“Maybe there is a flaw when recruiting 5 star players as there’s no team chemistry on the court when trying to decide who gets the ball.”

Per Rivals:
Damion: 5 stars, #17 in 2006
Mason: 4 stars, #86 in 2006
Harrison: 4 stars, #96 in 2006
Gary: 4 stars, #61 in 2007
Clint: 4 stars, #73 in 2007
Wangmene: 4 stars, #87 in 2007
Hill: 3 stars, #127 in 2006
Dexter: 3 stars, #150 in 2006
AJ: 3 stars, #103 in 2005
Atchley, Dogus & Varez weren’t top 150.

It’s not 5-star talent that’s an issue. Our five-stars (Durant, LaMarcus, Gibson, and Mike Williams) didn’t have chemistry issues.

UNC seems to be surviving their talent issues.

1) Everyone misses. No one is perfect. Are you saying that just because he misses more than half the time he shouldn’t shoot? Wow…

2) Everyone (except CA) is standing around right now b/c they are not used to playing motion offense w/o DJ. Our spacing is terrible. This is not AJ’s fault.

3) This is just asinine. Give our players a little more credit than that.

4) I can say that it is somewhat disconcerting about the apparent lack of development from our bigs. I would hardly blame it on AJ, though.

5 and on) This is why AJ shouldn’t be playing PG.

He is catching a lot of flack right now for testing the draft and almost demanding to play PG. However, you cannot overlook what he does for our team. Sure, he will have his off-nights, but to insinuate that we would be better off without him demonstrates your dislike for the kid over your unbiased analysis. Afterall,there is a reason he has been getting 40 mins a game for the last 3 seasons.

They’ll coach it out of him soon enough, I imagine.

It has been interesting watching Barnes all these years and the teams he has put out on the floor. Year after year, whatever group of guys he has always seem to hold together as a group. I can’t remember a situation where there was any kind of on court problems as is being discussed.

Barnes has always struggled to build a capable offense with his teams, but always wins with hustle, rebounding and defense. Even the less talented teams were a joy to watch because they were “playing the right way”. The TJ led teams were our best offensively, his highest assist total was his first game as a freshman against Arizona. Barnes didn’t build that offense, he just let TJ do his thing. The year that Mouton and PJ fought to be the “man” was a great team, but without a real star, but it was a senior loaded team that went to the Final Four the year before. PJ came along and carried us, then Durant and DJ. Those guys all shouldered the load and carried things, allowing the role players to do their thing.

AJ is certainly not the answer, and James might not be either. Barnes has never crafted a great offense, and a bunch of role players won’t get the job done in his “system”. Somebody has to step up, James is our only hope.

1) he can miss — which he does plenty often

2) his teammates start standing around instead of working to get open — which happens — because they figure the shot is going to go up anyway

3) his teammates start shooting when they get the ball instead of working for the best shot possible — e.g. Damion James — because they know if they pass it to Abrams, it’s probably not coming back out

4) there’s no development of the rest of the offense when Abrams is shooting 27 times. The big men need work, or else they’ll be at the same level with their post scoring efforts at the end of the year that they are now. This was my big beef with the season last year.

5) no free throw shooting. Abrams isn’t going to get to the free throw line. While the team is not good at the free throw line, they still need to keep getting there. Partly to hopefully get better, but more importantly, to put pressure on the other team by putting pivotal players on the bench.

Some of this would be different if Abrams could create his own shot, or was a threat to dribble penetrate, but he can’t do either. And he certainly isn’t going to create for his teammates. Zero assists in 40 minutes. That’s unbelievable!

And he’s still a liability on the defensive end. He tries hard, but in the end he’s still 5′9 155, and he’s not blessed with outstanding lateral speed.

Depending on an outside shooter who can’t create his own shot, can’t create for his teammates, can’t dribble penetrate, and is only 5′9, is a recipe for disaster. There’s no upside with Abrams. There’s plenty of upside on the rest of the team.

I can hardly wait until this kid is gone. I can hardly wait.

It Absolutely will. AJ has the greenest of green lights from Barnes, and nothing will change that. Ever. Not when you have a player that can put up 9 points in under a minute.

Let’s see how this team looks in a month… say after Michigan State. It clearly doesn’t have a PG yet, but the ‘04 team made the S16 with Royal Ivey ostensibly at the position.

I’m sure RB will show James some of his shots, with Jay Bilas’s comments. Something along the lines of, “He can see it, and he doesn’t watch you every day like I do.”

I would hate for this season to hinge on whether AJ Abrams brought his shot. I don’t think it will, but it’s possible.

Coming into the season I knew we would sorely miss DJA’s ability to penetrate and run the floor, but I really took for granted how well he and Damion complemented one another.

I could not possibly agree with you more regarding the crippling affect that Abrams is having on this team. It takes a special kind of ball-hog to make one of the conferences’ best interior players completely abandon his bread and butter game under the hoop and start heaving mid-range jumpers.

If AJ ends up playing us out of the Sweet 16 and costing Damion an NBA career in the process I’m gonna be righteously pissed.

Also, can someone please give me a legitimate explanation as to why J-Mase is not far and away our best option at PG right now? Sure he doesn’t do the ‘And1′ dribble moves as well as Abrams but at least he understands the concept of distributing the ball and driving the lane to free up open looks on the perimeter.

Mother of god that game pissed me off to no end.

If he does what he did last night jacking up shots like that, all he is doing is hurting us. If he wasn’t focusing on his pipedream, we could probably get the ball to DJ with better looks so he wouldn’t have to take off balanced 20 footers…. DJ at least has a chance at being a pro