Damn, I feel like the writing's been on the wall with this for a while now but it still sucks seeing it be made official, Bobi seems like a great kid and I was looking forward to seeing what he could become here.
With that said though I don't think losing Bobi has as big of an impact on the team as a lot of people seem to think. Even if he took the big leap that we all think he would/will I still see him as being an elite complementary piece as opposed to the kind of player that can create offence for himself or his teammates and really elevate a team.
If you ask me there were a handful of big problems with the team last year that held us back and I think the staff have done a good job of addressing those issues.
1) Interior defence. We were getting killed in the paint all season long last year, so many no name big men had career games against us and guards were attacking the basket and killing us inside all year. We lost so many games by just a couple of points last season, if we'd had solid interior defence a lot of those close losses become wins, I obviously don't know a lot about Efton Reid but I'm hoping he can provide some level of acceptable defence, which would already push the ceiling of the team beyond last years team. (Or Matt Marsh could magically turn things around and become a defencive force but I'd be surprised.)
2) Injuries. Obviously you never know when injuries can strike but Damari had a really slow start last year after coming off his injury and dealing with personal issues, and was injured again to end the season. AC won ACC player of the week and was looking like one of the star players on the team and then right afterwards (I might be getting the timeline wrong here) he injured his wrist and his level of play fell off a cliff for the rest of the season. Those two guys were both a part of our 4 man core along with Cam and Ty and I think if they'd both been playing like themselves the entire year we would've likely tacked on another handful of wins and been looking at back to back seasons of at least mid 20s wins.
3) Depth. Like I said you never know when injuries are going to strike but the main issues with our injuries last year was that we just didn't have anyone on the bench that could do a good job of replacing those guys, which I don't think is going to be a problem if we get bitten by the injury bug again next year. I'm not gonna pretend to have watched any of the portal guys that we've got coming in this year but from where I'm standing it looks like Forbes has done a good job of just reinforcing the roster from top to bottom in the portal and you never want to rely on freshmen if you can help it but I wouldn't be surprised if one of the incoming freshman can provide some sort of contribution in their first year.
Losing Bobi obviously sucks, but I think even without him this team's in a great position to succeed going into next season. The big question mark for me is the point guard position and how good of a job we've done replacing Tyree but I think the fact that Boopie committed so soon after the portal opened means Forbes and the rest of the staff have had their eye on him for a while and are confident he's the guy to lead the offence for the next couple of years. I think if Boopie can give us like 80% of the production that Ty did then we'll be ok, and Forbes is the portal PG whisperer so I'm sure it'll be ok.
Even without Bobi, with the improvements that I envision for some of the returning guys, and the reinforcements that have been brought in through the portal I still think this team could go dancing next year, and that's without even considering whoever they bring in now that we have an extra scholarship again.
nbadraft.theringer.com
