** This thread discusses the Content article: Florida Gators Basketball Departures and the Current Team **

I think our guys take it because of the defense issue. With Lucas and Calathes other guards were scoring at will. Calathes got beat on the perimeter by teams like eastern tennessee state tech community college or whoever we play pre season.

Speights would be a tough match for Macklin, but his limited available minutes would make it less likely for him to dominate the game.

As long as our guys don't shoot like they did against Vandy I think we would take it. One thing to consider though; Parsons got alot better when Calathes stopped playing. Some say its because he couldn't lean on Calathes anymore (i think it was the time in the gym), but does he go back to last year with Calathes on the court?

Erik Murphy against Allan Chaney is a wash, and Vargas didn't impress anybody with the limited minutes he had after his injury.

Overall, who knows how the guys that left would have played if they stayed? I remember a sucking joakim noah that came back his sophomore year and was a totally different player after a year of Billy's practices.

I think that losing Calathes gave one important thing to our team: a hungry, defensive identity. We would not have the same identity with Calathes (we'd probably also have a more consistent half court offense...)

As far as Chandler Parsons, he finally bought into the coaching staff, and something clicked for him to work harder. The gym, practices, etc. probably helped him put it all together, but it's not so much as playing in Calathes' shadow.

However, if you believe- as I do- that Calathes as a team leader (simply by being the best player on our team) stunted our team's defensive identity, you'd have to think that any negative influence of Calathes would be presented more in Parsons, due to their background together. Factor in suspected riffs between Calathes and the coaches, and I'm not sure Parsons would have had the same motivation to work hard and start realizing his five-star potential with Calathes here.

So I guess I do agree to an extent that Parsons' (and the teams' development can be attributed to Calathes' early departure, but I think for a different reason than the more common theory.

Interesting exercise.

Even without Marreese Speights, I'm tempted to say that the departed group would be more competitive.

Because we're assuming that all players are healthy (PRAISE THE LORD IF IT WERE TRUE) I think that a 3rd-year-developed Adam Allen and a healthy 2nd-year Kenny Kadji could be game changers.

Also, Brandon Powell would be a senior guard on that team (hopefully with the resulting maturation in game and demeanor) along with 4th-year player Jonathan Mitchell, giving them a lot of experience.

I actually think that Chandler Parsons would have had a good deal of the development he had this year even WITH Calathes, and I'd have loved to have seen Calathes with a less flawed and deeper team.

In fact, continuing the "no injury" clause, I think that having a 2nd-year player like Eloy Vargas is another important cog off the bench:

Departure team rotation:

1 - Calathes
2 - Lucas, Powell
3 - Mitchell, Allen
4 - Chaney
5 - Kadji, Vargas

The fact that there is a ready-made team of 8, the SAME amount of rotation players the team has now, that would all be made up of guys no longer here, is a little depressing...