Most underrated player on the team Rak Christmas

[Cusefannotindc]

Ehh.. Rak averages 3 more minutes and scores 3.4 more points with a better FG%. Rak at 71% and Baye at 58%. Rak gets .4 more blocks Other than that, their actual production stats are identical. Literally, almost identical. I'd take better all around defense over 3 points on most nights tbh. But Rak seems to be breaking out into what most of us thought he'd be on offense for the past couple years. He's now dropping less passes than Baye is, no question. His defense is slowly getting better.

Preparing for another all day argument over this post, but whatever.

By Win Shares, Rak has been twice as productive as Baye. Rak has contributed 1.6, Baye just .8. Rak scores points incredibly efficiently, gets to the line and doesn't turn the ball over like Baye does. Baye gets slightly more rebounds, but Rak slightly more blocks.

 

[iommi]

Roc looks more confident and sure of himself out there. He seems to know his role very well. He makes good decisions with the ball and plays within himself. He had a beautiful kick out to Cooney for one of Trevor's 3s. When other teams realize Roc has some offensive game, that two man game with Roc and Cooney could be lethal.

As others said in this thread, Roc is gaining JB's trust. My one criticism is he should be getting more rebounds. He needs to be more active on the glass.

 

[Mistakebythelake90]

True, I didn't think of it that way. But also, it seems to depend on how he shows up on D as well. There's times where Rak doesn't bother to step out to the gaps when opponent's, such as Pitt's big men, take that shot from the FT line in the middle of our zone. Next thing you know, he gives up eight points from that spot. That's what Pitt did, and that's what teams like Notre Dame and Marquette have always done to us in the past. Those are the moments when JB brings Baye in cause Rak rotates late. Baye tends to jump up to that gap and defend it very fast. Those eight points from the middle of the zone is more than he and Baye score together to counter it.

I think that both defend the post differently, and JB touched on that some in one of his pressers (think it was after BC.) Rak is a better positional defender and at guarding straight up without fouling. Keita is very good at recovering to affect shots on the baseline after coming up to the high post to defend there. Boeheim said as much in the presser I was referring to, when he was praising keita for essentially playing 2v1 down low, because our forwards were up so high for that game.

I think this is why from game to game we see such varied minutes from our centers. When we need to extend the zone out to shooters, JB tends to go with Keita more, because he's better at recovering. Rak gets more time when the zone is in tighter, and the matchups are much more 1 on 1.

 

[iommi]

great post, mistakebythelake.

I think that both defend the post differently, and JB touched on that some in one of his pressers (think it was after BC.) Rak is a better positional defender and at guarding straight up without fouling. Keita is very good at recovering to affect shots on the baseline after coming up to the high post to defend there. Boeheim said as much in the presser I was referring to, when he was praising keita for essentially playing 2v1 down low, because our forwards were up so high for that game.

I think this is why from game to game we see such varied minutes from our centers. When we need to extend the zone out to shooters, JB tends to go with Keita more, because he's better at recovering. Rak gets more time when the zone is in tighter, and the matchups are much more 1 on 1.

 

[AlaskaSU]

Next year Rak will be a beast.

 

[Cuse315Pat]

Preparing for another all day argument over this post, but whatever.

By Win Shares, Rak has been twice as productive as Baye. Rak has contributed 1.6, Baye just .8. Rak scores points incredibly efficiently, gets to the line and doesn't turn the ball over like Baye does. Baye gets slightly more rebounds, but Rak slightly more blocks.

You might want to prepare better then. They both average the same amount of turnovers actually. His FT% is the same as Bayes, and Rak actually averages more rebounds. But I see the other 33% of your argument or so, even though I already said Rak had a higher FG%, and slightly more blocks, the only thing you mentioned that I hadn't was the Shares lol. All I'm saying is Baye has always been the better defender, by a pretty good margin, JB himself has been quoted saying it after most games.

Honestly I wish Rak and Baye would fuse to become Rakeita. But we wouldn't get 10 fouls out of him.

 

[Dave85]

I think the problem is not just his hands but how low the passes are being thrown at him. At 6'10" they need to get the passes higher than his dangling finger tips. During the BC game Ennis had this fantastic dish that hit Baye right in the knees. I think the coaches have to work on players understanding how to pass the ball to bigger players. They should be throwing it at the bigs faces not at their balls. If the bigs receive it higher they can just pivot and shoot without being stripped down low as the bring the ball up high.

 

[Dave85]

I think that both defend the post differently, and JB touched on that some in one of his pressers (think it was after BC.) Rak is a better positional defender and at guarding straight up without fouling. Keita is very good at recovering to affect shots on the baseline after coming up to the high post to defend there. Boeheim said as much in the presser I was referring to, when he was praising keita for essentially playing 2v1 down low, because our forwards were up so high for that game.

I think this is why from game to game we see such varied minutes from our centers. When we need to extend the zone out to shooters, JB tends to go with Keita more, because he's better at recovering. Rak gets more time when the zone is in tighter, and the matchups are much more 1 on 1.

Great post. You handle is very funny. Am I correct in assuming you are the result of the mistake?

 

[Coach Orange]

Starting to look like Rak is higher up on JBs trust chart than BMK.

It's been awesome to see Rak enhance his game this season, especially since he didn't seem to do this much at all last year. His footwork is more effective than in the past. On offense, he is fighting for position early, often sealing his defender properly with his hips. He also rolls with better spacing than he used to in our ball-screen game. He has even made strong cuts to the basket when his defender turns to help or goes to double the ball handler.

Defensively, as 315Pat mentioned, he still needs to work on stepping up to guard the player at the free throw line and applying ball pressure, but from block-to-block and up to the mid-post, he slides his feet well to shut down the paint. He had a couple of steals yesterday by stepping into the passing lane in that area. It will be interesting to see if teams with great athletes continue to attempt lobs to players behind him--he has lost track of players on the baseline a few times this season; I'd love to see him adjust and steal/disrupt that pass more often.

That said, as recently as Monday night, BMK seemed to get the big minutes down the stretch of the game. Rak was in foul trouble, but he logically would have played the last few minutes if he was the "one" that Boeheim trusts. He didn't. I'd say Coach B trusts the match-up and which player seems to have the "hot hand" more than just the name on the back of the jersey right now.

Both players serve a role on this team, and both need to play well if the squad is to reach its full potential.

 

[swish7]

I think the problem is not just his hands but how low the passes are being thrown at him. At 6'10" they need to get the passes higher than his dangling finger tips. During the BC game Ennis had this fantastic dish that hit Baye right in the knees. I think the coaches have to work on players understanding how to pass the ball to bigger players. They should be throwing it at the bigs faces not at their balls. If the bigs receive it higher they can just pivot and shoot without being stripped down low as the bring the ball up high.

A few of Ennis' passes to Fair were too low as well. A couple unenforced TOs were off passes to Fair's feet.

 

[jordoo]

Preparing for another all day argument over this post, but whatever.

By Win Shares, Rak has been twice as productive as Baye. Rak has contributed 1.6, Baye just .8. Rak scores points incredibly efficiently, gets to the line and doesn't turn the ball over like Baye does. Baye gets slightly more rebounds, but Rak slightly more blocks.

No need to argue win shares as I believe everyone has had their say.

I am personally a fan of both guys but Baye has limitations that Rak does not. With Rak its all about avoiding stupid fouls, giving consistant effort and continuing to improve his defense which he is starting to do. I feel he has always had the potential and skills to be a better player than Baye. Baye is likewise going to be more valuable in some games where teams really aren't trying to attack us inside because he does cover more ground than anyone else we've had at the 5 and he gets to the FT line the fastest.

 

[Trueblue25]

I've always felt the talent was there with Rak, we've just never had a point guard, recently, until now that could drive, cut and dish to the big men in good position.

 

[two3zone]

I've always felt the talent was there with Rak, we've just never had a point guard, recently, until now that could drive, cut and dish to the big men in good position.

I don't place the guards with fault on his. Our guards were just fine in this aspect. Scoop was fine doing it, MCW was fine doing it, and Ennis is fine doing it. Rak looks better on offense but his % is way higher than it has in the past which is the indication that he's gotten better. I wouldn't be shocked if he had the same touches per minute played as he has in the past, he's just finishing more. I think he's worked extremely hard and I don't think it's fair to him to give somebody else a majority of the credit for his offensive turnaround.

 

[Mistakebythelake90]

Great post. You handle is very funny. Am I correct in assuming you are the result of the mistake?

I'm from Cleveland, which was colloquially known as "The Mistake by the Lake" in the 80's and 90's.

 

[Dave85]

I'm from Cleveland, which was colloquially known as "The Mistake by the Lake" in the 80's and 90's.

Cleveland reminds me of a funny story. I was going to a trade show in Toledo the early 90s. I was taking a little puddle jumper from Cleveland to Toledo. It's a small 30 seat twin propeller type airplane. I climb in, wrestle to my seat, and I overhear the pilot say in muffled microphone, "<ccchkk> Yeah, there it goes again <ccchkk> ... Okay I'll try it. <ccchkk>" And then he shuts all the power off on the airplane. He then waits a few seconds. He then turns all the power back on in the airplane. I then hear him say on the muffled microphone, "<ccchkk> Yeah, that fixed it. <ccchkk>" HOLY CRAP I'M THINKING!!! The plane is running Windows!! What the heck are we going to do if there's a blue screen during the flight!!!

 

[rrlbees]

I've always felt the talent was there with Rak, we've just never had a point guard, recently, until now that could drive, cut and dish to the big men in good position.

We don't do that now. Rak gets the ball by dumping it in to him. Ennis does very little driving and dumping to him. Ennis is the type of PG that drives looking to score.

 

[pfister1]

I think the three points are big, because we're not talking about a difference between 8 points and 11 points. We're talking about no scoring vs some scoring.

The other big difference as we saw last night is that some of Rak's scoring can come as a result of primary offense, whereas most of what Baye gets is the result of put backs or a dump down when someone else draws a defender at the rim. Just having a guy that presents a threat for offense there would be huge.

 

[rrlbees]

The other big difference as we saw last night is that some of Rak's scoring can come as a result of primary offense, whereas most of what Baye gets is the result of put backs or a dump down when someone else draws a defender at the rim. Just having a guy that presents a threat for offense there would be huge.

Rak is developing a baby hook it seems.

 

[Cuse315Pat]

We don't do that now. Rak gets the ball by dumping it in to him. Ennis does very little driving and dumping to him. Ennis is the type of PG that drives looking to score.

CJ and Jerami seem to be the two doing the driving and dumping off/kickouts this year

 

[OttoinGrotto]

The other big difference as we saw last night is that some of Rak's scoring can come as a result of primary offense, whereas most of what Baye gets is the result of put backs or a dump down when someone else draws a defender at the rim. Just having a guy that presents a threat for offense there would be huge.

Very well said. When Baye scores its almost an accident.

 

[Orangeyes]

Baye has bad hands, but like I mentioned to Jake a couple times today, none of our bigs, Baye, Rak, Grant or Fair have strong hands. Great athletes but damn, we have our hands on so many balls that just get knocked out.

Makes you pine for the hands Melo had, never saw a Syracuse player settle so many tough passes. He was a shortstop in baseball and they say a very good one, I believe it.

Rosie had bad hands for much of his career until his senior season.

The staff would do well to get a juggling tape and have the guys practice that art form in their off time.

Jerry Rice said he used juggling to cure a case of bad hands when he was developing.

For any of you dads out there who have kids that have trouble handling the ball give it a try, I know from personel experience that it really works.

 

[mark79]

Makes you pine for the hands Melo had, never saw a Syracuse player settle so many tough passes. He was a shortstop in baseball and they say a very good one, I believe it. Rosie had bad hands for much of his career until his senior season. The staff would do well to get a juggling tape and have the guys practice that art form in their off time. Jerry Rice said he used juggling to cure a case of bad hands when he was developing. For any of you dads out there who have kids that have trouble handling the ball give it a try, I know from personel experience that it really works.

Yes you're right. I remember lots and lots of fumbled passes early in in his career.

Thankfully the Louie and Bouie show did alright with a little sprinkling of Dale Shackleford and Marty Byrnes thrown in.