I'm a little limited in terms of my frame of reference, but in terms of being smooth, I think people are very much overlooking Lawrence Moten.
Silky
Exactly. A tall Moten.
I thought of Raf as Jerami stroked that long jumper from the corner late in the game, right in front of the bench. That spot is where Rafael punched his meal ticket game after game. Jerami is much more explosive than Raf, and I think CJ is too. No monster dunks or blocks that I recall Raf having, but dude was smooth, no doubt. All 3, CJ, Raf and Jerami are model mid range players.
I think he stands on his own because he has elements fo several players games. He is not Pace 2.0 because Josh Pace could not hit a jump shot outside of 10 ft. He can not drive like Moten did (and is a better shooter), he is not near the shooter Raf was and Raf was a guard. I don't see the Alexis thing at all. He is smooth, yet explosive, and is a decent outside shooter. In those elements he is similar to Santifer but Erich was only 6'4" and not nearly the rebounder CJ is. Santifer was more of a Stevie Thompson with a jump shot to me and was probably my favorite player until Sherm came.
I kind of thought it was pretty cool even before Pearl came. Louie and Bouie, The Super Sophs, those were very fun teams to watch. I swear at one game in the Dome I saw Tony Bruin catch an alley oop from Rautins, hang in the air about 3 seconds, and then go higher to slam it home without ever touching the ground. The dude absolutely floated in mid air.
Yes, Dale was another fine all-around player who quietly got it done every night.
