This is an installment in the 13-part, 2020 NLL season recap series.
Season Summary
2019-20 NLL Season Record: 1-12 (.077 win percentage)
Most observers would tell you that this was a bad inaugural season for the New York Riptide. Ranking last in just about every statistical category certainly is not how they intended to start their expansion team’s first season. Yet, the Riptide made a concerted effort to have a young roster and let those young athletes develop on the floor as much as possible.
The strategy was to sprinkle in some veteran leadership to help develop a young, talented class of first and second year players. Second-year pro Connor Kelly was showing great signs of growth from year one to year two, and Dan Lomas was showing that he could score at a good clip in his first real crack at being part of an NLL lineup. Add to that, Tyson Gibson showing his doubters why he felt like he deserved to be the number one pick overall and six other rookies playing significant minutes in nine or more games this year. One of those rookies was their other 2019 first round selection, Tyson Bomberry. By the end of the year, Myles Jones was finding his footing in the box game and Jake Fox was starting to get some good reps after the trade of Tyler Digby. When you look at it from this view, you can see that they have something special brewing in Nassau, even if not that many people bought a ticket to go see it.
Offensive Player of the Year
Connor Kelly emerged as a standout offensive player for New York this season. Among the offensive unit, he picked up the most loose balls, scored the third-most points and of the five players that touched the ball the most (including Tyler Digby), had the fewest turnovers. This last stat is what plagued this young team all season; too many turnovers. Kelly started to show he can be a steady presence for this team and will only grow into a better player as he gets older.
Defensive/Transition Player of the Year
Andrew Suitor must have been watching what was going on this year in New England, shaking his head. Arguably, the most underrated defensive player in the league, he did have a slow start to the season. While I am sure some of this was his lingering unhappiness with being traded to a young squad, he ended up being the only Riptide member to break the century mark in loose balls and also led the team in caused turnovers this season. By season’s end, he started to show again that he is not only a great player, he is a guy you can build your defense around.
Best Team Transaction
Trading Tyler Digby was a great move at the time. It looked like there would be eight games left in the season and as mentioned previously, it opened up spots for some other young players to develop on offense. They also received a 2020 second round pick, in what at the time was supposed to be one of the deepest drafts in history, pre-pandemic and the NCAA eligibility ruling, of course.
Biggest question entering the offseason
Who will replace the recently departed Regy Thorpe as coach and general manager? As an outsider, I was surprised to see Thorpe be shown the exit after only one season. However, in a league struggling with attendance, you need to find a way to produce enough to get the fans in the seats, while still building for the future. Whoever they hire, whether it is one man for both jobs as I would suggest they do, or a single person for each role, they need to start digging into the draft process right away. With most of the NCAA players not in the draft this year, it went from being a very deep draft, to one that there will be clear winners and losers.
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[…] Teat will most likely be the first overall pick. The NLL then announced the draft order with the New York Riptide earning the number one pick. The dates for the draft, though, have not been released, but should […]