Useful bench player, but my god was that Jabari/Kessler combo at Auburn cardboard. Like playing two giant androids without a lick of creativity. They make Juwan Howard look more funky than Bootsy Collins.
In reality, most of the year they were quite effective together, sometimes dominant. Especially on defense. Auburn was the best team in college basketball before losing their chemistry the last 3-4 weeks. Not sure what happened, but it was puzzling to watch.
In the wise words of Corey Brewer, they ran out of talent. If you are going to run androids at 4-5, you better have James Harden at PG to make up for the lack of creativity and playmaking. Obviously Jabari and Walker are immensely talented.
They were a guard oriented squad. Bruce Pearl likes high energy, high intensity perimeter players Auburn was the best team in the country for a while but then the wheels fell off. Everything became difficult on both ends of the floor and they stopped playing for each other. It wasn't a lack of talent. If you didn't watch it, then you wouldn't know.
Bruce Pearl ran an ass-ton of flex that year, which in itself is a fair contradiction to what is posted above. Again, lack of creative talent is what doomed Auburn in the end, which is why Bruce was running a ton of flex in the first place. Pearl just recently switched to a more European-influenced 5-out… Know why?
