ZAG TRACKER: On guard in the Bulldogs backcourt

What about the guards?

We talked last week about Gonzaga’s issues up front — specifically, how can Drew Timme and Chet Holmgren play together?

Or even if they should.

Perhaps pairing one or the other with an older, sharper, more savvy Anton Watson would yield increased production and less mistakes.

Watson, by the way, has become one of the group’s best passers — the product of good instincts and three years in the Gonzaga program.

Anton ranks with players like point guard Andrew Nembhard in executing successful post passes, the lifeblood of this Zags’ offense.

With Holmgren and Timme on the floor together, Gonzaga cannot run to create transition baskets as it’s done over the past three or four years, and must get more points in half-court sets.

That works spectacularly for Timme, in particular, but he and Holmgren (and occasionally Strawther) need consistent and accurate passes if the half-court offense is going to find that elite level.

SO FAR, it’s been hit and miss — as an average of 13.3 turnovers, with a schedule that included just four of 10 quality opponents, makes stunningly clear.

Mark Few will have to make some difficult personnel calls going forward, and it will be fascinating to see how he juggles the pieces.

Remember, though, the 2017 team that played for the national championship was no pack of greyhounds.

That bunch featured a huge front line with Przemek Karnowski, John Williams and future NBA lottery pick Zach Collins coming off the bench.

The message is pretty clear: Few can adapt the system to his players, so the Zags aren’t ever locked into one particular style.

Now, about the guards…

If we consider Julian Strawther a permanent wing — and more of an inside presence despite his decent 3-point shooting percentage — then the rotation at guard involves Andrew Nembhard, Rasir Bolton, Nolan Hickman and Hunter Sallis.

A MAJOR absence in that group is sophomore Dominick Harris, whose toe surgery will probably cause him to miss all or most of the season.

Harris might be the best 3-point shooter in the entire group, and that’s a skill the Zags could use.

Nembhard has proven to be a reliable and sometimes dominant point guard, a guy who can make the right pass and generally avoid the needless gaffe.

Nembhard’s weakness is his shooting.

Opposing guards have learned to play off him a little bit, making drives into the lane more difficult (he’s terrific at it, nonetheless) and daring him to take 3-point tries.

In just about 31 minutes per game, Nembhard has a 2-to-1 ratio in assists to turnovers (slightly down from a year ago) at 4.9 to 2.5.

But the ugly number that causes other teams to adjust how they defend the point is Andrew’s 26.5 percent success rate from behind the arc.

The opposite is true of Bolton, Nembhard’s partner in the starting lineup.

Bolton doesn’t have true point guard instincts – not at top-of-the-pyramid level, at least — and he’s only fair going to the hoop.

But when Rasir is given time to shoot, he’s just what they need (42.6 percent from 3-point range).

WHAT YOU see here — and what Few and Zags fans everywhere hope they’ll watch — is the possibility of a great inside-outside offense, along with a defense keyed by Holmgren patrolling the lane.

Naturally, the more this group plays together, the sharper things become.

Without sounding too corny about it, that has become the “Gonzaga Way.”

Players get better individually, and the group improves right along with that.

Watson may wind up being the poster child for how these young guys develop, eventually letting the winning culture (and lots of hard work) mold them into impact players.

For this year’s Zags to win the much more competitive WCC, and then make the “expected” deep run at the NCAA tournament, the things already mentioned have to become strong points, plus…

Freshman guards Nolan Hickman and Hunter Sallis have to add meaningful contributions.

They are completely different players, to start.

Hickman has all the point guard attributes that allow Few to give him minutes when Nembhard gets a rest – or to play them together.

Hickman is only shooting 33.3 percent from deep (the exact same number as Holmgren, oddly enough), but if he takes the right shots, that number will go up.

Bank on that.

Hickman can shoot.

ON THE other hand, Sallis is just a phenomenal athlete.

You can easily picture him, as a high school player in Omaha, dominating games without ever having to develop a jump shot.

He could simply blow past or leap over kids his own age, and score at will.

Defensively, he has all those quick-twitch abilities to read, react and get in your face suddenly.

Or have his hands on the ball.

Sallis is also 6-foot-5 with long arms, thus making him a difficult foe to pass over or around.

If Hunter could shoot like, say, Hickman …

Well, you’d have the whole package.

Given the coaching that goes on at Gonzaga, I’m betting that Sallis becomes a good shooter — down the road.

At the moment, though, he’s taken only six 3-point shots and made one of them.

That doesn’t scare anybody, but it’s still not wise to turn your head when guarding Sallis, who has a natural basketball instinct and knows when to cut, when to unload the ball, and how to get to the basket for offensive rebounds.

Maybe it’s just me, but …

It’s easy to see Sallis’ Gonzaga career progressing a lot like what we saw from Joel Ayayi.

As for the big picture …

We’ve mentioned already that Few has plenty of puzzle pieces to work on this season.

This is not a team that just falls together naturally.

There will be learning and tweaking as they go, and you can assume — with almost two weeks off as result of UW’s Covid cancellation — that we may see a smoother Zags gang this weekend against Texas Tech.

Let’s see how far along the trail these Zags have come.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. He also writes Zags Tracker, a commentary on Gonzaga basketball which is published weekly during the season.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”