The entire MGo team has been beating the drum for Michigan to get Vlad Goldin more involved offensively. And after a slow start, the man in the middle is emerging as The Guy for Dusty May in half-court scenarios. 

You may recall Goldin had a pedestrian usage rate of 11 in the first high-major game of the year against Wake Forest. The last three games versus Xavier, Wisconsin and Iowa? That number has soared to 24.4, 30.6 and 28.7 per Torvik, with Vlad leading the team in usage against both the Badgers and Hawkeyes. Your author is a big advocate of placing weight on games against stronger competition, and Goldin being the first option versus KP's #37, #46 and #65 teams speaks volumes as to his standing in the hierarchy. 

Let's walk through how the 7-footer has turned things around over the last two weeks below.

Early in the season Goldin would have deep position for good looks and yet struggled to convert routine shots for a man of his size and pedigree. This often correlated with Vlad going the finesse route and opting for the jumphook. While history says that's a good shot attempt for him, it wasn't falling consistently enough.

The last two weeks have seen Goldin leverage his sheer size/power with more regularity. As seen below, burying the defender under the rim with force has been the more productive option. 

Over the last three games Vlad is 17/21 (81%) on rim attempts, and a fair amount of that can be attributed to the uptick in force/physicality. 

With all players, shooting touch is generally high-variance whether its a jumpshot or a jumphook. Vlad's touch wasn't present to start the season, and that might be a generous description. While he's not back at last season's efficiency (58.3% on other twos), there are some promising signs like this textbook jumphook vs Wisconsin.

The lower body elevation and shot arc are exactly what you want to see and hopefully a sign of things to come. It's still a long way from projected efficiency, but Goldin is 4/10 on other twos the last three games. 

[After THE JUMP: Roll-Man, Rim Protection and Channeling Marc Gasol]

The Wolverines have done a much better job finding Vlad on the roll against blitzing/hedging defenses in recent games. In tandem with that, Michigan's behemoth is doing some really impressive things to maximize those opportunities. 

Iowa is blitzing the Gayle/Goldin ballscreen in the clip below. Roddy is a second late with his read against that coverage and delivers a heavily contested pass to Vlad. A 7-footer high-points the catch between two defenders, spins in the air, lands without traveling and finishes with the off-hand. That's top-tier body control + athleticism and spatial awareness for a college center at that size. 

And there's also a lot of nuance in mastering the tricks of the trade as a roll-man. Wisconsin wants to switch the 54 ballscreen action in the clip below (C screening for the PF), as the size discrepancies don't present insane size mismatches the way a PG/C ballscreen do. Focus on Goldin's hands/arms with 11 left on the shotclock. He subtly re-directs Nolan Winter and creates a large passing window for Danny Wolf. 

Wolf will get tons of credit there (and rightfully so), but it is the experience + craft of Vlad that creates the look for an easy dunk. 

Coming into the season, Goldin's presence as a rim deterring anchor was likely the most projectable part of his game. After a solid start to the season, Vlad has been absolutely elite over the last five games. In that span, he has block rates of 19(!), 13, 12, 10 and 3. Massive impact as a guy that directly prevents points for the opposition as we see below.

The rim protection hasn't been limited to quantifiable blocks though. Goldin is also altering shots without fouling. While he won't get any boxscore credit, it has the same impact as a block. Another undervalued facet with Goldin - the ability to remain vertical and out of foul trouble as an anchor. He has 9 total fouls........in the last 5 games combined. 

The flashes of passing/playmaking have been the biggest development in recent weeks. There have definitely been a few eye-popping moments such as this tip/touch pass to Tre Donaldson on the BLOB set.

We're also seeing some good spatial awareness/reads in back-to-the-basket scenarios. Vlad processes that in a nano-second and delivers a precision over-the-shoulder pass to Nimari for a layup. 

Now we have some tight-window passing in transition. That's a 7-footer stopping on a dime, reading the court and putting the pass at face-level so that Wolf doesn't have to bring the ball down. Even at the NBA level, this probably ends up being a charge for a fair amount of bigs. 

And finally we have Goldin operating as the trigger man in Delay action. Wolf sets a ripscreen for Gayle and Vlad delivers an absolute beauty with touch that leads Roddy into a layup. He can't convert, but that's great playmaking from a big.

Goldin is never going to be some Jokic-esque offensive engine, but he's shown more playmaking chops than anticipated. If the recent uptick is sustainable, it makes sense to run more offense through Vlad, using his rim gravity to exploit opposing defenses via passing.