Starting Lineup Predictions, What are Yours?

[Flyguy]

It is nearly October, which means I can begin speculating about the upcoming season, correct?

For my sanity the answer to that question is yes.

I am going to have 2 starting lineup predictions: The starting lineup on opening night (Nov 9, vs. UIC), and the final conference game (Mar 5, vs. Davidson). With all the young talent on this team the starting lineup will change as the season goes on, maybe on a night to night basis.

Starting lineup Nov 9:
1: Elijah Weaver
2: Koby Brea
3: RJ Blakney
4: Mustapha Amzil
5: Toumani Camara

6th man: Zimi Nwokeji

Coach Grant will likely open the season with known commodities. That is why I have 4 returning players in my starting 5 on night 1. Although Camara may be the one player (besides Weaver) I am most confident will start the first game.

Amzil was rock solid for us last season despite his late arrival. He is as consistent and known as anyone on this roster and we will look to him for steady play early in the new season. His position in the starting 5 is likely not in jeopardy.

Weaver's position is also not in jeopardy to start the season, he will be the oldest on the team, with the most college ball experience, and Coach Grant will look to him to be our vocal leader and our key playmaker.

Camara has too much talent to sit on the bench. We will use him as the center piece of our offense and strategize ways to implement his play into our offensive schemes. I am hopeful we may use him as an athletic 5 that can get up and down the court and run out on fast breaks, similar to Toppin. If we space the floor anywhere as well as two years ago, Camara will find himself with plenty of opportunities for easy buckets down low.

These three will be the pillars to our success early in the season, their play will dictate our performance.

Next is mostly a crapshoot:

There are 5 players that could fill the remaining two spots on night 1.

I chose Brea and Blakney because of their success late last season and because it appears Blakney's aggresive play fits a more traditional 3 role than Zimi.

If Kobe Elvis (amazing name) impresses in the preseason I could see him potentially overtaking Brea, but it is not likely for the first game.

Zimi will be in direct competition with Blakney for the starting spot on night 1 and this is where I am most likely to be wrong in all my selections. I included Zimi as my 6th man and think the opposite will be true of Blakney if Zimi is given the nod.

Finally, Daron Holmes. If he starts on the first game Flyers fans will have to be very excited. I see an expanding role for him as the season goes on and plenty of minutes in his future, but the only way Coach Grant will be starting Holmes the first game is if he is an absolute spectacle.

Starting Lineup Mar 5:
1: Elijah Weaver
2: Koby Brea
3: Mustapha Amzil
4: Daron Holmes
5: Toumani Camara

6th Man: RJ Blakney

Here is the problem: there is so much talent it is nearly impossible to project out the potential for each individual.

Citing the same reasons as before Weaver and Camara will be in the starting lineup all season as long as catastrophe does not strike.

I project a very tight race between Blakney, Zimi, and Amzil for a starting spot as the season goes on. I believe Amzil will just edge out the others come tournament time. Blakney will serve as a major burst of energy off the bench and zimi will be a reliable player. I like Blakney as the 6th man, everything he does is with a particular grit that reminds me of Landers, if he can obtain some finesse he will be a fantastic player for years to come.

If Koby Brea continues to progress and shows off some of that muscle he put on in the offseason, I suspect he will maintain a starting spot despite Greer, Smith, and Elvis behind him. He may not start every game, but by seasons end we will need him to be a consistent contributor.

Holmes will need to be the player we think he could be if my prediction comes true. History shows us it is only the special players the get a starting spot so early in their career at Dayton (Amzil, Crutcher).

Bonus:

Lynn Greer III: A combo guard with the ability to do a little bit of everything, very high ceiling, high IQ player.

Malachi Smith: Will play reserve minutes at the point and is alleged to be very creative with the ball, I hope to see him be crafty and take advantage of the talented group of bigs around him.

Kaleb Washington: 6'7" 190 lbs is a little bit frail but with his supposed talent level we will likely see flashes of creative finishing around the rim and the type of high level play his recruiting rank suggests is possible.

Moulaye Sissoko: Our bully. I would be happy to see him get 10-15 minutes a night, stir up 3 fouls and catch 6 rebounds. Put the fear of God into our opponents, use that muscle big fella!

Richard Amaefule: The most unknown quantity, but certainly a desirable frame with some big time offers before being plagued by injury. If healthy he could be another bully, but with a greater ability to run the floor. Give us good defense and you will have a very bright future here.


What is your projected starting 5?

 

[drewnovinski]

I have been chomping at the bit to give my thoughts about this roster to anyone that will listen. As an freshman at UD there are many reasons to be excited for the upcoming basketball season not only as a former (and still kind of) Marquette fan have I never been to a game in the Decibel Dungeon, but this roster seems to have many unknowns and surprises. I tend to be more optimistic than most and think that this could turn into a pretty exciting and successful season for the Flyers. But as Anthony Grant seems to turn a new page on his Flyers to a new era the opening night roster seems to be one of much speculation.

Personally I have the roster as:

1: Elijah Weaver
2: Koby Brea
3: Zimi Nwokeji
4: Mustapha Amzil
5: Toumani Camara

Now I can see and hear arguments for a lot of different configurations for this roster so I will separate this into different tiers to illustrate how I think this roster may move and shift throughout the hopefully long college basketball season.

They aren't budging:

Elijah Weaver: Weaver may not be the most exciting point guard in the world (especially since you have to go back to his freshman season at USC to see him play sizable minutes at the position), but the spot is undoubtedly his. Even with playing just shy of 40% of the minutes for the Flyers last season (most at the 3 also) he ranked at 15th in the conference for assist rate according to KenPom. The dude can put all of the other player on the court in positions to succeed and make plays and you can't really argue much with that. He also is an above average 3 point shooter at just over 36% which certainly will not hurt in Grant's offence. On the other side of the ball Weaver is pretty disciplined and stays out of foul trouble last season he averaged just 2.2 fouls called per 40 minutes. He won't be on the All-Defensive team for the A-10 but he will certainly not be a liability on defense which only helps his cause. The only major thing I would like him to improve on is not turning the ball over, this has been a bit of an issue for the USC transfer in the past and my only fear with him moving to the point guard position full time this season is an increase of turnovers as he will be handling the ball more. But, ultimately this is very much Weaver's position to lose, if he doesn't fall apart he will be starting pretty much every game at the one.

Toumani Camara: Toumani is probably the Flyer that I am the highest on entering this season. I think he is very under rated and came to the perfect school as he fits into what Anthony Grant loves to do with that 5 position so much. The 6'8" big man may be a tad undersized for the position but yet again he's just an inch shorter than the great Obi Toppin who set the golden standard for the Grant 5, and honestly Camara has the potential to be closer than a lot think to the impact that Toppin had on that 19/20 Flyers team. Now before you start yelling at the computer I am not saying he will be Obi, I am saying he is athletic, is reliable enough of a shooter, and knows how to take the ball to the hoop, sounds familiar? Now Camara will certainly hold on to this position tight even with the highest recruit in program history breathing down his neck (since I think Daron can play this position too) that because he is ultimately more matured and talented than Daron or any other challenger of the position and honestly this is exactly where he fits as a player.


They will begin the season starting but we'll see:

Mustapha Amzil: I am listing his name first because I find it very unlikely that Amzil ever finds himself watching the start of a game from the bench. He made a name for himself with his dramatic entrance to the team as he made an immediate impact on the team. Mustapha was a scoring machine in A 10 play, in the conference he was ranked 8th in 3 point percentage, 16th in 2 point percentage, and THIRD in effective field goal percentage according to KenPom. This is honestly amazing considering he was a true freshman with no offseason and came in after the team had already played 5 games. Now if he keeps on growing and producing these numbers their is absolutely no reason to take him out of the lineup, even if Daron is lighting things up on the bench. But, if he struggles at the 4 keeping up with maybe smaller more athletic players you could make an argument to take him out of the starting lineup (that's a big if and the only real concern I have though)

Zimi Nwokeji: This redshirt sophomore is one of the players with the biggest question marks coming into the season, he showed a lot of potential at the end of the season for example in the double overtime loss against Rhode Island, but honestly when playing better, more competitive competition he left little to be desired for. He seemed to lay an egg against teams like VCU, St. Bonaventure, and Memphis. But there still were a good bit of great performances and a lot of flashes of what could be, and if he takes the step that I think a lot of Flyer fans expect him to make I think it will be more of a struggle to take him out of the starting lineup (but I fully expect him to be the one to go if Daron or even RJ is what some think they are).

Koby Brea: Now this 2 position adamantly is one of confusion for me, there is just so many options for this one spot on the team, Koby Brea, Kobe Elvis, and RJ Blankey are all options that I think are respectable here. But given Koby's production behind the arc last season I think he starts with the spot. Grant I think respects his ability to knock down shots and not be a serious liability on defense so he will get the nod at the start of the season I believe.

They will start on the bench but have potential to find themselves in the starting lineup down the stretch:

RJ Blankey: Ultimately even though I think on opening night Koby Brea will get the start I think RJ will most likely start more games than him. RJ I think is a more complete player but just has to gain Grant's trust by showing him his consistency as last season he struggled with injuries, and up and down performances. Even given this there's a chance he's starting by the A 10 home opener in my mind.

Daron Holmes: Daron's entrance to the team is one surrounded with a lot of hype, given that he is the highest recruited player in the Flyers long successful history. But, I don't think Grant gives him the nod. Now I think this is not a Matt Nagy, Justin Fields situation because given the people in front of him (Toumani and Muspaha and even Zimi) I think Grant rightfully so wants him to earn his starting spot, which speaks volumes to the depth of this team.

Kobe Elvis: Not only does Kobe Elvis have the coolest name (and part of this may be me selfishly wanting to hear his name announced as a starter) he does have a good bit of potential, as a former/kind of still Marquette fan I am very aware of the dumpster fire that is DePaul's basketball program, and this is a guy that honestly even despite being on a DePaul team that only won five games last season wasn't that bad. He shot just under 42% from three (noted he only took 31) was 23rd in Assist rating in the Big East, and only averaged 2.6 fouls per 40 minutes according to KenPom. Now this certainly is the framework for a successful guard in my opinion and if he takes off and if he shows improvements I can certainly see him starting at that 2 position. Ultimately I think Kobe Elvis has potential to become a major contributor to this team, but he needs to take his successes that he had at DePaul and continue them in greater sample sizes.

Now the rest will certainly contribute to the team but I do not think it is feasible to make arguments for them to find them in the starting lineup. Ultimately, this Flyers team is going to be deep, fun, and full of surprises so buckle up Flyer fans and lastly wear red, be lowd, and go flyers!!

All of the statistics I used were from kenpom.com

 

[Flyguy]

Nov 9 Starting Lineup:

1: Kobe Elvis
2: Koby Brea
3: RJ Blakney
4: Toumani Camara
5: Daron Holmes

6th man: Mali Smith, Elijah Weaver

If you would have told me the two most experienced (in Flyer minutes played; Weaver, Amzil) players on the roster wouldn't have started on night 1 I would not have believed you. Nevertheless here we are.

Quickly, this may not mean all that much. As it sits now I don't believe Holmes or Camara will leave the starting lineup and Kobe Elvis does seem quite steady at the 1.

Once Zimi returns to the rotation I'll be curious to see if he can crack the starting lineup and if Weaver will trade time in the starting lineup with Brea at the 2 or if he will retain a "Vee Sanford" energy 6th man position.

Rejoice! Flyer basketball is here.