Will Graves as a sixth man…

Will Graves

I talked about it a bit in my small recap of the Marshall/UNC game, but wanted to talk about this some more. Will Graves, who had started every game up to the last one, came off the bench for head coach Roy Williams, and had a decent game doing so. Now we all know that one games does not make (or break) a player, never has and never will. On the other hand, I like the new role that Graves fulfill for this squad. I could see him being the same type of player that Danny Green was two years ago (coming off the bench to replace Ginyard) and give the team some instant offense. That year everyone talked about Green being the best sixth man in the conference, could this be the year that they say the same about Graves?

I am not sure, but I think it is definitely worth trying it out. Having a deep shooter come into the game when the opposing team has settled into their defense. As I said before, both here and on the UNC web boards, to me this is a great move, for both the team and for Graves. I also think that people have to stop with the “starter or sub” when it comes to a Roy Williams led team. Our coach goes ten deep and most of them will get double digit minutes, and as the head man said many times, it’s the ones that are getting it done that are going to stay on the floor. In my opinion this move for Graves is going to get him more quality minutes when it’s all said and done. Of course the key to all of that is that Will comes in and hits the shoots that are given to him. Or else he will be seeing quality minutes go by as he sits on the bench.

With the ACC schedule coming up pretty quickly it’s going to be interesting how this all works out. I believe in the end Will Graves will have a better season coming off the bench than being a starter, and I also think he will help the team a lot more as the sixth man. Only time will tell, fortunately for all of us the time between now and the next game isn’t that long!

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