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Per usual, tweet us @rockchalktalk or email to rockchalkmailbag at gmail dot com to get all your questions answered.
@RockChalkTalk Do you think/hope that AW3, in his brief amount of time the other day, did enough to get more playing time? #FREEANDREWWHITE
— Ramon Guerrero (@RamonKU1) February 18, 2014
Probably not. At this point I don't think there's really anything he can do to earn more playing time. Self, I'm sure, likes Greene's long term upside over White's (which, assuming Greene learns how to defend, isn't a bad call) and I sort of have been going under the assumption that Self has been trying to nudge White out the door for another scholarship, whether to use on Jaquan Lyle or someone else. Regardless, as much as I like Andrew White and as much as I think he would help the team, I don't think we've had a player transfer in the Self era who has come back to bite us. First time for everything, I guess.
@RockChalkTalk which non-KU B12 player(s), if any, would you trade for one of KU's starters? #rctmailbag
— Benjamin Winters (@SKCBensa) February 18, 2014
We aren't getting rid of Wiggins, Ellis, or Embiid. So that just leaves Tharpe and Selden. As frustrating as Naadir Tharpe is, I think Kansas needs him for his three point shooting and his passing ability. However, he does struggle with turnovers from time to time, and he's a horrible defender.
But, for that matter, so is Wayne Selden. So I propose we trade Selden for a guard who can take care of the ball, is a good shooter, and can defend 1s and 2s. Ironically, given that he has a 13.25 turnover percentage (very low) in league play, Marcus Smart would be a good fit if he just defended and passed the ball. Unfortunately, we know that's not his style, and his horrible shooting and bad attitude probably wouldn't be a good fit on the team.
Another guy I like is Juwan Staten. He has one of the largest gaps between his assist rate and turnover rate, but like Tharpe he is not a great defender. OK he's awful. Still, he's even better than Tharpe at getting into the lane and to the rim.
DeAndre Kane is a very good offensive player, and has shown the ability to defend up top. I don't know. I don't have a good answer for this one. Ideally I'd like to replace Selden with a bigger PG who can defend, take care of the ball, and get into the lane, but I don't know if that guy exists.
EDIT: It is a testament to how compelling the Olympics are that I forgot about Markel Brown. He is the sunshine in my day, the flower through the crack in the sidewalk, the jalapenos on my pizza, and the taco truck in the hellscape that is life. In short, I'd definitely take him on the team. Sorry, Wayne.
@RockChalkTalk did tyshawn ever trash RCT for an article about the baseball team?
— The Heat Is On (@commercialeer) February 18, 2014
I assume this is a joke regarding Marcus Smart absolutely giving it to @pistolsguy last night on twitter, and there is in fact an RCT angle here. A couple years ago I wrote this season preview of Tyshawn Taylor (mainly positive!) and Tyshawn made a couple snide comments about it on twitter and I had people yelling at me and calling me names and stuff, and then lo and behold Tyshawn goes out and basically has the season we predicted. So maybe yelling at bloggers on twitter works.