And since when is someone abilities in high school not used to judge their abilities at the next level? Get over yourself
All the time. You can go on Staten Island and find a 6-3 Center averaging 30 points a game who will not play D 1 anywhere.
Ponds can't shoot. If you don't want to take my word for it take my friend Stat Sheet's word for it.
Ponds is a really good player. But you simply can't argue 18%. Even if you don't like my breakdown of his shooting, you can't argue 18%.
And I like Simon as the primary or secondary ball handler. Like he has been. Don't get wrapped up in Marillac blaming Simon for Ponds being a bad outside shooter.
This Ponds can't shoot thing is ridiculous. His form is good and his release is as pure as it gets. We're talking about a kid that shoots almost 90% from the FT line! He shot 37.5% from three last year on an absurd 6.1 attempts. Most of those were set shots. It's easy to forget that when he hits a bomb every so often or pulls up in transition. His $ shot last year was that impossibly fast corner trey off ball reversal or a drive and kick.
His shot selection sucks this year, I'll admit that, but how else is he going to get an open look? The staff is jamming an NBA iso system down these kids throats and we don't have the personnel to play that way. We can pass....do that. All they do for Ponds is give him high ball screens so he has to shoot off the bounce. Why not run him off a cross screen to post up his man down low a few times to keep his man honest and then off some screens in the lane or baseline to get him a set shot from the corner?
And when I talk about putting Simon in the post, it's as a passer and face-up. He can do some damage there with his skill set and length. You have to respect his ability to get a shot off there against a four, so help has to come off our shooters. That's when you go inside-out. It will improve spacing drastically.