Josh Hairston

[Cockabeau]

got it. so "nice" leaping ability and "above average" quickness = super-athletic. Man we are lucky to have you teaching us these things.

I never said he was "super athletic". Lance is more athletic than Josh. thats all i said.

[SilkyJ]

I never said he was "super athletic". Lance is more athletic than Josh. thats all i said.

Actually, no you didn't. In fact you didn't even compare Josh to Lance, you only commented on Lance's athleticism.

In response to Chris saying he didn't understand why people thought lance was super-athletic, you said "are you jking [sic]."

You then went on to describe what you thought on LANCE's athleticism. No mention of Josh. I'm not sure what other part of his post you could have been referring to, but given that you don't spend much time on your posts you probably just meant to say something else, but did a poor job of it. That's my guess.

Not sure why people still think Lance is super-athletic. He was a tremendous competitor and leader, but when did he ever do anything that made you say "wow?" Josh may be less athletic, but only slightly.

Are you jking? Lance had nice hops and above average lateral quickness for his size.

[Cockabeau]

Actually, no you didn't. In fact you didn't even compare Josh to Lance, you only commented on Lance's athleticism.

In response to Chris saying he didn't understand why people thought lance was super-athletic, you said "are you jking [sic]."

You then went on to describe what you thought on LANCE's athleticism. No mention of Josh. I'm not sure what other part of his post you could have been referring to, but given that you don't spend much time on your posts you probably just meant to say something else, but did a poor job of it. That's my guess.

My original post stated thatJosh is a more skilled,less athletic Lance Thomas. This analysis came from the man himself, Telep. If you have a problem with that then take it up with him.

[Devilsfan]

Don't we potentially already have that in RKelly?

[ChicagoCrazy84]

My original post stated thatJosh is a more skilled,less athletic Lance Thomas. This analysis came from the man himself, Telep. If you have a problem with that then take it up with him.

I know I'll be beating a dead horse here a little bit, but that scares me due to the fact that Lance to me was not all that athletic. He was very good at running the floor and playing on the ball defense, but when it came down to playing inside, he was a tad irritating. I don't know why, but it seemed to me that him trying to score inside, he would get rejected 75% of the time. I don't know if it was his lack of size, lack of leaping ability, body control, or what, but all of that almost coincides to lack of athleticism. Not saying that we need Hairston to be able to finish inside (we'll have plenty of that) but I want a guy that is able to hold his own offensively and defensively in the interior when called upon.

[Greg_Newton]

My original post stated thatJosh is a more skilled,less athletic Lance Thomas. This analysis came from the man himself, Telep. If you have a problem with that then take it up with him.

Either way, I'm not sure if that's true. Lance was probably quicker, but Hairston would throw down alley-oops in halfcourt sets for Montrose. Maybe Lance just had small hands or something, but Hairston is probably a better finisher around the rim, at the very least.

He also has a much stronger lower-body base.

[SilkyJ]

My original post stated thatJosh is a more skilled,less athletic Lance Thomas. This analysis came from the man himself, Telep. If you have a problem with that then take it up with him.

I obviously wasn't commenting on your original post. I was commenting on the post I quoted, where you still haven't explained yourself.

I couldn't care less about the comparison of Lance and Josh. I'm commenting on how you've characterized Lance's athletic ability, but you're not grasping this.

[Cockabeau]

Quickness off the ball and jumping ability.

Josh has a far superior shot with range.

However,like lance Josh really doen't have a handle nor does the kid possess any inside moves.

I like him but at the same time I am struggling to see how he takes minutes away from Kelley

[Newton_14]

I think Kyle will play signifcant minutes at 4 next year due to the makeup of this years team. Faster generally means smaller and we have an abundance of tallented guards. Dre's needs to play 3 to get minutes if Seth and Kyrie live up to their billing. Nolan should get close to 30 mpg. Losing Felix helps Dre RK and Josh a little. Foul trouble or injuries for the MPs could be another facto but otherwise Josh and RK probably avg 7 mpg IMO.

I'll address the two issues in reverse order and then comment on Josh.

The fastest team in the country in 2008/09 won the National Championship with 2 true bigs on the floor at all times and wings that were good size.

FrontCourt
hans- 6'9
Thompson- 6'8
Davis- 6'10

BackCourt
Green 6'6
Ellington 6'5
Graves 6'6
Lawless- 5'11

His first 2 years, Singler bulked up and carried extra weight to enable his body to handle the banging needed to guard 4's and 5's inside. Last year he redefined his body by dropping weight and working on lateral quickness and ball handling to prepare his body and skill set to play exclusively on the wing. This was also in preparation to play his natural position of Small Forward in the NBA. The end result of that was the Final Four MOP on the National Champion, and arguably, Kyle was the best Small Forward in college. Coming back for his Sr year he is most likely hands down the best Small Forward in the college game.

To play "significant minutes at the 4" and do so effectively, Kyle would need to transform his body back to where it was his sophomore and freshman year, and focus again on being an interior player. I really doubt Kyle is interested in going backward.

There will be times (like last 5 minutes protecting a lead) where Kyle will slide over to the 4. If it ends up he plays "significant" minutes at the 4 it means something has gone terrible wrong with the other bigs on the roster, and the effectiveness of our team defense and rebounding will not be very good.

I have high confidence that Miles, Mason, Ryan, and Josh will do a very nice job manning the post positions. Miles, Mason, and Ryan should all improve from last year, with Mason and Ryan likely to make fairly big jumps in their games. Miles is not far from being a really good player already.

Josh will be facing the learning curve, but as others have noted, he has good potential. I have not seen him play, I have only read about him, so I won't make any bold predictions. He does appear to be a guy with nice potential and with the loss of Felix, Josh will have a better chance to fight for some minutes. I look forward to seeing how good he is coming out of the gate, and I am anxious to see if he can make an impact in year 1. If so, it will serve to make the team even more formidable than what they will already be.

[Kedsy]

I think Kyle will play signifcant minutes at 4 next year due to the makeup of this years team. Faster generally means smaller and we have an abundance of tallented guards. Dre's needs to play 3 to get minutes if Seth and Kyrie live up to their billing. Nolan should get close to 30 mpg. Losing Felix helps Dre RK and Josh a little. Foul trouble or injuries for the MPs could be another facto but otherwise Josh and RK probably avg 7 mpg IMO.

For Josh and Ryan to get 7 mpg each it would mean (a) Andre would play around 20 minutes at small forward and approximately 0 minutes at guard; and (b) Miles and Mason would have to play 25 or 26 mpg each. Which of course is possible, but I wouldn't say probable.

As I said in an earlier post, based on history it's more likely the MPs play 20 to 23 minutes (or maybe a little less) and it's hard for me to believe Andre won't get to play any "2" at all. So because of both these reasons (plus all of Boozer's points about Kyle) I don't see Kyle playing more than 10 mpg at the "4" (and probably less) and for Josh and Ryan to get around 25 or a few more mpg combined. Obviously just my opinion, though.

[oldnavy]

Well, let's all just hope that Josh is as "alarmingly unathletic" as our team was last year. I would truly hate to see some athletic kid come in and screw up a good thing!

I like "alarmingly unathletic" players and teams... might mean we get number 5!

[Devilsfan]

Josh and Ryan (now a vetern soph) only getting 7 mins. a game? I find this hard to believe. But one things for sure, there's only one ball and only five slots on the court at any one time and Coach has be known to getting to an eight man rotation by ACC play so who knows. Boy somebody needs to pull a Nolan and make the most of this summer. I would be looking into playing in summer camps with NBA stars even at the risk of a silly two game penalty.

[ChicagoCrazy84]

Josh and Ryan (now a vetern soph) only getting 7 mins. a game? I find this hard to believe. But one things for sure, there's only one ball and only five slots on the court at any one time and Coach has be known to getting to an eight man rotation by ACC play so who knows. Boy somebody needs to pull a Nolan and make the most of this summer. I would be looking into playing in summer camps with NBA stars even at the risk of a silly two game penalty.

No way Coach K stays with an 8 man rotation this year. We'll go 9 deep in the ACC, sometimes 10 with Ty Thornton being the 10th in some matchups. I just think with our faster pace of play this year, he will do a bit more shuffling, especially in the frontcourt.

[Cockabeau]

I think with our loaded and deep backcourt, Thornton may be regulated to practice player for the foreseeable future.
Before you blast me, Tyler knew this before he signed with Duke. Its nature of the beast.

[airowe]

I think with our loaded and deep backcourt, Thornton may be regulated to practice player for the foreseeable future.
Before you blast me, Tyler knew this before he signed with Duke. Its nature of the beast.

Every Duke fan should hope that Tyler Thornton averages about 4 mpg and plays 8-10 minutes in each game against the heels.

[lotusland]

My sense that Singler will play signficant minutes at the 4 position is based mostly on the makeup of the team and our 4 tallented guards. Kyle is quick for 4 but has avg quickness for a 3 so we are quicker with him at 4. He's
demonstrated that he can play either well andI agree he will play more at 3 but I still say he gets significant mpg at 4. Coach likes to go small historically and I thought last year he departed out of necessity (which did seem to work out well for us). K has been clear about wanting to up tempo based on personell this yr and we have the guards to do it so I hope we see allot of Seth and Dre on the floor at the same time as Kyle and Nolan. Of course everybody gets an opportunity to earn minutes but when the rotation gets tight I hope Dre and Seth are getting 25 mpg. As a freshman Josh can learn allott watching. Hopefully RK is physically ready to spell MPs at 4-5. Whatever happens will be fun to watch it unfold. GO DUKE!

[jimsumner]

"Coach likes to go small historically and I thought last year he departed out of necessity (which did seem to work out well for us)."

Yes, I would say it worked out okay.

K historically goes with the lineup that best gives Duke a chance to win. Sometimes that's small, sometimes it isn't. Duke won the NCAA title in 2001 with Boozer, Battier and Dunleavy starting in the frontcourt. The 1994 team made the title game with Parks, Lang and Hill, all 6-8 or taller.

There are other examples. The plan is to play 2 of Plumlee, Plumlee, Kelly and Hairston at the 4/5, with Singler moving inside during end-of-game-situations.

I agree with Boozer here. Singler only plays major minutes inside if the other four bigs don't play up to snuff.

[ChicagoCrazy84]

My sense that Singler will play signficant minutes at the 4 position is based mostly on the makeup of the team and our 4 tallented guards. Kyle is quick for 4 but has avg quickness for a 3 so we are quicker with him at 4. He's
demonstrated that he can play either well andI agree he will play more at 3 but I still say he gets significant mpg at 4. Coach likes to go small historically and I thought last year he departed out of necessity (which did seem to work out well for us). K has been clear about wanting to up tempo based on personell this yr and we have the guards to do it so I hope we see allot of Seth and Dre on the floor at the same time as Kyle and Nolan. Of course everybody gets an opportunity to earn minutes but when the rotation gets tight I hope Dre and Seth are getting 25 mpg. As a freshman Josh can learn allott watching. Hopefully RK is physically ready to spell MPs at 4-5. Whatever happens will be fun to watch it unfold. GO DUKE!

Hard to think that Dre and Seth would not be getting substantial minutes. The great thing is, I see all of these guys playing so well together. They are all good friends off the court and that translates into comfort and trust on the court.

Speaking of RK being physically ready, does anyone know what hes up to this summer? Hopefully he's working hard cause we're gonna need him to make a step forward.

[COYS]

Hard to think that Dre and Seth would not be getting substantial minutes. The great thing is, I see all of these guys playing so well together. They are all good friends off the court and that translates into comfort and trust on the court.

Speaking of RK being physically ready, does anyone know what hes up to this summer? Hopefully he's working hard cause we're gonna need him to make a step forward.

I would be utterly shocked if he weren't working hard during the offseason. He's a competitor and you can bet that the he has a list of things to work on from the staff. He and Josh will both have important roles next season. Even if neither receives major minutes, it will be an immense strengh of next years team if there is little dropoff between the starting bigs and the bench.

[Dukeface88]

Hard to think that Dre and Seth would not be getting substantial minutes. The great thing is, I see all of these guys playing so well together. They are all good friends off the court and that translates into comfort and trust on the court.

Speaking of RK being physically ready, does anyone know what hes up to this summer? Hopefully he's working hard cause we're gonna need him to make a step forward.

I imagine he's spending a great deal of time in the weight room. If he can improve his strength and size, I think he'll present a match-up problem while on the court with Kyle. Last year, Kyle posting up usually meant 3 defenders in the interior, since Z and LT weren't really threat from outside. Ryan, on the other hand, is a good enough 3 point shooter that you don't want to leave him unguarded at the arc. That could allow him to drag opposing 4s out of position, so Kyle has better spacing if/when he goes inside (the alternative would be guarding Ryan with a 3, who he can shoot over, and Kyle with a 4, who he will have a speed advantage against). That would also put Ryan in a position to exploit his skill at post entry passes.