by cu8493 » Wed Apr 09, 2025 1:11 pm
I get that comparing Steven to Nik is apples to oranges given the level of the respective leagues. We will lose Steven's headiness, experience and handles. Outside of free throw percentage, his shooting was actually quite average (39.3% overall and 37.4% from 3). Looking just at last season states, Graves shot 77% from the line compared to Steven's incredible 93%. However, Nik got to the line nearly twice as many times as Steven, making 60 more FTs over the course of the season. The ability to draw fouls and get to the line twice as often at a 78% clip is a net gain, IMO (particularly considering the pressure he apparently puts on opposing defenders) - although obviously what was a foul in the American Athletic Conference might not be a foul in the Big East.
Steven took about 30 more shots overall last season, but Nik took almost 70 more two point shots, showing a much greater ability and willingness to take more inside shots, and his two point shooting percentage was 49.3% inside the arc while Steven shot 42.4% inside the arc. Finally, Nik only turned the ball over at a rate of about 1.6 per 40 minutes played. Steven turned the ball over at a rate of 3.8 per 40, while playing about 2 more minutes per game. Given that we hopefully will have plenty of outside shooting options, Nik's abilities to penetrate and score inside (IF they translate into Big East level of play) without turning the ball over should help collapse defenses leaving more open outside shooting may actually improve our offensive flow, IMO. Again, nothing is certain until we see how well he handles BE level phsysicality. But I think it will be a net improvement (now leadership, maturity and other values Steven also brought to the table are a different question)