Quote Originally Posted by budwom View Post
I was only responding to your assertion that kessler might not be a starter...I strongly dispute that, but I guess we'll never know. Kuminga, Johnson and Kessler would be a nice trio together...
Quote Originally Posted by JasonEvans View Post
Sigh, would you please stop injecting logic and thought into my feeble attempts at rationalizing what would have been a really nice kid to have on the team. Grrrrr.
Quote Originally Posted by DavidBenAkiva View Post
If it makes you feel better, Kuminga, Johnson, and Mark Williams might be an elite defensive frontcourt.

I had this thought that Kuminga was more of a G/F until watching more of his highlights and reading various scouting reports. The comp I am getting is a lot more like Harry Giles III as a junior. Kid has unlimited bounce, a terror at the rim and on the boards, can run for days and maybe drain a jumper every now and then. He seems to be about 2 inches shorter than Giles was at the time. Kuminga and Johnson are an intriguing pairing in the frontcourt. And Williams as a shot blocking/rebounding/rim-running center is not a bad pairing, either.
Quote Originally Posted by English View Post
Forgive my ignorance, but that trio sounds like a spacing mess, no? Having three players on the floor together who can't threaten a defense with shooting could be problematic. That said, the thought of Johnson & Kuminga together running the break puts a smile on my face.
Responding to different parts of all these posts.

My sense of it is that the coaches' if-everything-went-according-to-plan Master Plan included Duke starting Kuminga, Johnson, and Kessler at the 3/4/5, respectively. You just have to look at Kuminga and Jalen's extremely weak shooting numbers in EYBL (when I'm not lazy, I'll link them) and it becomes clear that Kessler would've been the perfect fit to those two rim attackers. Kuminga rebounds like a SF (I think something like 5 rebs/gm), so it would not be ideal to play him at PF or C. Moreover, we can expect that Johnson and Kuminga would wear down over the course of the season if they had to start at C and PF respectively. We need a center. Hopefully one that can shoot.

Welp, things obviously didn't go according to plan, and now we'll have to scramble a bit. Our coaches are good at scrambling, and I'm excited to see what they can come up with.