Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - FIXING the Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Rotation - What Do They Do When KJ Adams Returns?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Today's Locked on Jayhawks lets fix the Kansas basketball rotation. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. What's happening? Derek Johnson here. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. And thank you to the everyday listeners tuning into the show. You make it what it is. So appreciate you for listening. On today's episode of Locked on Jayhawks, we're going to fix the KU basketball rotation.

Starting point is 00:00:36 What do we think? Where should the minutes go? What would make this thing a little bit better, both without KJ and then once KJ is able to come back? And then a little bit of a question.j and then once kj is able to come back and then a little bit of a question what can we actually expect because there's a difference in you know maybe what some of our opinions are and and what is probably going to actually happen so we'll get all that on today's episode of the show which is brought to you by fan duel sports book from the first whistle to the final drive fan duel makes the nfl playoffs even more exciting right now new customers can bet five dollars and get $300 in bonus bets.

Starting point is 00:01:07 If you win your first bet, just visit FanDuel.com to get started today. All right, so KJ Adams is going to be out for the TCU game, and it seems like to me he's probably going to be out for, I don't know, maybe a few more games after that. At the very least, you know, this is something that you're going to have at least one more game where that is the case, and I feel like pretty confident it'd be at least two. So with that said, what should the minute rotation look like?

Starting point is 00:01:35 I think moving forward. Because you look at the Kansas State game, and it was odd that Ryland Griffin only played 12 minutes, certainly, right? It would have been odd even if KJ Adams was, you know, playing that Ryland Griffin only played 12 minutes I know it's not like that far off from some of the games he's been playing where maybe he's played like 15 or you know 16 18 minutes right but 12 seems low especially when there's an extra almost 30 minutes to go around 29 minutes to go around when KJ is not

Starting point is 00:01:59 there so that was certainly odd um how would this go around now not every team you're going to play is going to utilize the same rotation if you're Kansas and around now not every team you're going to play is going to utilize the same rotation if you're Kansas and I get that right when you're playing Kansas State they're playing more two big men right Coleman Hawkins who's six foot ten who basically was the five man for Illinois a season ago is playing four for Kansas State whereas some of the other teams you play are going to play more wing types at the four position but then you go ahead to for instance the Houston game on Saturday andston even though both their big man are like six foot eight um both of them have like seven foot plus wingspans and they basically play like center so like that's more of a tubing

Starting point is 00:02:33 lineup right so dependent on who you are playing is going to factor in to what rotations you're playing and how well you are able to play them so i understand that this is just kind of an overarching like base standard for what it would be so um in terms of the games without KJ, wild KJ is currently away. To me, when I'm looking at the minutes of how they would be allocated, I would be looking at, okay, DeJuan Harris playing 30 minutes per night. Shaquille Moore giving you the backup point guard minutes for those 10 minutes behind him. And then continuing to start DeJuan next to Shaq Moore next to Zeke Mayo. And then Shaq Moore gets another 16 minutes at the two.

Starting point is 00:03:15 So overall, Shaq Moore is playing 26 minutes. Now, I do think there is a little bit something of, hey, KJ's been, you could argue, your best defender on the team this season. And we just talked about it in the Kansas State game. You had your best offensive performance by points per possession, but you also had your worst defensive performance by points allowed per possession. So theoretically, if you don't have KJ, you want Shaquille Moore playing more minutes while he's out because he is one of your best defenders. Now, he played even more minutes than this in the Kansas State game when he had 31. I have it down at 26. But as we'll see once we get to the Shaquille Moore minutes with KJ, those might go down a little bit there. The reason I do have

Starting point is 00:03:56 Flory starting next to Hunter is I don't think it matters as much as who starts. I have voiced the concern of, okay, if you only have two healthy big men right when zach clements is out if you only have two healthy big men do you really want flory badunga starting out there and putting at risk the chance of flory and hunter one of the two or both of them getting in foul trouble when you don't really have another option that you'd be able to go to like honestly what would happen if both were in foul trouble for the game what would k you do with five would they play five guards with like aj store being the five would uh i don't know would like would you just throw one of the walk-ons out there would it be like dylan will heights or justin cross or something that's a question that you don't want to see that you're

Starting point is 00:04:39 actually a lot closer to seeing than you might certainly think but i i don't think it matters as much in terms of who's starting if the minute like theoretically if flory plays 22 minutes off the bench versus starting and playing 22 minutes it's the same it's the same it's just one start of the game you know what i mean like it's not that different so i don't think it really matters in terms of who's starting i think it matters more about the minutes i haven't played 24 he played 25 in the kansas state game um playing you know some of those uh 14 of them to be exact at the four and then the other 10 as the backup five to 100 against and if you wanted to lower those minutes in case of foul trouble or maybe

Starting point is 00:05:15 even raise hunters to 32 just to make sure the foul trouble i would actually understand both those right now i have hunter at 30 minutes then when we look at the two guard position uh beyond shaquille moore starting i have Zeke Mayo operating a good amount of minutes behind him and then I just left some room open 11 minutes to be exact for spot minutes at the two guard position but that doesn't necessarily mean the spot minutes have to come to somebody playing the two I'll explain that in a second so the uh players I have playing the three Zeke Mayo starting and then between Zeke Mayo's minutes as the three and as the two, I have them playing 30 minutes per game,

Starting point is 00:05:48 which is the same as DeJuan and Hunter for most in this scenario. I have Ryland Griffin being the main backup at the three, getting a ton of minutes there. And then I have Ryland Griffin also getting 10 minutes as the backup four to where the combination of Ryland Griffin playing the three and four is 26 minutes. I think Ryland Griffin needs to play for this team. I think he needs to, he really opens things up from a shooting perspective. And if you're going to be playing without KJ, yes,

Starting point is 00:06:11 there are certain things you want to do to increase your defense without him. But like, you know, if you're going to have to be more of an offensive team without KJ, steer into the offense, right? Give Ryland Griffin go and let him fly from three. Then I have AJ Storr getting some minutes of the backup three, but also getting a majority of his minutes as the backup four behind flory and again if you want to start store over flory or griffin over flory and go with that it doesn't really matter as long as the minutes kind of work out the same and i've store getting a few less

Starting point is 00:06:38 minutes than griffin because overall i think i know store played more minutes than griffin in the kansas state game i think that griff, to me, like he's shown more effort, and I've seen more positives on the defensive end of the floor, and I've seen less in terms of, you know, sometimes there are times with A.J. Storr where it's like, what was that shot? That was a bad shot selection. I don't think Bill Self liked that. I see less of those lapses with Ryland Griffin.

Starting point is 00:06:59 Plus, I like the three-point shooting more with Griffin than A.J. Storr, so that's why I've been playing more, even though that wasn't the case in the Kansas State game that I just think, you know, you have kind of more value there. So back to the spot minutes. What does that mean? Because we're left with basically a seven-man rotation here for KU, right? You have DeJuan, Shaquille Moore, Zeke Mayo, Floyd Badunga, and Hunter Dickinson as your starting five. You have Rylan Griffin and AJ Storr eating the back of minutes. Obviously, in this scenario, Zach Clements and KJ Adams are out. And then I have 11 minutes available for spot minutes. And again, I listed the two position, but you could easily shift that down to the three position. You could say, okay, I'll shift that

Starting point is 00:07:33 down to the three position. And now the spot minutes are available at the three position. And now there's more minutes available at the two. And Zeke Mayo just plays more at the two than he does at three. Or Island Griffin gets some minutes at the two, and now there's some spot minutes available at the three. And so basically where the spot minutes go is it's dependent. It could be dependent on the matchup, right? Are you playing a team who has a need for you to play an extra wing? Okay, spot minutes go to Rakeese Passmore. Is Zach Clements back and healthy again?

Starting point is 00:07:59 Okay, now you shift the spot minutes around, and now Zach Clements can play some of those spot minutes. Or is the spot minutes more necessary for you to play another guard a ball handler whether it's at the one or the two then that would be where Diggie Coit comes in so you can move the spot minutes around wherever you want but they do factor in and basically you view 11 spot minutes per game that could basically be you know David Coit plays eight minutes this game and Rakees Passmore gets three that could be one place six one place five that could be oh David Coit was three for three from three in his first six minutes of play so Bill Self played him 11 minutes for the game right so that's kind of how it works out so I have it kind

Starting point is 00:08:33 of factored down to really an eight-man rotation where the eighth man is kind of swap minutes and that's been kind of a good zone for where Bill Self has lived an area that I think Bill Self has certainly liked in his time at Kansas. And I think that one makes a lot of sense. And I think it would leave a lot of minutes for both Storr and Griffin to both try to make an impact on the game and to kind of hit the ground running for you moving forward. I don't think it would be overexerting anybody, right? In this scenario, nobody's playing more than 30 minutes, even though it is only really a seven and a half man rotation. I think that's a good place to be. And again, if you want to shift around and say, okay,

Starting point is 00:09:08 Hunter's up 32 and Flory's down to 22, or, you know, you give another one or two to, I don't know, Zeke Mayo or DeJuan Harris and bump one off Shaquille Moore, like that's totally fine. But I think this will work for KU in this current climate without KJ. What about when KJ does come back low though? Let's get to that minutes rotation, what I would go with on Locked on Jayhawks. Our episode of the show today is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. From the first whistle to the final drive, FanDuel makes the NFL playoffs even more exciting.

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Starting point is 00:10:10 but basically a pick-em. Make this playoff season unforgettable with FanDuel, an official sportsbook partner of the NFL and the Locked On Podcast Network. All right. Continuing on with this episode of Locked On Jayhawks, thank you to the everydayers catching each and every show. Thank you to you for listening.

Starting point is 00:10:27 And don't forget to check out Locked on College Football for a recap of the national title game. Locked on College Basketball to really get you into college basketball season now, right? We're winding down on the NFL, college football season over. College basketball season now time, baby. Portal season kind of coming in too. Okay, what about when KJ returns? What to do with the rotation there if you are KU?

Starting point is 00:10:46 So let's get into that. Here's our minutes rotation, what we would do when KJ does come back. Now, again, in the same vein of what we talked about in the first segment, I know some people will be like, why not just have KJ as a super sub coming off the bench, especially if this works? And I do think there is a certain reservation here for me in putting this together because there is a a certain reservation here for me and putting this together

Starting point is 00:11:05 because there is a little bit of a a guinea pig test over these next couple games for ku right what if they do lose these next two games what if you lose a tcu in houston and you come out of this going yeah they are a way better team with kj right then it's a different equation right um versus what's the flip side right what if ku slaughters tcu on wednesday and then they beat houston and all on saturday and then you're actually, they might kind of be a better team. They might be a more open offense without KJ, right? Those are different scenarios where one you're going, okay, we're going to reinsert KJ. Like KJ is going to play. We know that. But maybe one is closer to 20 minutes per game. Maybe the other is closer to 30 minutes per game, right? Like

Starting point is 00:11:41 those things are a little bit dependent on how these results go over the next couple games for for better or for worse um that said i i don't think it's as important like i said earlier as who starts and if you want to continue to say hey kj you've worked your butt off and you know you know all the faults that you want to blame on oh well it it doesn't always work with kj next to hunter i i don't think you blame kj for that like he tries as hard as possible he he hustles as hard as he does. Like he, he tries to do everything that Bill Self asks of him and more. Um, if you want to blame anybody, I think you blame Bill Self for continuing to roll with that rotation as long as he does. Right. So I don't blame KJ. He's, he's the tool. Bill Self is the hammer, you know, or he's the nail and Bill Self is the hammer. It's like, don't blame

Starting point is 00:12:23 the nail for going in the wall, blame the hammer, swinging it right um but nonetheless if you want to give an ode to that and continue starting him you can do that while still playing him less minutes than he is getting in a more limited role to where you're saying hey we still view you we like you still are valuable you're arguably the best defender on the team that still has a value on the team and we saw in the kansas state game they could have used an extra defender for that in certain situations but also maybe in other situations you know you want more offense out there so maybe there's a happy medium you can find after the K-State game and that's what I'm kind of going for here in this minute rotation so we have DeJuan Harris at 28 minutes per game all minutes coming at the point guard position

Starting point is 00:13:00 then we have Shaquille Moore playing those backup point guard minutes for 12 minutes per night now in the other one we had Shaquille Moore 26 minutes per game um I have Shaquille Moore and I think the the number here is wrong on this so I'm going to go ahead and edit this right here in front of you if you're watching on YouTube but I think this is uh supposed to be 22 minutes per game he's playing uh 10 minutes per game at the two position and he is playing uh 12 minutes per game at the one position so 22 minutes per game and i think the reason why is what i said earlier the difference in minutes is okay with kj you have an extra good defender out there right but k you needs more offense when kj is out there so you know those extra four minutes can go a long way for ku whereas with um kj adams out you need more

Starting point is 00:13:41 defense is what you showed you showed that you actually have a better offense but you need more defense and again it's a one game sample size he gets a bad kansas state defense so we need to see more data but just overreacting to that first game um that would kind of make some sense to me then you have zeke mayo continuing to start the three he picks up uh about eight nine minutes per game at the wing position on the three when he's out there with the two point guard lineup of dewana and shaquille Moore. And then he gets a big chunk of his minutes coming at the two position. Overall, he's playing 30 minutes per night if you're Zeke Mayo. I also left some spot minutes at the two position available for kind of the same reason. It's just there's less spot minutes available, right? With KJ adding another player who's taking minutes,

Starting point is 00:14:22 that would leave just eight spot minutes available to do I continue to have Ryland Griffin playing really big minutes for for KU in this one not quite 26 and the other one but I do have 25 and you could say okay there's all these extra minutes for KJ Adams but how are you going to get 25 you're getting 26 without KJ Adams well okay to the same reason that you know with KJ, you need an extra floor space. You need an extra shooter. And I think Ryland Griffin, along with Zeke Mayo represent your two best options at playing on the floor. When KJ is on the floor, if KJ is on the floor, Zeke or Ryland Griffin should be on the floor at all times. And if preferable, like both of them should be on the lineup at all times when KJ is out on the floor. So if KJ is not on the floor, Shaquille Warren, DeJuan Harris, great. If KJ is on the floor,

Starting point is 00:15:09 Zeke Mayo, Ryland Griffin next to DeJuan Harris, like that makes a lot of sense. So we're playing Ryland Griffin 25 minutes per game, all of it coming at the three, though he doesn't have to play any minutes at the four, which I think helps you on the defensive end and rebounding the basketball. Then we have a little bit of minutes for AJ store at the three, as well as a good amount of minutes for AJ store at the four three, as well as a good amount of minutes for AJ Storr at the four. Overall, AJ Storr playing 19 minutes per game, down from like the 23 without KJ. That still allows AJ Storr to get a pretty sizable roll off the bench and still try to establish himself that if he can get things clicking, you can still raise those minutes up to 25, you know, or maybe even more than that

Starting point is 00:15:42 minutes per game in this scenario, right? Then you have Flory playing, you know, back up five minutes and back up four minutes where he's getting 20 minutes a night. And I think that protects Flory in a way where he's playing 20 minutes where that's a good amount of minutes to still make an impact, but it's also not overdoing it with minutes that you have to worry as much about foul trouble for Flory Badunga. Starting at before I mentioned KJ Adams, but here's the big one for kj i have been playing just a handful a little under handful to be honest uh like four minutes per game at the backup five uh playing a little bit of minutes at the four and totaling 22 minutes per game where kj is now this this super defender that can just exert all that energy when he's on the court he can get a little minutes at the five where you can throw out this i think

Starting point is 00:16:23 what would be a really fun offensive lineup of kj who's a good passer and dunker at the five position if you're surrounding him with say aj store the four rylan griffin at three zeke mayo at the two and duane harris the one or you want to go to one at the one she kill more at the two you know zeke or rylan at the three and then rylan or store at the four you can be a switchable defensive lineup you can space the floor and kj in that role is going it's like it doesn't matter if you you sag the paint on him because usually the center sags the paint right so i think that would be a lot of fun to just throw out there four or five minutes a game and see how the defense responds and just give them something else to think about

Starting point is 00:16:56 and that still gets kj 22 minutes per game but it's not as taxing of load and then we have hunter dickinson playing 26 minutes per game and uh this would allow for hunter to you know i guess be more rested right because if you're looking at hunter he we saw in the kansas state game just an awful an awesome offensive performance um but what has been the big knock at times this season when people have been upset with with hunter's performances it usually has centered around maybe the lack of effort or not being fast enough on the defensive end of the court. Well, if you're playing 26 minutes per game, maybe it's a little bit easier to kind of hustle through some of that stuff.

Starting point is 00:17:32 So that's why we have all these minutes for this together. It totals out to being an eight-man rotation with a ninth spot for spot minutes, which we have seen in some other years. We go back down to our handy-dandy chart of past rotation depth for KU, and you look at other years. We go back down to our handy dandy chart of past rotation depth for KU. And, you know, you look at past years, like I always like to point back to that 2011 season, for instance, when KU was, you know, able to really play for, you know, 5% plus of minutes, nine guys as part of the rotation. Or if you look at games played eight guys, or if you look at eight plus minutes per game or 10 plus minutes per game, 10 guys. And so it is possible that Bill Self wants to play like that.

Starting point is 00:18:07 And that would be my rotation for once KJ comes back. But again, it kind of all depends on how KU does these next couple of games because we're going to learn a lot about this team, about these players, how they all fit together and what the best lineups and fits are. I think in these next couple of games, maybe more so than we have all season long

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Starting point is 00:19:48 and maybe you would teeter with something here or there. If you want to knock off a couple minutes this guy and throw it to that guy, totally understandable, right? I do still think the rotation is going to get shaved at some point in time. And maybe as much as anything, that's the importance of these next couple games, right? If you view it from that standpoint, if you say Bill Self eventually is going to shave this rotation,

Starting point is 00:20:08 it's eventually going to be once KJ comes back and gets, you know, reintegrated into the lineup and the rotation, it's going to be down to an eight-man rotation at some point. Well, you look at it and you would say, okay, who's getting the cut, right? And maybe right now it would be easy to say David Coyton or Keith Spassmore, right? What if it goes further than that? What if it does become a seven man rotation with an eighth man kind of getting spot minutes that it becomes very important between rylan griffin and aj store who kind of wins out on those minutes for ku so like that becomes uh super crucial but also like this is the last stand for david coit and rickies passmore in the time that kj adams is

Starting point is 00:20:43 out to be a part of that rotation to to get last ticket to the airplane, so to speak, before it takes off, right? So that is certainly interesting. But it does kind of seem like non-negotiables for Bill Self of having DeJuan, KJ, and Hunter playing big minutes. So even though I had when KJ is coming back playing 22 minutes, how realistic, how feasible is that i think kansas would really have to show out these next however many games that kj is out right doesn't mean you have to win everyone but you probably gotta win well it depends how many games you play right if you're without kj for six games you go five and one and the one loss to a good team you beat some of these other good teams you know that that certainly speaks to a certain thing about it versus if you

Starting point is 00:21:22 go three and three without them right all. All that stuff kind of matters. But I also could see it being a situation where it's like Bill self goes right back to KJ being a starter plan, you know, 28 minutes a night or whatever it is. As soon as he comes back into the lineup, I almost wonder if it would take a KU does well in these games without KJ. And then the first game back with KJ, they struggle or they lose the game like that. That is part of what I wonder, but it's entirely possible.

Starting point is 00:21:49 This has to be the audition. And to be clear, like, I'm not sold on the fact, like, I'm not guaranteeing, you know, I have KJ playing 22 minutes, but like I've said, like, I'm not guaranteeing or completely sold on the idea that, like, KU is this better team or whatever. Again, Kansas State is a really bad defensive team right now. So the fact that you had your best offensive performance, that might just be because they're bad on the defensive end of the court. We're going to learn more from the TCU game, who's a good defense. We're going to learn even more from the Houston game,

Starting point is 00:22:18 who has the best defense in the country and one of the best teams in the country. So I think it'll be very interesting to see how KU plays moving forward to kind of determine some of those things. But honestly, right now, if I was predicting what's going to happen to the rotation when KJ Adams does come back, if I was just saying what I think Bill Self's going to do, I would kind of assume that it's just going to be the same old, same old. And obviously, the fact that AJ Storm, Rylan Griffin didn't have like huge games against Kansas State probably doesn't influence or does influence that prediction right now for me a good amount as well. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks.

Starting point is 00:22:51 You can find our show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page. We'll be back with you for a Kansas TCU preview. See you tomorrow.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - FIXING the Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Rotation - What Do They Do When KJ Adams Returns?

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