Deep Dive on Jared Bynum – Findings from the District Private Pro Open Run

Bynum participated in an organized scrimmage at a Professional – Amateur event over the holiday weekend in the DMV area. There were several tweets that spoke glowingly of Bynum, specially about his ability as a floor general, shotmaking ability, and defensive prowess.

While these tweets can often lead to unrealistic expectations and are often times misleading (does anybody remember when Ricky Council went off for something like 40-50 in a ProAm, and we glorified him as the next best thing? Exactly.), I think it is important to note that this “scrimmage” had a ton of high caliber talent. Some notable players that also were involved:

⁃ Duke Freshman Jeremy Roach

⁃ Former Maryland great Melo Trimble

⁃ Miami Freshman Earl Timberlake (sigh)

⁃ Georgetown player Jamarko Pickett

https://twitter.com/finestmagazine/status/1279414659842551814?s=21

https://twitter.com/finestmagazine/status/1279416628367831042?s=21

I believe most casual Friar fans would say that they expect Bynum to be more of a pure point guard than Pipkins was, but do not expect him to light up the scoreboard like Pipkins did in the latter half of the 2019-2020 season. To see the author of the above tweets mention his shooting ability has to make Friar fans happy. Bynum shot 34.3% from 3 his freshman year at St. Joe’s, which is absolutely respectable, and it would be great to see him increase that by a few percentage points this season.

One of the key takeaways from me was the highlighting of Bynum’s defensive ability. This was not something I knew about Bynum, and I went back to study some film on him to see if this was just a blatant oversight on my end. In short, it was. Bynum averaged 1.3 steals a game, so he clearly has that ability. I’m looking forward to seeing both him and Duke in the backcourt together.

Also, let us not look past that Bynum is being recognized for his defense in a glorified pick-up game. You have to enjoy reading that because it means this kid is a competitor. I love the Pat Beverlys and Jevon Carter’s of the world that just love playing defense above anything else (won’t mention the obvious reference to Dunn here), and if we can have a lock down PG, Bynum will quickly rise up the ranks of my favorite player on this squad. Offense is great, but defense wins games.

The Crier- Let me hop in here real quick. Bynum once tweeted that Fred VanVleet was his twin.

Jared may have been just talking about looks, but I think their games may actually translate. If you take a look at VanVleet’s college stats you will see something similar to what JB was able to do in his freshman year at St. Joes. 12 or so points per game and 5 assists per game is pretty much Bynum’s stats in his freshman year in Philly. Now people saying he is a stout defender, which Fred was able to do at Wichita St, leading them to a Final 4. So the Crier is all sorts of fired up for this latest development from this DMV Pro Open. Ok back to BOC.

Needless to say, I’m eager to see Bynum finally step on the court in a Friars uniform, and the intel from this past weekend did nothing to dampen that excitement.