1. This team could be downright nasty on defense this year. We will see some ridiculous runs against good teams. Having decent athletes with length to funnel the ball to will be so much different than last year. Granted, those guys have got to figure out switches and things like that (we gave up several lay-ups b/c our bigs did not communicate and we'd leave someone wide open under the basket), but that should come with time.
2. Pullen looks to be the best player on the team. Clemente is very good, but he will still have moments where he does silly things, but Pullen looks to have matured into the leader Frank has been molding him to be.
3. Guard depth could be an issue. All of the young guards have strengths, but all have tio mature. Frank will have to do a good job getting the guy who is playing the best on the floor, and it will vary week to week. Expect to see a lot of Merriemawether early in the year until Frank develops some level of trust in these guys. I don't think Sunday's game gave us any indication of what McGruder can do, Russell reminds me of our previous Nick from TX and Irving has a little bit of Blake Young in him, but all have a lot of growing up to do. Fortunately we have the 3 to choose from and we will need to have at least 1 playing well on any given game day against high level competition.
4. I like the bigs, but again development will be necessary. People will eventually get tired of Kelly whining to the refs, but when he plays with his focus in the right place he could really help us. Extremely long and will effect shots, but I like how he attacked the boards. Hard to tell a bit vs the caliber of competition, but it does look like he could legitimately have some post moves around the basket which is something we really haven't had in a long time. Judge is really long and he needs to get on the same page with Pullen. He's just not seeing what Pullen sees yet. He does have some great ability and I like that he could stretch out to 15 feet or so and shoot it. I think he'll be prone to foul trouble at times against better bigs. Henriquez could give some solid minutes, change some shots, and give some fouls. Similar to Meri, when Colon is healthy he'll get some minutes b/c of the trust level Frank has with him. Expect to see see Meri and Lou both used to "teach the other guys lessons of what it takes to compete at this level"
5. The very early returns on the Samuels at the 3 experiment look good.
6. Sutton had some ridiculously bad turnovers, but he'll be a key part of this team for his defense and rebounding.
