I don't understand the sentiment of wanting RJ to go, especially if it's simply to start fresh. The guy is a high volume 40% 3 point shooter with a ton of experience. His game is perfect for college.
Sure, sometimes his style can bite you, like it did in the S16, but he was a huge part of us being a top 4 team this season.
We'd be undersized, and rebounding plus interior defense is definitely looking like a concern right now, but a lineup of
EC
RJ
Jackson
Tyson (hopefully)
Washington
Seems pretty damn good. If EC can improve his shooting at all, then we'd have shooters at spots 1-5. We'd put up 90 points a game.
Then hopefully Seth, Powell, Brown, Withers, maybe High if he can work things out, and then whoever else we can get in the portal, to fill it out.
Including RJ, we only have 8 guys on the projected 24-25 roster right now.
He knew he was about to buy a bunch of players out of the portal to surround Dickinson. He also knew he had no chance to do anything last season. Makes sense.
Every player is an unrestricted free agent now and the league has no cap. Should be way easier for funded programs to just reload the top players who have already proven to be the best at CBB instead of throwing dice and money at overhyped freshmen who haven't played a single minute. A 5-star frosh is basically a developmental depth piece or a good get for the poors these days.
As a fan of both UConn and the Celtics, this would be super annoying but I could never fault him if LA is gonna make him the highest paid coach in NBA history. His wife has been saying right along she wants to stay near her family on the east coast. We’ll see who wins that discussion.
Next seasons top 10 is loaded in my opinion. There's like a good 5+ teams who would be preseason #1 in most years. Seems like there's a good 20 or so teams who would be preseason top 10 teams most years. Portal has made the sport top heavy. I think next year is going to be the most fun this sport has been in years.
Kansas, Iowa State, Alabama, Tennessee, Gonzaga are all easily preseason #1 last year. UNC and Duke would easily have been top 3 last year in my opinion. NIL brought back guys like Mark Sears, Hunter Dickinson, RJ Davis, etc.