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Alex Etherington is gonna be taking Khristian Smith role of last year as the "6th man". Now that Burnett is out for the season his minutes will increase so he will have every opportunity to produce as I think you mak see Khristian slide to the 4 spot at times.

I'm probably more excited about McIntosh but good to see Hawkins get the votes.

While there is no way I could ever vote for him, this has to be Hawkins' to lose. It took the guy 3 years to become eligible after he left (and I said left, not graduated) from HS, so he's got some physical mturity most Fr don't have. It would appear to be impossible for him not to have gained some mental maturity in those 3 years, considering where he started from.

I have very high hopes for Cunningham's career but he might not get the minutes needed to push for conference awards this season as the frontcourt will be loaded with Barnes and Shaw. After Barnes leaves hopefully he can take the reigns at the 3.

If Cunningham isn't good enough to start for Bradley this year, I either totally overvalued his talent level, or Bradley is going to be WAY better than I think, for reasons I can't pinpoint.

Cunningham should play the 3 and that also happens to be the position of the Braves' best returning player, 5th year senior Auston Barnes. Barnes averaged 9ppg and 6rpg last year and was the team's best 3 point shooter (34%). If Cunningham could run the point he'd be starting but forward is crowded.

Mikovio wrote:Cunningham should play the 3 and that also happens to be the position of the Braves' best returning player, 5th year senior Auston Barnes. Barnes averaged 9ppg and 6rpg last year and was the team's best 3 point shooter (34%). If Cunningham could run the point he'd be starting but forward is crowded.

Sometimes freshman don't excel in their first year. VanVleet took a back seat to Armstead as a rookie. That said, Bradley is not WSU, and PG takes a little longer to learn than forward. The 3/4/5 positions should be manned by Shaw, Taylor, Morgan, Barnes, and Cunningham. Even if all 4 are able to play 25 mpg (a lot for big men) that still leaves 20 mpg for JC. Barnes is capable of playing PF, and Shaw and Morgan are capable of playing center. That being the case, Cunningham should be competing for time with Taylor, not Barnes, in order to put the best players on the court. If he's not playing 20+ mpg by Valley time, then, as stated above, either Bradley is extremely good, or he's a bit of a disappointment in his first season.

Wufan wrote:Sometimes freshman don't excel in their first year. VanVleet took a back seat to Armstead as a rookie. That said, Bradley is not WSU, and PG takes a little longer to learn than forward. The 3/4/5 positions should be manned by Shaw, Taylor, Morgan, Barnes, and Cunningham. Even if all 4 are able to play 25 mpg (a lot for big men) that still leaves 20 mpg for JC. Barnes is capable of playing PF, and Shaw and Morgan are capable of playing center. That being the case, Cunningham should be competing for time with Taylor, not Barnes, in order to put the best players on the court. If he's not playing 20+ mpg by Valley time, then, as stated above, either Bradley is extremely good, or he's a bit of a disappointment in his first season.

Taylor's a center. Cunningham isn't a center at this level.

Morgan and Taylor are playing the 5 and should split about 25/15. Morgan might be able to chip in at the 4 but given Taylor's consistent foul trouble he won't have much time to play beside him. If Taylor has made great strides here then I suppose Morgan might be competing for minutes with Cunningham.

At the 3/4 there's Barnes (who played 32mpg last year), Shaw, Cunningham and Donte Thomas. You've got a 5th year senior returning starter and another former top 100 recruit 4th year junior who has practiced with the team for a full year and impressed. Of 80 total minutes at these positions, I'd expect 60 are accounted for between Barnes and Shaw. Assuming Morgan only handles the 5, that's probably 15mpg for Cunningham at best.

Mikovio wrote:

Wufan wrote:Sometimes freshman don't excel in their first year. VanVleet took a back seat to Armstead as a rookie. That said, Bradley is not WSU, and PG takes a little longer to learn than forward. The 3/4/5 positions should be manned by Shaw, Taylor, Morgan, Barnes, and Cunningham. Even if all 4 are able to play 25 mpg (a lot for big men) that still leaves 20 mpg for JC. Barnes is capable of playing PF, and Shaw and Morgan are capable of playing center. That being the case, Cunningham should be competing for time with Taylor, not Barnes, in order to put the best players on the court. If he's not playing 20+ mpg by Valley time, then, as stated above, either Bradley is extremely good, or he's a bit of a disappointment in his first season.

Taylor's a center. Cunningham isn't a center at this level.

Morgan and Taylor are playing the 5 and should split about 25/15. Morgan might be able to chip in at the 4 but given Taylor's consistent foul trouble he won't have much time to play beside him. If Taylor has made great strides here then I suppose Morgan might be competing for minutes with Cunningham.

At the 3/4 there's Barnes (who played 32mpg last year), Shaw, Cunningham and Donte Thomas. You've got a 5th year senior returning starter and another former top 100 recruit 4th year junior who has practiced with the team for a full year and impressed. Of 80 total minutes at these positions, I'd expect 60 are accounted for between Barnes and Shaw. Assuming Morgan only handles the 5, that's probably 15mpg for Cunningham at best.

Totally aware that Cunningham is a 3, maybe a 4 in the MVC. Also, aware that Taylor is a 5. Here's my argument:

You want to play the guys that give you the best chance to win. Obvious right? What that means is that sometimes guys play slightly (not totally) out of position in order to get the most talented guys on the court. So, who might play center, SF, PF? By size, center could be manned by Taylor, Morgan, and Shaw. Maybe I'm wrong on Shaw, but he's important to my argument, so I'm going to run with him as capable at the 4 and 5. Capable of the 4: Shaw, Morgan, Barnes. Capable of the 3 (excluding a three guard line-up) is Barnes and Cunninigham. If Morgan plays 20 at the 5 and Taylor plays 15, that leaves 5 minutes for Shaw. Shaw plays another 20 at the 4 and Barnes aye 20 at the 4. Another 10 minutes for Barnes at the 3 and 30 minutes are still available for someone. Surely JC can take 20+. If JC is good enough to play the three, then they will find room for Barnes at the 4 and Shaw at the 5 effectively shrinking Taylor's minutes. That's how JC is effectively competing with XT. Surely fellow freshman Donte Thomas isn't going to take minutes from Cunningham? If he is, then again, JC would be a disappointment in year 1.

Interesting article about Bradley's new player efficiency system, where players are assigned a grade based on how well they perform in practice. Cunningham and Taylor are ranked 1 & 2.