Alijah Martin Committed To Gators

yes… different body type for sure. The comparison was to the athleticism, explosiveness and offensively aggressive style.
Honestly, you will not find a lot of guys like Martin… 6’2… but plays waaaay bigger.

 

Looks to me like Major Parker, but with way more offensive skills

 

Not questioning you, but do you know this from watching film or from what someone else said? I'm legit curious, because those are some serious allegations. Saying a basketball player doesn't have good decision-making ability is about as harsh a criticism as you can make. When you say he isn't a good passer, what do you mean? Are you saying he can't make routine passes?

 

I’ve been a season ticket holder the duration of his career at fau, and have watched nearly every game he has played. I wasn’t meaning it to sound harsh. I love the kid! That’s Alijah with my twins! Perhaps better stated… he doesn’t have the decision making of a true point guard. That’s not meant to be a knock… he is an aggressive, scoring guard… not one accustomed to making decisions running offense. Maybe he surprises me. Regardless- he will be great.

 

As a basketball player, I don’t really understand this. Many great decision-makers are not true point guards, and not all true point guards are great decision-makers. As I said before, use of the term “true point-guard” has become a fad here and is starting to not make sense anymore. Lebron is not a true point guard. Michael Jordan was not a true point guard. Larry Bird was not a true point guard. Kobe Bryant was not a true point guard. Dwayne Wade was not a true point guard. All of them were elite decision-makers who could run an offense.

 

I’m not sure what you don’t understand. I don’t think Martin’s skillset makes him well suited to be a point guard. I think he is an outstanding player and most effective in the role he has played the duration of his college career.

 

Let’s Go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He brings more big game experience than anyone on our roster. That’s huge and will help his teammates.

 

For sure… and he has that proverbial “dog” mentality.
You may recall, he took some unjustified heat for trying to hammer a 360-dunk in the waning seconds versus FDU in the tourney a year ago. Given some of the backstory of the that game… I LOVED it. Lol!
He is a nice kid, super competitive, tough.

 

I tend to agree with you that in the modern age of “positionless” basketball, prototypes are overrated. That said, I think those examples prove the other point: good decision-makers don’t have to be point guards, but good point guards have to be good decision-makers. If you were to change that term to offense-initiators, that would be a little different. In that case, a point guard doesn’t necessarily *have* to initiate the offense. And you have plenty of teams in the NBA who run their offense through someone who doesn’t play the 1, but that’s also the NBA.

At this level, it’s usually much easier schematically to have 2-3 kids who can play the one and who can also initiate the offense (not just calling out a set or play, but actually identifying the defense/ball screen coverages, making plays off high ball screen, setting up teammates off screen roll or slip, making post entry passes, you name it). For us last year, that was Pullin 85% of the time, Clayton the rest. Can Martin do all of those things 85% of the time? Given what he has done in the past, I don’t think so. Can he do it 50%, along with some combination of Clayton/Aberdeen? I’m still not sure, but that seems to be the current plan.

 

This statement might get me in trouble, but it's important to be brave: I'm willing to accept LeBron James on this team, true point guard or not.

 

Since you've seen him play so much, was he ever tasked with PG? If not, maybe Dusty was just putting the best 5 on the court and the team was better with him being the SG. Now, if he did play PG and not do it well, that's a different discussion. I would find it puzzling if he could not run an offense and he comes here to do so.

 

I'll call your LeBron James and raise you one Larry Bird at his current age. If nothing else, season ticket sales would go through the roof.

 

No, I can’t think of a time he was ever tabbed as pg; and that includes an extended period this season when starter Nick Boyd was out with injury. Dusty did not slide Martin into any pg duties, but opted to supplement Gaffney with Greenlee.
I suspect we will either add a portal pg and/or lean into Aberdeen for primary pg duties. I think Chris Harry suggested the same.

 

I'm oddly interested in the question of just how old/decrepit an NBA star would have to be before they'd no longer be dominant at the college level. So, I'm pretty sure a 39-year-old LeBron would be the best player in the college basketball, and I'm pretty sure a gimpy 67-year-old Larry Bird would not be very good at high-level college basketball. But where's the line? Would LeBron still dominate in college at 42? 45?

 

Right. I see a world in which we add another kid from the portal as insurance, or possibly someone to rotate with Aberdeen and develop for the future. I see another world in which Clayton leaves, Martin becomes the 2, and we need a legit scoring one to complement him. I also see a world in which Aberdeen, Clayton, and Martin share ballhandling responsibilities at the 1-2, with possible additional help from Kublickas at the 1 and Brown at the 2.

What I personally don’t see is Martin and Clayton simply sharing time at the 2.

 

I mostly agree. i still fully expect Clayton returns. I think Aberdeen handles primary pg duties; perhaps with the help of a portal addition.
Without a portal addition, perhaps Clayton and Martin share limited time at pg. Personally, I think the former is a bit more suited.
I think Martin ends up starting over Richard; spells Clayton and maybe… maybe… sees a bit of time at pg. But I am skeptical of that last part.
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This scenario is concerning to me. I love Aberdeen, but don't think he up to being the primary PG. He's welcome to prove me wrong! Possibly Kublickas will be a big surprise here?

 

i am not thinking so w kublickas.
I’m also a bit concerned about Aberdeen. I love his game but being thrust into full time role makes me a little nervous.
I was convinced we were going to make significant portal of pg add, but now I’m not sure.

 

"Kublickas will be a big surprise here?" I'll go out on a limb and say he is going to get some significant playing time this year unless a top PG comes on board...but I have no inside knowledge. Just a hunch. Check back with me in December. Ha!

 

We’d probably know sooner than December!