UNC Basketball: Super-Early Grades for Tar Heels Starters

North Carolina has gotten off to a nice start in the 2014-15 season. With a 3-0 record and a 26-point average margin of victory, things are going according to plan heading into the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament this week.

Although coach Roy Williams has extended his rotation pretty deep and is substituting a lot, we have a reasonable sample size on which to grade the starters' early-season performances.

Things are bound to change as minutes get ironed out and competition picks up, but it is still a worthwhile exercise to check in and see how the main cogs of the Heels are performing late into November.

Marcus Paige

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Grade: C+

Marcus Paige has been fine so far this season. The important note here is that he hasn't needed to be any better. UNC is 3-0 heading into the Battle 4 Atlantis. That is right where it wanted to be.

Paige, though, is off to just an average start to his year. He is not playing heavy minutes, which attributes to his lackluster stats. But 12.0 points per game on 37.9 percent shooting is indisputably un-Paige-like.

He has yet to miss a free throw and is shooting well from three, which are good early signs. He is also taking care of the basketball with just two turnovers thus far, compared to nine assists in the early going.

The slow shooting start is paired with little effect on the defensive side (one total steal), and Paige's grade seems deserved. Things should pick up once the competition does.

Brice Johnson

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Grade: B-

This is the Brice Johnson fans were hoping for entering the year. He has played very sparingly, but in 18 minutes per game, he is averaging 14.7 points, 7.7 rebounds and 1.7 blocks.

The number that needs to come down is the 10 personal fouls in three games. That is leading to his limited minutes and will be a more pressing matter once fearsome opponents take the floor.

His usage rate, block percentage, shooting percentage, even assist percentage are all up. Everything is up compared to last season…except for the minutes played. That is enough to keep Johnson's grade down because he needs to play close to 30 minutes per game to be a nationally relative fixture in the frontcourt.

J.P. Tokoto

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Grade: B

J.P. Tokoto is a very weird shooting guard, but it seems to be working for Roy Williams and North Carolina. Tokoto has been slotted into the starting lineup as the off-guard to Marcus Paige, and he's done a serviceable job…in certain aspects.

Tokoto will never be a legitimate threat at the shooting guard position because he can't shoot. This is, naturally, a problem.

Tokoto is just 8-of-22 from the floor thus far. None of those eight successful field goals have come from behind the arc, and he is shooting 60 percent from the foul line to boot.

But everything else he does as a shooting guard has been stellar. He is a good and quick defender and athlete. He is averaging six assists per ballgame and has just five total turnovers on the year. He is also a good rebounder for his size and now a great rebounder for his position.

If the other players progress as expected, Tokoto will never be needed to score. It hurts the offensive flow and spacing to have him in the shooting guard spot, but his other abilities have covered that up early on.

Kennedy Meeks

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Grade: A

For seemingly the first time in the history of sports, a preseason story about a player slimming down and getting into the best shape of his life is actually paying dividends.

Kennedy Meeks has arguably been North Carolina's best player through the early weeks of November.

He leads the team in scoring and rebounding, averaging a double-double at 16.7 points and 11 rebounds. He is also doing so very efficiently, having taken only 30 shots on the year.

Like everyone else, Meeks' minutes have been limited, as Coach Williams gives time to as many as 11 men on any given night. But the young big is collecting offensive rebounds and scoring down low like he's a wily veteran.

Meeks needs to learn to be a better passer out of the post, especially when teams begin to double-team him regularly. He also has more growing in terms of his conditioning and limiting fouls once the opponents begin to improve.

Nevertheless, he is off to a great start.

Justin Jackson

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Grade: B

Even in these early stages, freshman Justin Jackson is making incremental strides game to game. He is learning to adapt to the competition as well as his teammates. He is feeling out his game, and overall, everything looks good.

The main concern going against Jackson would be his outside shooting. Since it has only been three games, he deserves some benefit of the doubt, but he is just 1-of-6 from three on the season. He is not attempting many from long range and is having issues with accuracy.

If this is still the case in another few weeks, we may need to adjust expectations. As it stands, he is still expected to be a lethal deep threat capable of rising up over anyone who would be guarding him. This very specific skill is what made him so tantalizing for Tar Heels fans, as it was the main weapon last year's team was missing.

Even so, Jackson is playing well in his first run through Division I basketball. He is averaging 13.3 points per game and is taking good, mid-range shots in the offense.