NC State junior Trevor Lacey was a gigantic part of NC State’s success this season. After sitting out a year post transfer, Lacey worked hard on getting his body in shape and regaining the swagger he had coming out of high school as one of the nations best scorers. This season you could see the fruits of his labor. Lacey was had trimmed down the fat and added some good muscle. With that transformation he was able to lead the Pack in scoring with 16ppg on 44% shooting. He also knocked down 40% of his 3s. Here are the grades on Trevor.
Offense:
Coming into the season there was a lot of talk about how great of a scorer Lacey was going to be. With Warren moving on to the NBA, State fans were pinning a lot of their hopes on this kid. They said he was Warren-lite with the basketball, but after seeing just how amazing TJ was and having not see State really have that type of prolific go-to scorer for many year prior, it was just kind of hard to believe. Then in the red/white game, Lacey couldn’t buy a bucket and seemed hesitant to really try to take on a scoring role. It was the fan’s first glimpse of him and it had them wondering who they were going to lean on for scoring. Well, looks like we all had jumped the gun. When regular season arrived, so did Trevor Lacey. The kid was just phenomenal at creating and making his own shot. He dominated early in the season as he hovered around the 18ppg mark. Teams tried to match up against him with small guards, but he shot over top of them with great accuracy. Lacey honestly was dominant and probably one of the most dangerous guards in the league over the first 10 games. Then there was a bump in the road. Teams began to examine how he was attacking them. He was much too reliant on his pull up jumper and rarely took the ball to the basket. Teams started using taller, more athletic guards on him. He couldn’t shoot over them and he just wasn’t quick enough to go by them. He found himself at a crossroads and needed to alter his style of play if he wanted to lead State to a March run. He started driving a little more and creating in the lane, but he still didn’ look comfortable at first. Then as he started to embrace the contact and refine his game to include moves around the basket. He worked on his step back jumper and learned new ways to create space. This brought Trevor to a new level and helped him round back into form as an elite scorer. His offense was the main reason State was able to make such a strong late season run and will be featured player in the ACC next season.
Grade: A
Defense:
Lacey is a good defender. He has the size and strength to guard strong guards and he plays very good position defense against smaller quicker guards. He is crafty and makes up for slightly slower footwork by understanding angles and positioning. His defense is along the lines of former NC State guard Engin Atsur. While I don’t think Lacey is as good a defender at this moment, I think he can be. He and Atsur had about the same foot speed and were both bigger guards who had to defend a wide range of opponents. There was never a game where Lacey just got eaten alive, but there was also not many moment when Lacey defense was changing the game either.
Grade: B-
Intangibles:
Not only was he a good scorer, but Trevor Lacey also wore a lot of other hats for this Wolfpack team. He was their vocal leader, he was their cold blooded late game shot taker, he was pretty much the backbone of this basketball team. He played with good body language (most of the time) and really instilled confidence in his guys. He never demanded the basketball and was quick to pass up a good shot for a teammates great shot. With all of this came a very high in-game IQ, all while learning to play in the ACC for the first time.
Grade: B+
Offseason Checklist
Lacey could and should receive all A’s across the board next season. Offensively he’s going to get better. As good as he was, he has the ability to be a 20+ppg scorer for this team. After going through the ups and downs of the prior season he can get a sense of how opponents want to defend him. He’ll have a full offseason to refine new moves to free him up, and also get comfortable scoring from spots that teams seem to be forcing him into.
Defensively I don’t think Lacey needs to improve technically, but he does need to come into next season in elite shape. While he added strength last year and came into the season in good shape, I think the next step is for him to lean up while keeping his current strength and take his training to the next level this offseason. He’ll be looked to for major minutes next year and will be matched up against some big time scorers. If Lacey can get quicker, stronger and up his endurance (which was already good this season), he’ll be able to launch into super star status (something NC State will need if they want to be a top 10 team next year).
Lacey was a good leader and next year this is going to be his team. No deferring to other upper classmen, no questioning missed calls. Lacey needs to be above that. He needs to be completely focused on keeping his team completely focused and consumed by a drive to take this team to the Final Four next season. If he does that, then not only will NC State be successful, but Trevor Lacey will be punching his NBA ticket without a doubt.
wolfpack74 Wolfer96 Yes there are many areas for improvement. As stated the improvements should start with our BIGs. If they learn just a couple of post moves and learn how to pass out of the post the offense will look much better. Abu gives me some hope as he has shown the ability to pass and score from the post.
Also Gott has to do a better job of keeping the ball moving until the right shot opens up.
Wolfer96 wolfpack74 Yes he can improve, but the give an go on last year team was unheard of. You give it to the bigs they shoot or lose it out of bounds. If he passed it to Turner, it went up. If he passed it to Barber, he didn’t know what to do. I have watched girls games with better passing skills than State. They have perfected the give and go. Maybe Gott and the staff should watch replays of the Notre Dame girls game for pointers on how to move the ball to improve our assists per game. Since the… Read more »
wolfpack74 You’re assuming that we live in a binary world where either Lacey shoots a bad shot or someone shoots a better but less effective shot. What I’m saying is that Lacey either waits for a better shot or does something other than a step back jumper with someone in his face. Like drive to the hoop, give an go, etc. Also, saying that Trevor needs to improve his shot selection does not discount his contribution to the team. This team would have been .500 this season without Trevor. He was single-handedly the biggest factor to the team’s success this… Read more »
I disagree totally. Most of his forced shots come from being passed the ball late in the shot clock. Pass the ball inside, he does that better than all the other guards combined. If it had been for Lacey we would have not won 50% of our games. I have more trust in one of his bad shot selections than anyone else best shot. Hopefully he does not go to play overseas in the near future.
PackJunky I agree. I don’t think all the media hype about him being the #1 isolation player in the country helps. If he improves in shot selection, I don’t see why he can’t shoot around 50% FGs.
Trevor needs to improve his shot selection sometimes. He still occasionally forces contested jumpers at the most inopportune times. While he can sometimes hit those hard shots, he needs to let the offense come to him and trust his teammates in those situations, especially his bigs, like Malik. Feed the ball inside son! It will make life so much easier next year for everybody!!