Wolves Second Unit

[Sundog]

Imagine the following second unit: Naz, NAW, Dilly, TSJ and Luka Garza. Or maybe Ingles slots in there instead of TSJ or NAW depending on the situation and matchups. Maybe Minott instead of TSJ. Not bad. And probably fun to watch. Of course, we’ll likely never see all those players together as Finch will limit the rotation and rotate bench guys in with starters. But that’s a pretty impressive bench.

When I hear Finch/Connelly talk about increasing the pace that this team plays with, I think we’ll see it first with the second unit Lip describes here… I also think it’ll include Ant a lot because he’ll find it so fun!

[Q-is-here]

Imagine the following second unit: Naz, NAW, Dilly, TSJ and Luka Garza. Or maybe Ingles slots in there instead of TSJ or NAW depending on the situation and matchups. Maybe Minott instead of TSJ. Not bad. And probably fun to watch. Of course, we’ll likely never see all those players together as Finch will limit the rotation and rotate bench guys in with starters. But that’s a pretty impressive bench.

When I hear Finch/Connelly talk about increasing the pace that this team plays with, I think we’ll see it first with the second unit Lip describes here… I also think it’ll include Ant a lot because he’ll find it so fun!

We'll see....It seems like every offseason since I can remember, we collectively get excited about our bench, only for it ultimately be a weakness once the the regular season starts. Last season it really was a legit weapon....in the regular season. Then it really let us down in the playoffs.

(I do agree though that stylistically you can see Connelly starting to shift the team to a more pace-and-space outfit as we gradually turn over the older vets).

[Lipoli390]

Right now I predict Dillingham will play more in November than Clark will play all season. Clark is also coming off a significant injury. It helps that he isn't going to be on the floor for his offense which takes longer to find coming off a big injury but still plenty of guys take time to get back to themselves after a significant injury. We saw that a couple times with Rubio. Clark will get a number of games in Iowa he hasn't played an official basketball game in well over a year.

TSJ is likely ahead of Clark at this point because his defense isn't too far behind Clark and his offense is likely much better plus he is bigger. If Dillingham isn't playing much...that's a bad sign unless someone is really ballin in front of him. We have seen the Wolves continue to feed minutes to guys they slated to have a significant role at guard including Nowell and Shake Milton. Hopefully Dilly succeeds and the fact that he was a top 10 draft pick does seem to make it more likely. Let's also remember he averaged almost 4 assists a game at UK in less than 24 mins. He isn't some scoring guy we hope can maybe pass.

I think you’re probably right Monster. TC has been pretty clear that, until Dilly proves unworthy, they’ll feel compelled to play him after moving so aggressively all the wat to #8 to get him. Great point about the precedent of playing Shake and Newton until they just couldn’t play them anymore.

[KG4Ever]

I'd like to see the following second unit: Naz, Miller, TSJ or Ingles, NAW, Dilly or Nix. We could also move Garza into the rotation and play Naz at 4 and Miller at 3 if we want more size. Right now, I don't see Minott, Dozier, Clark or Edwards in the rotation. Garza may not be either but if any of the bigs are injured or rested, he'll get spot rotation minutes. Nix could be a surprise rotation guy if Dilly struggles or else he may fill a Jmac type role. Dilly, TSJ, Miller and Nix will all likely get an opportunity to log some rotational minutes and I am eager to see how they all do. Losing Kyle will definitely hurt for a while and it may take a while before the second unit gels, but I'm not too worried about wins and losses as home field didn't really matter to the Wolves and I'd rather focus on developing a team the right way, getting backups more minutes and resting guys more than a year ago.