this year on the perimeter. Much, much better than Boots was the last two years. I don't think he's been an "elite" defender, but he's easily our best offense-defense combo player.

Hasn't been nearly as good at anything on either side the last few games, from the view of my naked eye, though.

From the Rutgers game on 11/30 to the Ole Miss game on 1/22, he was averaging 19mpg and (I believe) started all those games. Then he and Solo both missed the OU game on 1/28 and since then he's played 14 mpg, with the outlier being @Mizzou, when he played 23 minutes per game (so if you take the Mizzou game out, he's played 12.7 mpg since missing the OU game). He hasn't started a single game since then either.

I don't know if 5-7 minutes a game really matters, but it might. And I'm not advocating for Hef to play 19-20 minutes a game all the time, but its about the lineups and the substitutions and who we have out on the court during the middle "half" of each half. Lately its been some combo of Manny-Hef-Wilcher-Carter-Coleman-Andy-Solo, and thats just a lot of bad on both ends.

As weird as this sounds, during that stretch Payne wasn't starting much either. I don't know what "lineup" he fits best with other than "all of them," and I know he probably can't play 30 minutes a game, but he only played 21 minutes last night ... thats just not enough, given the recent rotations and lineups. Can he "come off the bench," which would allow us to go back to our December starting lineup but then stay in for a bit longer and still get to 25 mpg? I don't know.

But Solo playing 25 minutes as a starter and having 0 points and only 2 rebounds is killer, and Hefner playing 10 minutes and not getting a single shot up is a waste of the 10 minutes. We've got to get Hefner into the game in lineups where he can get some shots, because he can make them at times, and he's 6-6.

TjgtAg08 said:

---

From the Rutgers game on 11/30 to the Ole Miss game on 1/22, he was averaging 19mpg and (I believe) started all those games. Then he and Solo both missed the OU game on 1/28 and since then he's played 14 mpg, with the outlier being @Mizzou, when he played 23 minutes per game (so if you take the Mizzou game out, he's played 12.7 mpg since missing the OU game).

I don't know if 5-7 minutes a game really matters, but it might. And I'm not advocating for Hef to play 19-20 minutes a game all the time, but its about the lineups and the substitutions and who we have out on the court during the middle "half" of each half. Lately its been some combo of Manny-Hef-Wilcher-Carter-Coleman-Andy-Solo, and thats just a lot of bad on both ends.

---

Yeah it's not necessarily a "needs more minutes" issue but rather a "who those minutes are with" issue

Payne regression has been the largest sore spot on the team and generates multiple problems.

I think bobinator mentioned that we should move to a press defense. Been thinking the same thing for weeks now. Our full court pressure is being easily broken now, which allows for some easier trips inside the paint. We are also not very disciplined inside the paint on not reaching, bumping and fouling. Yesterday we had 3-4 times that our bigs either got body or got int the air with smaller players in the paint. Really should never happen.

Wade is Wade, but his game needed to be a little more progressive to creating shots for others this year, IMO. He gets around the initial set pick, but he is looking to get to the paint/line and not looking at backside. Last night the backside lob was there most of the night. I don't recall an alley there. Washington starting in the corner but sliding down the baseline after Wade breaks around first defender should allow for him to outjump everyone for an easy dunk. Coleman and Payne are "ok" at that, but don't have great hands.

Our lack of a knockdown 3 ball shooter does effect us with the sag. Teams are literally daring us to shoot the 3 and we still take bad shots there. Lack of motion and lack of inside out (Payne) keeps us from being effective. Vandy ran some true triangle concepts last night and they kept getting #5 open for threes. Course he hits them, but their bigs are really passers and did well to find open shooters.

One thing that is frustrating to me is that Buzz does not seem to be adjusting his style now that the plan is not working. He seems to be running out the same, hoping we adjust and get back to shooting or defending. The challenge with that approach is the other teams have adjusted, so our lack of adjustment is playing into their hands.

As to the OP, I think you have to go with:

Wade
Phelps
Hefner
Solo
Payne

Second unit
Phelps (leaving him out there as much as possible)
Manny (reluctantly - hes a black hole)
Wilcher
Garcia
Coleman

This team really needs a solid wing that can knock down shots, but in the absence of that we have to pick up the pace on defense and press much more to create TOs - particularly that second unit.

Texas_Ag11

BuzzFan24 said:

---

That's not a bad starting lineup and rotations.

All guys have a reason to play them and a reason not to. I do think Phelps gives us the most considering both sides of the ball and Payne at least allows Wade and Phelps to not be the central focal point for opposing defenses.

Solo at least has dominant capabilities on one end of the floor but the big problem is he's always a 0 on the other end.

---

Solo can do some things on offense as a complementary player when we play a 2-big lineup. When we play 3 bigs we have to put him on the perimeter and then he's a negative.

TjgtAg08 said:

---

My only disagreement with you there is on Phelps, he has been a very solid defender for us this year on the perimeter. Much, much better than Boots was the last two years. I don't think he's been an "elite" defender, but he's easily our best offense-defense combo player.

Hasn't been nearly as good at anything on either side the last few games, from the view of my naked eye, though.

---

Strongly disagree, especially recently. His laziness getting back and laziness in the half court trap routinely has us rotating way to soon as teams have been easily able to pass the ball ahead and get into the lane.

We either need to drop the trap, or someone needs to kick Phelps in the rear and make sure he gets back and ready to play D.

On the ball he's good. But what good is that if the D breaks down before anyone can get set?

Heineken-Ashi said:

---

TjgtAg08 said:

---

My only disagreement with you there is on Phelps, he has been a very solid defender for us this year on the perimeter. Much, much better than Boots was the last two years. I don't think he's been an "elite" defender, but he's easily our best offense-defense combo player.

Hasn't been nearly as good at anything on either side the last few games, from the view of my naked eye, though.

---

Strongly disagree, especially recently. His laziness getting back and laziness in the half court trap routinely has us rotating way to soon as teams have been easily able to pass the ball ahead and get into the lane.

We either need to drop the trap, or someone needs to kick Phelps in the rear and make sure he gets back and ready to play D.

On the ball he's good. But what good is that if the D breaks down before anyone can get set?

---

I very much agree with you about the trap in general (as its been the last week or so) ... unless we are getting a turnover or really disrupting the flow, it feels like its been easily beat lately, leaving us scrambling and open lanes and open shots.

The guys we have running it are a mix of not committed to it and not effective at it. Need Solo aggressive in the middle, Wade as pick pocket on bad / lazy passes, and the 3rd has to be able to stay in front of the ball aggressively. That's usually Phelps or Manny, and they just haven't been effective and it leads to defensive breakdowns. Carter in the middle doesn't work either as he doesn't have the quickness and instincts to force the ball handler to commit to passing or to stay in front of them.

Heineken-Ashi said:

---

The guys we have running it are a mix of not committed to it and not effective at it. Need Solo aggressive in the middle, Wade as pick pocket on bad / lazy passes, and the 3rd has to be able to stay in front of the ball aggressively. That's usually Phelps or Manny, and they just haven't been effective and it leads to defensive breakdowns. Carter in the middle doesn't work either as he doesn't have the quickness and instincts to force the ball handler to commit to passing or to stay in front of them.

---

Totally agree. One thing from last night under 3 minutes and moved to fouling, we had Vandy ballhandler on their side of the court, pinned by two and the first (easy) pass blocked well and we still fouled. The first time it happened I excused it. Little jumpy. But it was 4 times (that i recall, and Buzz was irritated. but we kept doing it. I get time is not your friend, but this wasn't inside 60 seconds. Reason I bring it up is that we are not a disciplined trapping team. We are more pressure and opportunistic, but other coaches have adjusted to it and solved it.

i am going to say something that i know most everyone on this board will disagree with but i think we need to push the ball, really push it. late last year with many of the same players we pushed the ball and just killed people taking the ball to the hole. we scored more points and playe really well even in our loss to houston. we lost boots who was a really good player but phelps at least has some similar traits and can dribble penetrate. to make it work we have to push the ball like we did over the last 7-10 games. if we would do that i would start

wade taylor
Mo
phelps
solo
payne

if you go back and look at what occurred last year when we started pushing the ball iwe got more free throws and more open looks on 3's. Mo averaged like 17 points a game. Our shooting percentage increased dramatically once we took this approach instead of more of a half court offense which we don't do well anyways. our team is deep, pretty diverse and somewhat athletic. i think we could get better use out of our overall team if we tried to emulate what we did really well late last year.

2nd Generation Ag said:

---

Offense and defense capabilities?

I think that answer is where we are in a dilemma . Our best defensive players are our worst offensive players but

---

NO ONE!