Player Kyle “Flip” Filipowski

[rhfarmer]

Did you see my post in the ND thread? I agree. I think he's been physically off for the last 4-6 games. No first step, less lift.

No. I just saw it. It was really apparent last night. It looks like it hurts him to run.

In years past, I would have assumed that any player who looked like this was just wilting under the pressure of playing for K.

But yeah, he looks off. I thought he was tired, or maybe even sick.

 

[bdotling]

His face is weak. Starts there

 

[Pantone287]

This is what you guys want to do to 6'8 150-lb Cooper Flagg. Skinny-legged guys who aren't 8 feet tall always seem to wear down over a season of brawling with fat college centers around the rim.

 

[childress22]

People will always find something to bitch about, but I think Flip might have played his most impressive defensive game yesterday, especially in the second half.

Wake was the 18th-best 3-point shooting team in the country, and they went into the second half with a little momentum for Sallis and Monsanto, and we basically bottled them up so they couldn't even ATTEMPT threes -- so much of it thanks to Flip seamlessly switching, although credit to Mark and Roach and McCain and the other guys too.

They only attempted 7 threes in the second half (19 in the first), and only hit 2 (both by Friedrichsen). Sallis/Miller/Hildreth didn't get a 3-pointer off.

 

[aiw]

I thought Roach killed in guarding Sallis in the second half.

 

[Grit]

His perimeter defense was great yesterday. I think his only flub was closing too hard on Hildreth at the end of the clock and getting completely blown by.

Interior defense was less impressive, but at the end of the day his arms are just too short. It's unfortunate team construction to have a stubby armed 5 anchoring a 3 guard defense. He's athletic enough to get blocks, but he has limited ability to bother shots without powering up his jump. This team would be way better if we could swap Kyle and Mark's heights.

On offense, I would prefer to not have him initiate anything anymore. He just doesn't seem to be able to read the defense and make the right pass. Even short rolls where he has an easy dump-off to Mark feel more difficult than they should. He had 4 turnovers yesterday but my recollection is there were multiple other deflections that didn't lead to a turnover. He's great as a finisher though and his shooting gives amazing space as a 7 footer who rebounds well and can switch on defense.

Attitude wise, something feels off this year. Not a big deal since he's obviously playing hard and doing a lot for the team. His edge and competitiveness seem to have gone down compared to last year. Maybe started thinking he'd crush D1 this season and shouldn't have to try to prove he's better? Just speculating because it's a little disappointing. But at least he's not tripping people out of frustration.

 

[physicsfactor]

He did an amazing job moving his feet while guarding quick guards last night. I was very impressed by that. There are still too many times where an offensive set starts with him going iso from the mid-post or further out, but that’s a coaching matter I assume won’t be fixed at this point.

 

[rome8180]

I don't really agree with the interior defense assessment. I think he's done an excellent job there this year. He's not Lively, but his rotations are on point and he recovers quickly. This doesn't read like Mason Plumlee to me where it was an automatic layup if someone got to the rim. I can remember plenty of games where Flip had multiple good contests that weren't blocks or even block attempts -- just good vertical positioning and use of the body.

In general, he's done better on defense than I expected, and I was an optimist there this year. Our defensive struggles, to the extent that we even have any, are to me the result of a few other factors:

1) McCain offers little resistance on drives and his contests make no difference to the taller wings he often ends up guarding
2) Foster doesn't always know where to be and doesn't always give max defensive effort
3) Flip gets in foul trouble and takes himself off the court
4) Young can't handle some matchups and Stewart isn't ready to
5) Not forcing turnovers means that our average defensive possession length is over 18 seconds, which ranks 301st in D-1

 

[Grit]

Admittedly, I am coming from the perspective of wanting a Lively-like defender. Maybe not quite that good, but if Duke is going to be a one and done school while playing lineups with non-shooting bigs, I would want that to mean having a lob threat and interior defender with the ceiling of Lively/Mark Williams/Wendell Carter. Of course, it's not Flip's fault that he plays with a smaller 4 who can't space the floor, but Flip drew the short straw of being the 5 so his thread is where my complaints go.

I don't disagree regarding his positioning on defense. Really my only gripe I just don't think he bothers shots all that much when he's not jumping with momentum. Kind of a mirror to when he beats his defender with a post move but hasn't built up any speed towards the rim and ends up getting his shit stuffed in.

Maybe I'm not giving him enough credit contesting shots though. I don't watch all the games and don't watch any of them through the lens of critically analyzing them. I just make up plausible sounding stories in my mind after I've forgotten 90% of what happened.

 

[rome8180]

Tbf, I'm just eyeballing it too. Based on what you're saying, it seems like really the problem here is that Flip isn't actually a good enough shooter to warrant playing him instead of someone closer to Lively. I get that logic. If he was hitting closer to 40% of his threes on five attempts a game, our offense would be close to 2015 Wisconsin level and rim protection would be a secondary concern.

 

[rhfarmer]

@Grit your point about Flip not having any bounce is spot on. I guess you could say he's a reasonably good athlete "for a 7 footer" but the last game I watched, I think the BC game, he had a clear breakaway. Any recent Duke big would have thrown down a thunder dunk, no question.

Flip, on the other hand, ended up losing the race to the basket. We're talking a 50 foot dash where he had a head start. Once there was a defender present, instead of taking the ball strong to the rack and trying to mash on him, he ended up making a "move" as if he felt he needed to protect his shot from a bigger, more athletic player. He got fouled, but he barely got the ball to the rim.

He gets his shit stuffed on the regular.

 

[physicsfactor]

Are there stats on an individual’s offensive block rate? Last I looked at the team stats Duke was near the bottom of D1 in getting its shots blocked, and I doubt the guards get blocked more than a typical guard. I would guess Flip and Young’s offensive block rates are embarrassingly high for centers.

 

[deepdarkblue]

No verve, weak face.

 

[rome8180]

@Grit your point about Flip not having any bounce is spot on. I guess you could say he's a reasonably good athlete "for a 7 footer" but the last game I watched, I think the BC game, he had a clear breakaway. Any recent Duke big would have thrown down a thunder dunk, no question.

Flip, on the other hand, ended up losing the race to the basket. We're talking a 50 foot dash where he had a head start. Once there was a defender present, instead of taking the ball strong to the rack and trying to mash on him, he ended up making a "move" as if he felt he needed to protect his shot from a bigger, more athletic player. He got fouled, but he barely got the ball to the rim.

He gets his shit stuffed on the regular.

That's a completely different conversation than how well he contests shots on defense without "loading up." Grit's post said nothing about his bounce on offense. Also, you can contest shots without jumping if you're 7 feet tall (and my point was that Flip does that plenty).

 

[rome8180]

Are there stats on an individual’s offensive block rate? Last I looked at the team stats Duke was near the bottom of D1 in getting its shots blocked, and I doubt the guards get blocked more than a typical guard. I would guess Flip and Young’s offensive block rates are embarrassingly high for centers.

I don't know where you'd find individual numbers. Like you said, Duke is 334th at getting their shot blocked. Not good.

To your point about the bigs, hoop-math says that Flip shoots 61.2% at the rim. That's low for a big man. By contrast, all our guards are around 61% as well. Young does shoot 68% there.

 

[rhfarmer]

@Grit your point about Flip not having any bounce is spot on. I guess you could say he's a reasonably good athlete "for a 7 footer" but the last game I watched, I think the BC game, he had a clear breakaway. Any recent Duke big would have thrown down a thunder dunk, no question.

Flip, on the other hand, ended up losing the race to the basket. We're talking a 50 foot dash where he had a head start. Once there was a defender present, instead of taking the ball strong to the rack and trying to mash on him, he ended up making a "move" as if he felt he needed to protect his shot from a bigger, more athletic player. He got fouled, but he barely got the ball to the rim.

He gets his shit stuffed on the regular.

That's a completely different conversation than how well he contests shots on defense without "loading up." Grit's post said nothing about his bounce on offense. Also, you can contest shots without jumping if you're 7 feet tall (and my point was that Flip does that plenty).

I am making a correlation between his limitations athletically, as demonstrated by this offensive sequence, and Grit's point. I agree that a player can contest without being gifted athletically, Landlord was a prime example of this.

 

[rhfarmer]

Also, regarding above, The White Raven, a great shot blocker.

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

 

[rome8180]

Flip looks downright springy in this game, at least based on what I've watched so far. Almost looks like a different player. What changed in the last few days?

 

[bdotling]

In warm ups his face looked happy as he was bopping to the music