Miami still has guards who can make 3s though. Miami had 5 guards who played significant minutes shooting over 35% from 3. The drives become significantly harder if you can't. Lipsey was pretty solid at attacking the bucket before people figured out he couldn't shoot the 3. Once that was no longer a threat he couldn't penetrate on the dribble because it's easier to blow by a guy when they're defending you close than feet away from you.IMO Miami showed that hitting 3's isn't necessary to scoring points. An offense where players can get dribble penetration and make a high % of those shots or get to the line can put points on the board.
I feel like we're noticing the same issue but on the opposite side of it. Pitt's gameplan was to take away the 2s and make us hit 3s. You can't run that gameplan against Gonzaga or Miami, who we talked about above, because they'll just say ok and hit 3s. The 2s weren't there for us because the 3s absolutely weren't and Pitt didn't feel the need to guard anyone other than Gabe. In turn that took away Osun and Tre, who can hit shots out of the post or inside because when nobody is guarding Lipsey, Jaz, or Holmes all that well, or leaving Jones wide open from 2. If we get 3 point shooters then next season Tre, Omaha, and Milan(I assume he has a post game) can play more 1 on 1 and win those battles instead of trying to win 1 v 2/3/4.I think Sallis is athletic enough to get his shot in the paint without taking a tough shot. Even if a team drops off. As much as I like Holmes and Kalscheur, they had a tough time getting an easy shot in traffic.
In the Pitt game we were bad from 3 shooting 2-21. But we also shot 12-39 from 2. The Pitt game wasn't unique, in the games ISU struggled on offense, our guards struggled making 2's.
Your argument is probably it's tough to make 2's when a team packs the paint. I'd argue a tall guard with a solid handle can get his shots, even in traffic.
Lastly, I expect Lipsey to be a better offensive player next year. Ideally, Lipsey will hit mid-30's plus from 3. But he can pull defenders to him if he can hit a 12-15 foot jumper or develop a go to shot (Monte Morris like floater) in the paint.
We shouldn't have to have our gameplan be hitting shots through 3 defenders next year. Even if someone can do it from time to time it's not going to be anywhere near as helpful as getting guys who can hit from 3.
I think the most likely thing to happen if we land Silas as one of our 2 likely takes at guard is that he gets the Lipsey treatment and can't actually go around anyone. If that happens he's either gonna have to force tough shots or pass out of it consistently. Right now we have 0 proven players who can make 3s at a college level on the team. If we're gonna use 3 spots on guards then maybe. But first we need better shooters.
For Lipsey, I hope so but he shot 20% from 3 this year. That going up to about 33-35% would be a wild improvement. I'm not gonna expect that because that would be over the top insane.