As someone whos loved college sports their entire life, this piece hurts me to write. JJ Starling was the perfect transfer to Syracuse. A five star from Central New York is a must get for the Orange. Jim Boeheim missed him, but Adrian Autry picked up his guy from the portal. Since then, Starling hasn’t disappointed by any means necessary. He scored over 13 points per game last season and had almost 20 this season. But, there are so many parts of his game that need improvement. As we enter the offseason and reflect on last year’s roster, it might be time to move on from the hometown kid.
Maybe the most jarring thing about Starling is his style of play. He’s a true slasher who will try to get to the paint and get to the free throw line. Not many things can stop Starling from doing what when he’s playing his best. The issue is that’s all he can do great.
Syracuse was simply a bad offensive basketball team last year. The team ran through JJ, and it was proved to be an inefficient way to play. The biggest reason for that is that his three point shooting took a massive step back this year. When you’re top offense option is a slasher who has no threat at all to shoot three’s it’s much easier to defend. Add on to that no one else on the team can shoot, the offense wasn’t spaced out at all.
The hand injury that caused Starling to miss a few weeks in the middle of the season could be a reason for Starling’s struggles, but even then, a guard shooting below 27% from deep is simply unacceptable. The only way that the offense can be good next year if JJ returns is if he dramatically improves his three point shot and the team adds at least two starters around him who can consistently make three’s. There isn’t much reason to be optimistic about that so it might just be time to move on from Starling. He’s a great story but he doesn’t work in today’s era of basketball.
