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I never thought it would be a huge assist. I did think it would make us slightly better. I might have to reconsider that position in light of this evidence.

One thing I've noticed, though: there were several games where Brown was the best passer in terms of # of assists on a team with Kenny Luther and Laverne Goddard, both now NT-caliber point guards who were better passers even then. There were at least a couple of games this past season when McDaniel either led the team in assists or tied for the team lead, despite coming off the bench. In the case of McDaniel, he was tied with players who had as much as +7 passing on him. It seems to support the spacing theory, that being able to shoot opens up the pass a bit more. Of course, I'll be the first to admit that that's just speculation and not based on any study or statistical analysis or anything.

Also, that was a time when we had dominant big men, Hammond and Merrill both being $100K+ salary with great skills. We don't have that as much any more. There were plenty of times this past season when our guards were jacking up tons of last-second shots, having no alternative. It would be nice to have a guard who could actually make some of those. But the evidence does seem to indicate that even a better shooter struggles to make his shots at the U21 level in an LI offense, so we'll see.

Don't worry, Martinez is the one of the best U21 SFs I've ever seen. He's a lock. Official Cabal endorsement.

"Yeppers likes this post"

Yeah I've noticed the passing deal also, and the spacing theory is something I don't discount. The flip side if true is that being able to shoot makes these guys, well, shoot So cost / benefit of opening up the floor vs low shooting %...???. I lean towards fixing/nixing the shooting but I can see where there's room for debate.

To go back to the discussion about better offense on guards, I was the one who trained Yi and had him on my team when he was 21 as well. Now, his offense was slightly better than most U21 players, however if you asked me now if it was worth it to train him that way I would say...YES. Does he help your team in a LI offense as much? Well, no but he is still useful on the team. That season Magiker ran what was best for the team which was RNG most games. Yi was a stud on the court and many teams (especially remember Canada) feared Yi. If we have players like that on the team it would leave it open to do multiple tactics. BUT you would still need the classic LI builds on the team so I would say 2 Yis or Browns on the team every season could be useful.

I didn't mean literally but by the time I'm done with them they'll need a few skills to build up to be on the NT

vote for mick

I see the general attraction of being alert to new player builds, but what specific problem are we trying to solve? Do we really need to retouch our U21 formula? And how?

Generally, no, I don't think we need to screw around much with builds. Hey...me, you, Italy, Poland, Serbia, your grandma all know that tactics and players that it takes to compete at the elite U21 level. Not a ton of mystery there. The management challenge is having those players available and ready to play.

But to slightly contradict myself, at the same time there is some value to having different builds. The SF position has flexibility as far as what can be useful. A Yi can be used to give a different look and keep opponents in their toes. Personally, I think it would be interesting to see what a U21 level "Chinese LI guard" could do...if such a player could be viable. But I wouldn't like these kind of players to come at the expense of the bread and butter players that will make us successful, but in addition to.