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Message: [QUOTE="jordoo, post: 1190266, member: 569"] I'd say Cooney is a good defender at the top of the zone but not great. He gets his hands on a lot of passes and is very good at keeping an eye on passes back out to the top I believe that is his strength on defense. He also very very rarely leaves a shooter open no matter how far out they are which JB stresses. Overall he is active and knows where to be. I do agree that he allows more penetration than I would like and some of that is that he has never been as good as some others we've had at fighting over screnes while he also doesn't seem to be exceptionally quick at recovering to the ball handler while going under. That combined with the fact that he shades heavily toward stopping open jumpers than driving makes it possible to drive past him. Conversely he seems pretty good at stealing the ball our tipping the dribble when a player tries to split the guards at the top. Buss has really long arms and his lateral movement is great. I see the same thing you are with him shadowing guys on the perimeter. Even when they try to dribble he is right there up on their hip forcing them further out than they want to. Because of this he's able to go over the screnes since once they are set he rides the ballhandler out enough that he can squeeze through. The more time he gets the better he will be with positioning off the ball and reading passes. Buss has the potential to be one of the more disruptive defenders we've had out top. That said the fact that Buss may have the tools to be a better defender than Cooney and may already be does not mean that Cooney is a bad defender it does however make it that much easier to sit him down if his shots don't fall because you aren't losing anything on the defensive end. [/QUOTE]

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