Disagree, the adulation given this player for his good play while seemingly blaming all his bad ones, many as a result of bad decisions or just lack of basketball acumen, on his shin splints makes little sense to me. He has great potential, off the charts potential, no doubt, but showed to be far from a finished, polished product last year.The only thing that keeps RJ off the floor is health. If he's healthy the low bar is solid contributor. Brady could be anything from an afterthought to a surprising high contributor. Just so much we don't know on off season progress and how it effects his utilization from shooting improvement to how he uses or doesn't his new larger frame, so I don't agree with RJ's opinion he belong in the conversation.
2024-25 Season
- Thread starter Andrew
- Start date
Wrong!
Well it's just the top half of the spectrum to me. Dunlap covers the bottom 75%. Larger spectrum. LOL
I for one blamed his shortcomings last year on not being able to practice enough, which yes was a result of his shin splints as you say but the the injury was just a symptom, the lack of reps was the disease. Takes the requisite amount of coaching and practice to become a finished product and that wasn't possible last year but I'm hoping that this year he'll get the instruction required to at worst provide consistency.
The mental mistakes Luis made had absolutely nothing to do with missing practice IMO. You don’t ever forget how to play the game properly once you learn. You may not be able to execute physically but you don’t just forget how to play
I vehemently disagree, especially in a team environment with multiple moving parts. It's not like coach just throws the balls out there and says, hey guys you already know how to play now just do it. Sometimes just looked like he didn't know what to do next so he just drove to the hoop.
Some guys would just pass the ball in that situation.
Some aspects of Luis's play last season can be attributed to lack of practice time. But the ten-cent-head part of it cannot, that's just attitudinal, lack of past coaching, selfish, just plain stupid, take your pick.
However he does have a ton of talent, I think he made a wise decision to come back to play for Pitino, and if the openness to coachability that implies is borne out, he could blossom into an outstanding player.
RedStormRising
Well-known member
Hopefully, his mental mistakes has to do with him being young. He was a frustrating to watch at times because of what appeared to be brain farts and lack of effort especially on defense. That in combination with his seemingly high ceiling made me (and some other members of the board) especially critical of him.
It will be really interesting to see how he fits in this year. If RJ feels like he has to be the number one option, I think he will struggle and continue to frustrate. If he can let the game come to him on the offensive end with facilitators like Kadary and Deivon in the backcourt he could be lauded as a strong piece of an offensive juggernaut. Not knowing him at all, I think mindset is going to be as important of factor for RJ Luis as talent is this year. I could see him being the second leading scorer on a top 25 team or the 3 guy off the bench on a bubble team depending on his level of buy - in.
Honestly, I hope I'm wrong this and I hope it's me being unfair to him based on my perception of his game play while he was injured.
RedStormRising
Well-known member
I think you highlight a big difference last year to this year. If RJ defaulted to drive to the basket and try to school with the talent we had on our team it wasn't a terrible option even if it was the wrong basketball play. Now, if RJ gets lost and defaults to a contested drive that costs us a Kardary drive to the basket or an open three by Smith or Scott then we are chalking up big negative opportunity points. I think part of RJ's development will be learning this. I think he will and if he needs reminding Rick's never been shy about putting people in the doghouse.
I could misunderstanding, but are you crediting the potential to get better on him being coached, while saying you can’t credit his faults on not being coached?
Couldn't help but notice Pitino is wearing a Jordan Brand shirt in this image. Obviously St John's was on Jordan Brand until two decades ago but dropped after the Pittsburgh scandal. Wonder if they're back on? I know my guy Moose must know something.
We just disagree, you’re groping to make excuses for a guy who made mistakes a reasonably well schooled HS player wouldn’t make. You ‘re just proving my original point, exalt the good, make excuses for the bad, doesn’t work that way.
I actually have concerns (which hopefully turn out to be unfounded) that the current roster might not gel. I see Kadary as the wild card there. How will he adapt to this new role?
There ain't no good guys, there ain't not bad guys, there's only you and me . . .
Though for what it's worth HS play must have improved dramatically since I went to my last game in the 80's.
Fair. I think Dunlap will be solid.
Some of the mistakes he made were light years away from being addressed in a major D1 practice session.
Comparable to a math major not knowing the times table and excusing it with “well, his professor never went over that”.
Yeah not brilliantly stated (work gets in the way of a fully formed thought sometimes) but the intended point of that comment was
(a) maybe he either did not get or did not listen to good coaching tin the past (i.e. H.S. and UMass)
(b) the fact that he chose to return (assuming not purely NIL driven) implies that he has at least some willingness to be coached by this staff after having been with them last year and
(c) if that is the case and if he listens, it could do his decision-making a world of good and unlock the physical talent since there is no question at all about Pitino's ability to coach up players.
Right. I agree some of it was startling. Some of it you’d think would have been addressed at the middle school level. And I’m positive Pitino tried last year without much success. But im not sure if you or lawman are saying coaching can’t help improve it any more.