Matt's Twitter:
"Malik Ellison has had a tremendous off season"
When I compared him to DJ Kennedy, I saw some of those skills. Like in how he gets the rack. If he's been hitting the gym, maybe he's ready to be a consistent driver and finisher like DJ was. Also like that he's a really big guard. More than anything his defense has to
Improve. He had no clue how to play defense. That surprised me.
Just wanted to give my 2 cents on Ellison.
My sense (based on nothing) is that Malik's development can become a very important recruiting tool. And thus, I’m a huge Malik booster and wish him tremendous success this upcoming season.
My hope and expectation is that he continues his progression, which is undeniable, that he showed during last third of the season. He improved his shooting, his finishing, and also his defense (to an extent). It would be great if he could earn the starting 2 spot this season and next. With 2017 being especially tough with Justin Simon being eligible.
Why would he be a recruiting tool?
He is a prototypical NBA sized 2 guard with good athleticism and a quick first step. I think he was a 2/3* recruit because of injuries and didn’t play against really good competition in HS, but he had all the tools. If he progresses and improves enough to be, say an All BE 2nd teamer or so, other large guards (who needs to improve their outside shooting) would see the value of being coached by Mullin and co.
Isn’t that how Chris recruits?
My sense of how Chris recruits is that he does it like an NBA exec. I think he and Mitch create a player development regime. They present this and show recruits their strengths and weaknesses and show how they would improve over a couple of years in order to make them attractive enough for NBA execs to take a chance. Lord knows that Lavin and Roberts or Jarvis didn’t do anything like that. Now that’s all talk on the part of Mullin, but Malik would be an example of what could be achieved.
Anyways, regardless of how he played last year, and I know that a lost of posters are down on him…. I hope Malik makes the jump becomes an effective BE combo guard.
I’ll be rooting for him next season.