Haas on bench

[Boiler Buck]

I hate seeing him there. Love that kid's play. I know he will have his day again soon as you can't keep a great player down....so this isn't a Hammons vs Haas thread.

Did have a question though..... in some game matchups like last night where Swanigan looks lost on D and/or ineffective @ the 4, if Haas plays the 5 and Hammons the 4 -- in doing so, would Hammons D be any worse than Swanigan's there @ the 4? Swanigan seems slow or lost on D sometimes and I was wondering if Hammons would be an improvement there? Swanigan is always effective as a rebounder for sure....but no drop off there in Hammons.

 

[GodFamilyCountryPurdue]

I don't know that I would call Biggie "lost" on defense. It seems like he might try to do too much. Him doing that makes other people scramble or get caught in mismatches. He definitely needs to learn the defense better and stick to his responsibilities. He plays better d than I thought he would before the season started. He much quicker than expected and stays out of foul trouble on the perimeter. He played against a really good offensive 4 man, last night. He did fine.

 

[BoilerFan#35]

I was thinking the same thing, Hammond can play the 4. He can shoot 3s now and he wouldn't be a bad defender.

 

[TopSecretBoiler]

I really think this is all about foul mgmt for AJH. Haas starts. He looks huge and scary. He either does well or the refs go nuts on him and call all kinds of stupid fouls and Haas gets super frustrated. Now they bring in a calm AJH. He doesn't look as scary compared to Haas and the refs aren't as crazy on him. Whereas if you started with AJH in the game, he may draw a lot of attention from the refs. I think this is about the psychology of the officials and CMP is playing his cards right.

 

[Purdue Grad in Texas]

I hate seeing him there. Love that kid's play. I know he will have his day again soon as you can't keep a great player down....so this isn't a Hammons vs Haas thread.

Did have a question though..... in some game matchups like last night where Swanigan looks lost on D and/or ineffective @ the 4, if Haas plays the 5 and Hammons the 4 -- in doing so, would Hammons D be any worse than Swanigan's there @ the 4? Swanigan seems slow or lost on D sometimes and I was wondering if Hammons would be an improvement there? Swanigan is always effective as a rebounder for sure....but no drop off there in Hammons.

I'm reconsidering whether we might actually see it at some point, but JMO, I think two of the main obstacles are (1) offensively, it really messes up the spacing much more with H & H Block in there together.....several posters have mentioned this citing CMP himself stating that and (2) defensively, I think AJH would be much more prone to picking up more fouls on the perimeter.....he's already getting some from trying to help out on guard drives. Last night, I Haas picked up three fouls, so that was why he was stuck on the bench, and AJH caught fire and showed what many thought he's capable of.

That was a tough game, but a good game experience-wise for the Boilers. No, it wasn't a top team like Duke/UNC or Kansas......or MD/MSU in conference......but Purdue had to deal with foul trouble, losing a big lead, on the road, without their senior leader.......and managed to finish the job. Just me, but I was more impressed with the last 6 or 7 minutes of the game than the first 6 or 7 minutes because in years past......the Boilers would have most likely not found a way to pull this one out.....a good stepping stone.....even though not a complete game, and there was some struggling. I think this team is ahead of where I expected....not shocked.....but pleasantly surprised.

 

[lbodel]

I hate seeing him there. Love that kid's play. I know he will have his day again soon as you can't keep a great player down....so this isn't a Hammons vs Haas thread.

Did have a question though..... in some game matchups like last night where Swanigan looks lost on D and/or ineffective @ the 4, if Haas plays the 5 and Hammons the 4 -- in doing so, would Hammons D be any worse than Swanigan's there @ the 4? Swanigan seems slow or lost on D sometimes and I was wondering if Hammons would be an improvement there? Swanigan is always effective as a rebounder for sure....but no drop off there in Hammons.

With Swanigan, he definitely is not up to the veterans in terms of his defense and it gets exposed a bit more than a Ryan Cline, for example. But the only thing that will truly get him up to speed is playing time. So right now it's a bit of growing pains, but in the long run it will pay off.

As for Haas, you have to keep in mind he's a true sophomore. It sucks that we can't play him as much as we would like to, particularly on his 'good' days. But I think while Swanigan certainly isn't fast, he's definitely quicker than Hammans/Haas. I think it'd be exposed pretty easily by a good team (and could be problematic for fouls), while the benefits of it would probably not be amazing.

After this year, it will be Haas' job, he'll have 2 years left and he'll still get to play quality minutes this year.

 

[Boiler Buck]

If Haas keeps improving like he has- I will be very, very surprised if he is here 4 years.

 

[koopmeister]

I'm reconsidering whether we might actually see it at some point, but JMO, I think two of the main obstacles are (1) offensively, it really messes up the spacing much more with H & H Block in there together.....several posters have mentioned this citing CMP himself stating that and (2) defensively, I think AJH would be much more prone to picking up more fouls on the perimeter.....he's already getting some from trying to help out on guard drives. Last night, I Haas picked up three fouls, so that was why he was stuck on the bench, and AJH caught fire and showed what many thought he's capable of.

That was a tough game, but a good game experience-wise for the Boilers. No, it wasn't a top team like Duke/UNC or Kansas......or MD/MSU in conference......but Purdue had to deal with foul trouble, losing a big lead, on the road, without their senior leader.......and managed to finish the job. Just me, but I was more impressed with the last 6 or 7 minutes of the game than the first 6 or 7 minutes because in years past......the Boilers would have most likely not found a way to pull this one out.....a good stepping stone.....even though not a complete game, and there was some struggling. I think this team is ahead of where I expected....not shocked.....but pleasantly surprised.

To add to your thoughts, and as somebody else already referenced in another thread...having production coming off of the bench that can either be equal or sometimes superior is a huge advantage when other teams sub with a definitive dropoff. The center position in total has been simply amazing, and I love that the opposing team does not get any break at any point in the game. If anything it affects their rotation because they have to play bodies to counter what we bring to them for 40 minutes. Haas could start on almost any team in the country, and coming into the season he was behind what should be a 1st team BIG player that also happens to be on the 1st all defensive team. Many of us spent a good amount of time prognosticating the starting line-up and early rotation before the season started...wondering who would emerge with only so many minutes to dole out. We have so much depth we can lose a player as talented as RD and still win against a potential tourney team on a floor that is tougher than many. I think we are actually settling into a very good rotation, and again I give Painter a ton of credit for what I thought would be a very complicated decision on who to play and when. I agree it would be great to see H & H on the floor together at times, but I love how we are getting opposing players into foul trouble and then bringing equal or superior pain when one of our guys needs a breather.

 

[AZboiler]

To add to your thoughts, and as somebody else already referenced in another thread...having production coming off of the bench that can either be equal or sometimes superior is a huge advantage when other teams sub with a definitive dropoff. The center position in total has been simply amazing, and I love that the opposing team does not get any break at any point in the game. If anything it affects their rotation because they have to play bodies to counter what we bring to them for 40 minutes. Haas could start on almost any team in the country, and coming into the season he was behind what should be a 1st team BIG player that also happens to be on the 1st all defensive team. Many of us spent a good amount of time prognosticating the starting line-up and early rotation before the season started...wondering who would emerge with only so many minutes to dole out. We have so much depth we can lose a player as talented as RD and still win against a potential tourney team on a floor that is tougher than many. I think we are actually settling into a very good rotation, and again I give Painter a ton of credit for what I thought would be a very complicated decision on who to play and when. I agree it would be great to see H & H on the floor together at times, but I love how we are getting opposing players into foul trouble and then bringing equal or superior pain when one of our guys needs a breather.

Last nights situation revolved around the Pitt defense clogging the middle and making entry passes very difficult and neither Hammons nor Haas had a chance to catch and shoot.
MP countered with better spacing, quick ball movement to weak side and using a shooter (Cline) to use open looks to sink 3's. Once Cline opened up with the 3ptrs. Pitt has no choice but to return to the man to man. Once that happened, AJ was the 2nd dose of poison.

 

[BoilerDeac]

I really think this is all about foul mgmt for AJH. Haas starts. He looks huge and scary. He either does well or the refs go nuts on him and call all kinds of stupid fouls and Haas gets super frustrated. Now they bring in a calm AJH. He doesn't look as scary compared to Haas and the refs aren't as crazy on him. Whereas if you started with AJH in the game, he may draw a lot of attention from the refs. I think this is about the psychology of the officials and CMP is playing his cards right.

It's sad that this is true, but it is most definitely true.

Having to essentially play politics with the refs is so ridiculous, but seems like CMP knows how to play his cards.

 

[lbodel]

If Haas keeps improving like he has- I will be very, very surprised if he is here 4 years.

Everyone always hypes up NBA potential. People on this board were worried about JaJuan Johnson going pro after his sophomore and junior years. And quite frankly, he wasn't close to being a first rounder even after his senior year.

Now, I am not saying Haas couldn't be a first round pick, but there's a lot of improvement to be made still and a lot of other factors at play too. If Hammons wasn't here this year and Haas was the starter playing 30 minutes a game, yeah I could see him legit leaving early after his junior year.

But we'll talk about it when the time comes!

 

[Augie85]

haven't seen stats yet but recall Biggie pulling down rebounds and getting mugged several times

 

[Schnelk]

If getting mugged were an individual "stat" then Haas would lead the league.