It's clear as day that Adam Miller is struggling right now. I don't want to get into a discussion about whether or not Miller or Curbelo should start. The starting lineup has weird politics and coaches don't like to mess with guys heads. Given that Curbelo was on the floor at the end of the game today, I think that says all that needs to be said about that.
But there is some lingering concern that Miller simply isn't as good as his recruiting ranking and that we should back off expectations for him. I'm going to throw out a couple ideas and see where this goes:
Lastly, I don't agree with the DJ Richardson comparison stuff. Neither are elite athletes, but Miller is built like a tank and Richardson was a twig when he got here. Adam has a decent handle, he just seems to have no confidence in it. Richardson couldn't dribble at all. Adam showed good basketball IQ in camp events like USA basketball. Adam's not a point guard, but he's certainly capable of putting the ball on the floor and reading the defense after someone flies at him for a closeout.
Anyways, Illinois needs him, but I think fans need to be patient with him because this is nothing we didn't see from Ayo Dosunmu his freshman year. It's a huge adjustment to begin with, and this is a year with a lot of crazy twists.
But there is some lingering concern that Miller simply isn't as good as his recruiting ranking and that we should back off expectations for him. I'm going to throw out a couple ideas and see where this goes:
- This was the 10th game of Miller's career. In the 11th game of Ayo's career, he had 2 points and 4 turnovers against Missouri. In fact, Ayo averaged 6.8 ppg on 27% from the floor with 2.7 TO/g during games 6-11 of his career.
- The knock on Ayo his freshman and early sophomore years was that he couldn't make things happen in the half court. He was fantastic in transition, and his freshman year he made threes. It took him time to figure out how to get his shots in the half court, and it took Illinois as a whole time to adjust to him.
- Case in point is that I don't think Morgan Park players are necessarily the most prepared for set defense in the half-court in Big Ten college basketball games. It's a huge adjustment.
- Adam is a lower-usage player than Ayo was his freshman year. Ayo got to learn on the job at a relatively high usage rate by making lots of mistakes. Adam isn't given as many chances because he's a lower-priority option on a good team. That's both good and bad. It's good that Illinois is good enough that they can win without Adam playing well, but it's bad because it may take him longer to figure things out with fewer reps per game.
- If you look across the country right now at some of the guards ranked in the top-50 of the 2020 class, it's pretty uninspiring. I'm not going to go look up everyone's stat sheet for you guys, but if you're interested, here are some names to check out: Brandon Boston, Ziaire Williams, Bryce Thompson, Caleb Love, Jeremy Roach, Khristian Lander, Devin Askew, Nimari Burnett, Matthew Murrell, RJ Davis.
Lastly, I don't agree with the DJ Richardson comparison stuff. Neither are elite athletes, but Miller is built like a tank and Richardson was a twig when he got here. Adam has a decent handle, he just seems to have no confidence in it. Richardson couldn't dribble at all. Adam showed good basketball IQ in camp events like USA basketball. Adam's not a point guard, but he's certainly capable of putting the ball on the floor and reading the defense after someone flies at him for a closeout.
Anyways, Illinois needs him, but I think fans need to be patient with him because this is nothing we didn't see from Ayo Dosunmu his freshman year. It's a huge adjustment to begin with, and this is a year with a lot of crazy twists.
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