Quote:
Originally Posted by duncan_idaho
I think my favorite thing about Gates is the way he pieces guys together. He clearly went shopping in the portal for specific skillsets.
Hodge and Honor have experience and add great shooting touch from deep.
Gholston (and Mosely if that situation ever shakes out) is a big, physical guard who can get to the rim and finish tough chances/draw fouls. Pure scorer types (that you can kick the ball to when the shot clock is winding down and you need to create).
Carter gave him an energy and pick-and-pop big with some versatility.
Just a really nice job. I don't think CuonzNO ever really looked at how his pieces would/could work together.
It's also hilarious that, 12 games into his tenure at Mizzou, with a drastically undersized team, Gates has a team that I trust more defensively than any of CuonzNO's teams, which put up good defensive numbers due to pace more than anything.
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I think he had a plan for how the pieces would fit together - it was just a bad plan.
He wanted a squad with 4 big, tough players who would dirty the game up and turn it into a slugfest with a 5th guy who could maybe bring some energy and hit a handful of contested shot.
The problem is that outside shooting and ballhandling just weren't something he thought were necessary.
Cuonzo is just a dinosaur. He's a guy who's approach might have worked before the 3-point line, I guess. But once spacing and the ability to take advantage of it became paramount, he was out there playing checkers - hell, he was playing tic-tac-toe - while others were playing chess.
He had a plan - it was just a stupid one. Y'know what it was? It was Herm-ball. It was designed to shorten games and hope you get lucky in a slugfest. Where Herm was out there hoping to win 13-10 in a league that had passed him by, Cuonzo was looking for 54-50 wins and that's just not gonna work against quality opponents. And that's when it works WELL. When it doesn't work well, it won't work against UMKC.
I dunno if Gates is Andy Reid - I suspect he isn't. But man, I'm sure glad he isn't Herm. Win or lose, it's at least a product worth watching.