Who's your candidate for most improved?

Bank Shot · Post by **Bank Shot** » June 15th, 2019, 8:50 pm

Just taking into account those that were on last year's active roster:

Sam....is gonna be Sam, but a very motivated Sam to get the NCAA win before he bows out.
Queta...you gotta believe that his summer experience is gonna reap dividends. Plus lottery pick motivation.
Brito...as much improvement from 2 year's ago to last year might be asking a lot, but I expect more consistency
Porter...I'm thinking pretty much along the line of Brito. Improved and more consistent.
Miller...I expect a big improvement. There were signs towards the end last year that he doesn't want to be a one trick pony
Bean...he has such a motor and hops. If there are some improvement in ball handling and a mid-range jumper, he is going to
very interesting to watch.

What's going to be interesting is if any of the new guys take major playing time away from returners even if they have improved a lot. All except Sam and Queta could be effected by that factor.

I'm curious if any of you that are closer to the situation have any insight.

Post by **aggies22** » June 15th, 2019, 9:06 pm

I can tell you this. The only surefire starters at this point are Sam and Neemias. Everything else is up for grabs. The players will all be here in town soon.

slcagg · Post by **slcagg** » June 16th, 2019, 6:21 am

aggies22 wrote: ↑
June 15th, 2019, 9:06 pm
I can tell you this. The only surefire starters at this point are Sam and Neemias. Everything else is up for grabs. The players will all be here in town soon.

Only one option at point.

hipsterdoofus21 · Post by **hipsterdoofus21** » June 16th, 2019, 8:09 am

slcagg wrote: ↑
June 16th, 2019, 6:21 am

aggies22 wrote: ↑
June 15th, 2019, 9:06 pm
I can tell you this. The only surefire starters at this point are Sam and Neemias. Everything else is up for grabs. The players will all be here in town soon.
Only one option at point.

I think anyone of Sam, Brito, and Bairstow would disagree with you.

Pacobag · Post by **Pacobag** » June 16th, 2019, 12:05 pm

hipsterdoofus21 wrote: ↑
June 16th, 2019, 8:09 am

slcagg wrote: ↑
June 16th, 2019, 6:21 am

aggies22 wrote: ↑
June 15th, 2019, 9:06 pm
I can tell you this. The only surefire starters at this point are Sam and Neemias. Everything else is up for grabs. The players will all be here in town soon.
Only one option at point.
I think anyone of Sam, Brito, and Bairstow would disagree with you.

If he ends up playing some PG this season, I’m curious to see how our 6’8” true freshman can do at the point. I have high expectations of him as a 2/3.

I’m guessing Sam will play a major role in our ball handler/distributor plan.

SLB · Post by **SLB** » June 16th, 2019, 12:10 pm

I would have to say the following 4 would be in this category.
Queta
Bean
Porter
Miller
3 of them were freshmen last year, and Porter improved greatly last year and has potential to be even better than last season.

bpd · Post by **bpd** » June 16th, 2019, 12:57 pm

Bairstow is not going to play PG this year. Able will be the starter.

ChicAggie · Post by **ChicAggie** » June 17th, 2019, 10:51 am

Bean or Miller seem like the most likely "most improved" candidates. Bean because he showed a ton of promise in limited opportunity; Miller because he underperformed but showed improvement and added variety to his game toward the end of the season.

Some more detailed thoughts re Miller:

* 5th best ORtg on the team (110.3) (behind Merrill, Bean, Taylor, Queta), but worst DRtg on the team (104.0). Defense is 90% effort, so if Miller can buy into Smith's vision at the defensive end, I'm hoping to see a nice jump in his defensive efficiency.

* 12th on the team in assist percentage (8% -- compared to 24% for Merrill): this means Miller assisted his teammates a lower percentage of time than anyone other than Fakira. Again, buying into the team concept should make him a better distributor. Note that Miller also led the team in lowest TO%. Neither the low AST% nor the low TO% is surprising for a guy who was primarily used as a spot up catch-and-shoot player.

* I believe Miller can be a better 3-point shooter than his final season percentage of .354 would suggest. His form looks good and he did shoot .435 over the last five games of the season (and .889 from the FT line). When he was hot, he was hot (games of 6/9, 5/7, 6/11, and 5/12), but when he was cold, he was ICE cold (games of 0/5, 1/9, 1/7, 1/6, 1/5, 1/4, 3/14, and 3/12). We need a lot more hot games and fewer cold games out of Miller this season. I'm cautiously optimistic he can get there.

Roy McAvoy · Post by **Roy McAvoy** » June 17th, 2019, 10:54 am

It better be Porter or Brito or we're going to get pressed and struggle mightily with it all year long.

Post by **Aglicious** » June 17th, 2019, 11:28 am

ChicAggie wrote: ↑
June 17th, 2019, 10:51 am
Bean or Miller seem like the most likely "most improved" candidates. Bean because he showed a ton of promise in limited opportunity; Miller because he underperformed but showed improvement and added variety to his game toward the end of the season.

Some more detailed thoughts re Miller:

* 5th best ORtg on the team (110.3) (behind Merrill, Bean, Taylor, Queta), but worst DRtg on the team (104.0). Defense is 90% effort, so if Miller can buy into Smith's vision at the defensive end, I'm hoping to see a nice jump in his defensive efficiency.

* 12th on the team in assist percentage (8% -- compared to 24% for Merrill): this means Miller assisted his teammates a lower percentage of time than anyone other than Fakira. Again, buying into the team concept should make him a better distributor. Note that Miller also led the team in lowest TO%. Neither the low AST% nor the low TO% is surprising for a guy who was primarily used as a spot up catch-and-shoot player.

* I believe Miller can be a better 3-point shooter than his final season percentage of .354 would suggest. His form looks good and he did shoot .435 over the last five games of the season (and .889 from the FT line). When he was hot, he was hot (games of 6/9, 5/7, 6/11, and 5/12), but when he was cold, he was ICE cold (games of 0/5, 1/9, 1/7, 1/6, 1/5, 1/4, 3/14, and 3/12). We need a lot more hot games and fewer cold games out of Miller this season. I'm cautiously optimistic he can get there.

Good stuff ChicAggie. I too believe most improved can be Miller. More than anything I am hoping to see improvement with shot selection from him. You alluded to it above with his 3PT %. I'm okay with a decent shooter having a 1/5 or 0/4 night from the 3PT line occasionally as long as they recognize it is not their night during the game and they choose to look for a different shot or drive to the hoop when it's not falling from long range. Unfortunately, when Miller was having off nights, he just kept firing away as though he could shoot himself out of the slump. These are the games he would go 1/9, 3/14, 3/12. Those are far too many attempts from 3PT land when you can't find the range. I hope he starts to make a mental note of it during the game and instead looks for other shots inside the arc or develops an ability to drive to the rim.

Jjoey53 · Post by **Jjoey53** » June 28th, 2019, 5:13 pm

I remember when they were coming out of high school, Miller was touted higher than Sam.

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MetsJetsAggies · Post by **MetsJetsAggies** » June 29th, 2019, 1:40 am

Jjoey53 wrote: ↑
June 28th, 2019, 5:13 pm
I remember when they were coming out of high school, Miller was touted higher than Sam.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Think it was another Jalen Moore situation where Sam committed, told everyone he wasn't going anywhere but Utah State, and thus never really got ranked/rated accordingly. I mean Sam definitely has made great improvements and went on a mission, but he was very good from day 1 as a freshman

Jjoey53 · Post by **Jjoey53** » June 29th, 2019, 11:20 am

MetsJetsAggies wrote:
Jjoey53 wrote: ↑
June 28th, 2019, 5:13 pm
I remember when they were coming out of high school, Miller was touted higher than Sam.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Think it was another Jalen Moore situation where Sam committed, told everyone he wasn't going anywhere but Utah State, and thus never really got ranked/rated accordingly. I mean Sam definitely has made great improvements and went on a mission, but he was very good from day 1 as a freshman

Cannot argue that, Sam was a stud since game 1.

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