Due to the absences of Leslie McDonald and P.J. Hairston North Carolina head coach Roy Williams is being forced to shuffle around his lineup more than ever early this season. Marcus Paige, James Michael McAdoo and Isaiah Hicks all find themselves in unfamiliar territory at the start of the season. Specifically each player will play minutes out of position, for a Tar Heels roster missing a couple key perimeter players.
A roster already short on perimeter talent, the roster UNC will field to open the season is thinner on the wing than I have ever seen in Chapel Hill. Even when McDonald and Hairston do return to the lineup, there will be times when Roy employs a two point guard lineup of Paige and freshman Nate Britt and plays three big men with McAdoo or Hicks at the three spot. Unfortunately that will the “normal” lineup until the roster is restored. These three players, especially Paige and McAdoo, the teams inherent team leaders, have major adjustments to make.
Marcus Paige: After starting at the point as a freshman and taking on some leadership responsibilities this season, Paige will play the majority of his minutes at the two guard spot to open the season. Paige will have to learn on the fly and so far hasn’t looked very comfortable at his new position. A talented shooter with the ability to fill it up as a scorer, Paige will need to be more aggressive in looking for his own shot and moving without the ball in his hands. So far, he’s looked extremely uncomfortable, standing around on the perimeter a lot in the half court while Britt runs the offense.
The return of sophomore J.P. Tokoto will help a bit, Roy can slide him to the two spot with McAdoo or Hicks at the three, still, Paige will have to transform his game in the short term in a hurry. Make no mistake, when McDonald and especially Hairston return, Paige will return to his familiar role at the point, playing only sparingly in two PG lineups with Britt.
James Michael McAdoo: McAdoo has always seemed like a tweener, a player out of position, preferring to face up, shoot the mid-range jumper or dribble drive to the basket than back down the defender in the post. Judging by the small sample size, McAdoo is even less comfortable at SF than he is at his natural PF position. He’s one of the most athletic players on the roster, UNC needs a huge season from him if they plan on making any noise in March.
If he’s able to successfully make the transition and become a player Roy can count on at two positions, it could prove huge for Carolina throughout the course of the season. UNC is rich with big men and short on perimeter players even when the roster is full, being able to move McAdoo around will give Roy a ton of flexibility. The knocks of him haven’t changed, he needs to slow down, stop trying to dribble drive past multiple defenders and make better decisions in the half court.
Isaiah Hicks: The freshman probably won’t play that much at the three, but he will in spots. Roy acknowledged that Hicks tried it for the first time in his life in the exhibition season, that’s a lot to ask of a freshman. Hicks certainly has the skills on paper to get the job done, asking him to make the transition to college basketball AND a position change may be too much to ask. Thus far, he’s only played a few minutes on the perimeter and the sample size is just too small to draw any conclusions just yet. If McAdoo doesn’t prove he’s up to the job, Roy may just be forced to tap the talented freshman, in that case Hicks’ best chance of making a huge impact early as a freshman may just be doing something he’s never ever done before.
Meanwhile, Tar Heel Nation waits anxiously for the returns of Leslie McDonald and more importantly P.J. Hairston to restore order to a lineup that is in flux without them.
