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How much of a positive impact could Kyle Wiltjer.....

ACE

By ACE
in College Basketball

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JokersWild24

JokersWild24

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Posted
So the idea is improving this UK team by taking Randle off the floor and hoping things would have been better with Wiltjer eating those minutes........

 

I've been pretty consistent with not being impressed by Randle for a large portion of the season. Not saying that Wiltjer is better, just that until a few games ago, I thought Randle could use another year. He turned the ball over at a huge clip, saw significant dips in production against better defensive teams, and played like a kid who was always bigger, stronger, faster, and more athletic than everyone he played against but didn't adjust to the next level as quickly as you'd have hoped.

 

The expectations might have had lots to do with it, but coming in, this was a guy whose name was getting mention for the #1 overall pick with Andrew Wiggins and Jabari Parker.

 

IMO, Parker is the only freshman whose lived up to his hype so far this season.

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JokersWild24

JokersWild24

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Maybe I wasn't clear enough in my stance. Wiltjer wouldn't have played more than 5-7 minutes a game max on this team. No way you take Randle off the floor for more than a breather here and there if Wiltjer is option 2 at PF...

 

I don't necessarily know if it has to be an either/or with those two though. I think you would see more lineups where Wiltjer essentially played the 3 on offense and 4 on defense while Randle played the 4 on offense and 3 on defense.

 

I think that seeing less minutes for Polson (when he plays the role of a guy who hits the outside shot when dared to) and/or Marcus Lee (in terms of the minutes he gets) might be more what we'd get from Wiltjer.

 

He's best when playing the role he did on UK's championship team (which could have been expanded if he progressed as he got older and either bulked up or improved his defense), but it's obviously understandable why he wasn't happy with that when he could be a featured player somewhere like Gonzaga.

 

 

Right now, UK relies on James Young for outside shooting, and that's not a good thing unless he's on.

 

I could see some lineups with:

 

1- Andrew Harrison

2 - James Young/Aaron Harrison

3 - Julius Randle/James Young

4 - Kyle Wiltjer

5 - Willie Cauley-Stein/Dakari Johnson

 

 

I think Wiltjer's biggest asset to the team was that he brought a skill set completely unique from what we're getting from anyone else. A tall, stretch 4 who could come in and knock down shots when teams went zone and/or, when they were in man, just had to worry about defending him with a big who could get up in his shot at such a distance from the basket given all of the other scoring threats we had.

 

I certainly don't think anyone thinks Wiltjer would be a star, but I don't think it's crazy to suggest that he could have brought some things to the table situationally.

 

One thing that could make all of this moot, however, is finding out that he would have been unhappy with that role and thus become an anchor to the team's chemistry and development.

Edited by JokersWild24
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