Walt Lemon career scoring numbers

[Big Mike]

I'm gonna miss Walt!

[lefty]

How much would you say is because he was forced to play point guard, a position he never played before? Some people make a big deal out of his 3 turnovers a game, but without his 17.8 points per game, we'd be looking up at Loyola from 10th place.

Maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part??¦.but I would think we might have a different offensive game plan without Walt??¦.it wasn't only Walt's turnovers but the really bad shots too??¦.granted that is his style but it's obvious Walt wasn't a good floor leader??¦??¦..I havent heard anyone say they were satisfied with our offense and it didn't seem like it was going ever going to be much different with Walt??¦??¦.

Walt was an explosive player but it didn't translate into wins??¦..

[Toyota12]

Walt

How many times did Walt get 6 to 8 extra points this year during garbage time? The game would be completely over he would continue to drive to the hoop get fouled go to the line or second string player on him late then drive right by him for a layup with the game out of reach. I think Walt is a tremendous talent but not a very smart player during the guts of a game. We witnessed this time in time out during the year. I also think like most kids with his talent and coddling they like to pad those stats at any cost.

[Da Coach]

This all sounds a lot like the arguments a year ago when people said they couldn't wait to get rid of Will, DSE, Jake. Or the posters who said we needed to run off Milos, open up his scholarship, and get players in here who could contribute.
The problem is, those players were better than a lot of people gave them credit for, or in some cases we replaced them with recruits who don't contribute any more than they did.
I guess it's nice to dream of replacing Will with next next coming of Doug McDermott, or Dyricus with Fred Van Vleet, or Walt with the next Chris Paul, but it's more likely we'll be having this discussion all over again next year and each year whenever their replacements leave.

[lefty]

This all sounds a lot like the arguments a year ago when people said they couldn't wait to get rid of Will, DSE, Jake. Or the posters who said we needed to run off Milos, open up his scholarship, and get players in here who could contribute.
The problem is, those players were better than a lot of people gave them credit for, or in some cases we replaced them with recruits who don't contribute any more than they did.
I guess it's nice to dream of replacing Will with next next coming of Doug McDermott, or Dyricus with Fred Van Vleet, or Walt with the next Chris Paul, but it's more likely we'll be having this discussion all over again next year and each year whenever their replacements leave.

Well we are also looking at those guys as seniors too??¦??¦maybe when Taylor and whoever else is a senior in a few years it will be different??¦

I'm not really knocking Walt as much as wondering how Geno will go forward without his reliance on Walt. He seemed to give Walt free reign to do whatever he wanted??¦.I don't know if Geno will succeed or not but I think Walt is a hard guy to control so I'm anxious to see how it goes without him??¦..I'm hopeful we will play better as a team??¦.we'll see...

[basketball nut]

Well we are also looking at those guys as seniors too??¦??¦maybe when Taylor and whoever else is a senior in a few years it will be different??¦

I'm not really knocking Walt as much as wondering how Geno will go forward without his reliance on Walt. He seemed to give Walt free reign to do whatever he wanted??¦.I don't know if Geno will succeed or not but I think Walt is a hard guy to control so I'm anxious to see how it goes without him??¦..I'm hopeful we will play better as a team??¦.we'll see...

I agree completely-seen many times when it seemed he didn't always find the open player and forced a shot-sometimes the shot went in and other times it never hit the rim.

[wily coyote]

How much would you say is because he was forced to play point guard, a position he never played before? Some people make a big deal out of his 3 turnovers a game, but without his 17.8 points per game, we'd be looking up at Loyola from 10th place.

Just from reading these posts, don't think a lot of people are in agreement with you regarding Walt's importance. I don't think it was so much Walt playing out of position that hurt us . It was his lack of playing team basketball and getting everyone involved. So very hard to watch when you know how the game should be played. Maybe you like his kind of game but I assure you I don't. You won't see any good teams no matter what level succeed playing that way. I have a short memory but we played pretty well yesterday when Walt was sitting with Geno to start the game. Was Walt talented, yes he was but his game hurt us more than helped. Note we're still playing Thur. night so don't tell us how important he is. Don't know what the people around you said about his play but the people around us sure didn't care much for it. Even the people in the hallways were harping at his total lack of team play. It would be interesting to know what his teammates thought of his play. Several people a lot closer to the team than you and I have alluded to the fact that he wasn't a good teammate.

[Da Coach]

I agree completely-seen many times when it seemed he didn't always find the open player and forced a shot-sometimes the shot went in and other times it never hit the rim.

Walt did take some bad shots, but to suggest that Bradley would have been better off if he had passed to one of our other players is wishful thinking. If we had other great shooters, then maybe that logic would have worked, but the fact is, we have not had good shooters for the past 3-4 years, and despite some bad shots, Walt almost always had the highest shooting percentage of anyone else on the floor with him.

Here are the shooting percentages for everyone who played regularly over the 4 seasons of Walt's career. Walt's shooting percentages have consistently been as good or better than just about any other perimeter player on the floor with him, especially so for these last 3 seasons that he has been played out of position at PG. His shooting percentages were even better than some of the inside players, which is not really comparable.
So for those who would have preferred to see Walt pass the ball, just whom would Bradley have been better off if he passed it to?-

Player...............2014........2013.........2012 ........2011
Walt Lemon.....0.418.......0.451.......0.471.......0.41 9
KaDarryl Bell......0.354........0.404...................... ......
Omari Grier........0.336................................ ............
Anthony Fields...0.364.................................... ........
Jared Swopshire.0.385................................... .........
Jordan Prosser...0.492.......0.506.........0.455......0.5 36
Tyshon Pickett..0.455........0.493....................... ......
Wiil Egolf.........................0.431............... .......0.436
Dyricus Simms-Edwards......0.406.......0.354........0.434
Jake Eastman...................0.403.......0.338....... 0.381
Jalen Crawford..................0.349.......0.340....... .......
Milos Knezevic..................0.303.......0.357....... 0.342
Taylor Brown..................................0.420...... ........
Shayok Shayok.................0.477.......0.346.......... ...
Andrew Warren............................................ ..0.414
Dodie Dunson............................................ ....0.442
Sam Maniscalco........................................ .....0.327

[tornado]

that is truly astounding -- some pretty horrid shooting percentages...

only Walt & Pross are anywhere near respectable given the numbers - hmmm...who recruited those guys??

[Toyota12]

really

The same coach who never won a championship! The same coach who had a better coach helping him in 06, The same coach who never used the 06 run to further BU basketball. One of the players you mentioned never panned out as a recruit a complete bust Cmon! T let it go PLEASE!! This is just a response to a ridiculous post! I am trying to be as ridiculous as you were.. or maybe not?

[Da Coach]

OK, but who should have been taking the shots if Walt gave up the ball more? From those awful stats, it looks like we'd be way worse off if our other players got more shots.

As I've said before, next year I believe we'll appreciate Walt a lot more when we hear Dave say the words "stuck on a number" a lot more than he has said these last 3 years.

[lefty]

I'm not anti Walt??¦??¦I just wonder if Geno set the offense around him to a fault??¦??¦it didn't seem we had an offense that promoted plays that turned into good shot selection??¦now maybe we did and didn't execute??¦I don't know??¦.
But everyone here talked about the one on one ball??¦which quite frankly Walt would be as good as anyone but nobody wins championships that way??¦..my point is without Walt maybe Geno has a whole different approach to our offensive game plan??¦??¦..I really don't know??¦..but we will lose 20 games this year with Walt??¦..I'm anxious to see how it goes without him??¦...

[Da Coach]

Yes, I see what your viewpoint is. But I also see and appreciate the skills Walt did give us these last 3 years, and I feel they were mostly wasted by playing him out of position every game for 3 years, and teaming him with a terrible collection of shooters and post players. Some will blame Walt for all the losing we have lived through, but Walt clearly did not have any responsibility for deciding what position he'd play or the terrible recruiting decisions this staff has made.
And, as I showed, despite claims by some clueless people that we lost because Walt was a bad shooter and hogged too many shots, he had a better overall shooting percentage than almost everyone he was teamed with these last 3 years. Statistically speaking, we might have had a better chance of winning more if Walt actually took more shots, not less. But the real fault lies with those responsible for not recruiting the right players and fielding a team with a true point guard. Think about what kind of success we and Walt might have had if he was not double and triple-teamed much of the time, and unable to move without the ball because he was strapped with the PG duties, and if he had a couple teammates who could actually shoot the ball effectively.

[tornado]

we have won just 37 games in the last 3 years - anyone wanna hazard a guess how many of those 37 would have been losses had Walt Lemon not been playing?
I would say 20 to 25, maybe 30 of them

[LongTimeFan]

I would have to say it is very difficult to play a 'what if' type of scenario. We will miss the points that Lemon and Pickett scored. However, we don't know the type of player that would have been recruited for those spots. I will admit that looking at the results in the last three recruiting years does not inspire a lot of confidence.

Maybe a 'point' guard will rectify a lot of our problems. However, he is going to need some additional help.