Cooney is a selfish player

[jekelish]

I have no problem with 90% of the shots he takes in the half court setting. But I agree, he's terrible about giving it up on the break. Especially because he's not a great finisher in any kind of traffic.

 

[SoBeCuse]

It's simple:

Cooney has the constant green light on offense.

Cooney takes tons of bad shots.

Cooney takes tons of off balanced bad shots.

Cooney makes tons of bad shots. Good ones too!

We need Cooney to spread the floor

We need Cooney plain and simple.

On a talented team Cooney would be a DEADLY third option or so.

He's bad initiating action on a fast break.

He's just forced to do too much. It's a team problem.

 

[Ghost]

Cooney is Dion Waiters! (Without the ability to finish at the rim!)

 

[STEVEHOLT]

Perhaps you should add a few more question marks for emphasis,

Cooney did not play well, but that doesn't absolve Rak's poor performance.

Rak's misses were just that. Missed shots on good looks...just didnt make them. The process behind them was fine.

Cooney's misses were for the most part forced, heavily defended shots early in the clock. Nobody cares if he takes those shots when the shot clock is about to expire, but that was not the case.

Cooney is selfish. For the last two years he has almost never given up the rock on a fast break even though time and time again he gets his packed or gets stuffed by the rim.

His fast break bricks are four point swings.

 

[SoBeCuse]

Rak's misses were just that. Missed shots on good looks...just didnt make them. The process behind them was fine.

Cooney's misses were for the most part forced, heavily defended shots early in the clock. Nobody cares if he takes those shots when the shot clock is about to expire, but that was not the case.

Cooney is selfish. For the last two years he has almost never given up the rock on a fast break even though time and time again he gets his . . . . packed or gets stuffed by the rim.

His fast break bricks are four point swings.

I hear ya somewhat. Boeheim's an enabler with shot selection generally, imo. He thinks every look is a good shot it seems the last few seasons.

 

[Carolinasu]

Who are these 4 guys? Sure didn't seem like there were 3 other guys who could score tonight?

gbinije, Roberson ,Xmas, and Cooney are the only options and I wish all 4 could click every game but it just doesn't seem to happen often enough.

 

[jsshap]

I'm not even referring to the fact that he was missing threes. I'm referring to his annoying habit of NEVER passing the ball on odd man fast breaks as well as taking contested , fade away twos early in the shot clock.

It's not as noticeable when he's hitting at a decent clip , but it's selfish then as well . In this type of game , when you aren't hitting and Gbinije is having a game for the ages , it's blatant

If selfishness is defined as poor vision and decision-making on odd man breaks, I agree, but it seems that is more a reflection of (1) the fact that Cooney does not have great vision and passing ability and (2) given his limited athletic ability (and good foul shooting) his instinct is to take it very aggressively to the rim in the hope that he gets off good shot and/or gets fouled.

However, the definition of selfishness usually includes "caring more for one's own success than the team's success." And anyone who watches a Syracuse game -- and the way Cooney reacts to big plays by his teammates -- knows that is absolutely not true. So I think your underlying observation is fair but selfish is the wrong word.

 

[TBCuse11]

Hahaha exactly. And this thread is the perfect example of how ridiculous people on this board get when it comes to defending Cooney, people will put down other players that have nothing to do with the points that have been brought up about things like shot selection and his poor decisions on fast breaks.

i just laugh at this point. Cooney has bad game after bad game and he gets an eternal free pass from this board. It is what it is. You cant reason with anyone. Its pretty obvious he is not one of our 2 best players, but he takes the most shots... most of them contested and early in the shot clock. oh well.

 

[TBCuse11]

If selfishness is defined as poor vision and decision-making on odd man breaks, I agree, but it seems that is more a reflection of (1) the fact that Cooney does not have great vision and passing ability and (2) given his limited athletic ability (and good foul shooting) his instinct is to take it very aggressively to the rim in the hope that he gets off good shot and/or gets fouled.

However, the definition of selfishness usually includes "caring more for one's own success than the team's success." And anyone who watches a Syracuse game -- and the way Cooney reacts to big plays by his teammates -- knows that is absolutely not true. So I think your underlying observation is fair but selfish is the wrong word.

good post. fair point. Not selfish, just a low BBall IQ i think...

 

[Jake]

I don't mind the step into 25 footers, but the off balance 3s make me crazy. He's not great off the curl...which unfortunately is the only way he's getting open.

Not sure what's going on with the fast break, other than he's marginal running them.

 

[Alsacs]

I don't mind the step into 25 footers, but the off balance 3s make me crazy. He's not great off the curl...which unfortunately is the only way he's getting open.

Not sure what's going on with the fast break, other than he's marginal running them.

Or you could say he is bad situationally at running in transition. It doesn't take away from the fact on this team he has to play because we have nobody else and that he is a good player.

Some of the criticism Cooney gets is way over the top, but the opinions expressed in this thread are beyond fair and yet certain posters(I am not saying you) have to be keepers of the gate have to defend even legit points. If we want an echo chamber we should all know. Rak had a horrible game yesterday and Cooney did as well. It doesn't mean they aren't great and good players. I have seen enough of Cooney in transition to say he runs it like chicken with its head chopped off and its not pretty. Now give Cooney catch and shoot situations he is money.

 

[Millhouse]

we have 4 guys that can score on the team so why is it that every off game cooney has people think he shouldn't shoot so much?

I wonder how many minutes there have been this year where Gbinije had more shots in the game,

 

[STEVEHOLT]

Gbinije should be the focal point of the offense. Why he isnt, I believe, is mostly his own fault. He is passive for long periods of time. He hardly even attempted any shots in the second half until we got behind by around ten points. Its weird in that he handles the ball and its totally up to him when or if he wants to be aggressive. In fact, Mike G could use a little bit more Cooney in his game, and Cooney could use a little more Mike

 

[CuseFaninVT]

I have no problem with 90% of the shots he takes in the half court setting. But I agree, he's terrible about giving it up on the break. Especially because he's not a great finisher in any kind of traffic.

So true. His reputation is for 3-point shooting so he should absolutely use that in a fast break situation to get one defender to come out to him and out of the paint so guys like Roberson, who runs his as$ off everytime, can have some space to jam the ball down.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

Gbinije should be the focal point of the offense. Why he isnt, I believe, is mostly his own fault. He is passive for long periods of time. He hardly even attempted any shots in the second half until we got behind by around ten points. Its weird in that he handles the ball and its totally up to him when or if he wants to be aggressive. In fact, Mike G could use a little bit more Cooney in his game, and Cooney could use a little more Mike

I wonder how Mike would react to being the focal point of the offense and in turn the focal point of the other team's defense. I want to see G with the other team's best defender in his shorts before I make a judgment of whether he should or could be the main guy.

 

[MikeSU02]

I wonder how Mike would react to being the focal point of the offense and in turn the focal point of the other team's defense. I want to see G with the other team's best defender in his shorts before I make a judgment of whether he should or could be the main guy.

This doesn't happen to Trevor.

 

[NineOneSeven]

I don't mind the step into 25 footers, but the off balance 3s make me crazy. He's not great off the curl...which unfortunately is the only way he's getting open.

Not sure what's going on with the fast break, other than he's marginal running them.

Rautins was amazing off the curl because the first thing he did was square his shoulders and set his feet before jumping.

Cooney catches the ball and jumps before his body is set towards the hoop. This leads to his fading motion.

Let's be real- cooney can make shots. But he takes far too many poor ones, especially lately.

 

[orangefan13]

I see it just the opposite Cooney should be taking that ball to the rim drawing fouls and getting and ones.

He is 10X's stronger then joseph right now and finishes transition better because of it. He goes slower and senses the defense trailing and puts his body into the defender as well as cutting with a angle instead of taking the ball straight to the hoop, as a upperclassmen he understands that well. That one play where the duke guard raked across his body is a foul 99% of the time. You can rake if the ball is in front of them but not across the body, furthermore the guys other arm was around his waist. And now we are bashing cooney because of it thats a headscratcher to me.

How many times has he drawn the foul on the layup as well and made the and one instead of dishing it to the trailor he does it all the time, all the time.

And How many times have we knocked or stopped a great player for the other teams shot out of bounce over the years, ALOT

JB says all the time good shooters don't think about the shot they just shoot. Trevor takes contested shots its called isolation ball and I applaud him big time for learning some of it this year! Its what made CJ Fair a better player and the star of the team last year. Were acting like we would rather ron patterson shoot up a open three.

 

[Alsacs]

I wonder how Mike would react to being the focal point of the offense and in turn the focal point of the other team's defense. I want to see G with the other team's best defender in his shorts before I make a judgment of whether he should or could be the main guy.

Teams don't put their best defender on Cooney they just face guard him and basically give him nothing open in the halfcourt. Duke put its best defender on Gbinije in Quinn Cook and Ginijie still had a better second half than Cooney because G can drive and catch and shoot.
Cooney isn't the focal point he is just easier to defend because he is a pick and pop guy and is driving has gotten better but not as good as Gbinije's.
Cooney is our third best player Rak is first team all-ACC and G is going to make 2nd or 3rd team. Cooney is a great third scorer but he isn't getting the best defender he is just having his guy stay on him in the half court.

 

[Jack Hall]

I wonder how Mike would react to being the focal point of the offense and in turn the focal point of the other team's defense. I want to see G with the other team's best defender in his shorts before I make a judgment of whether he should or could be the main guy.

I saw Winslow , Cook, and Jones all on G last night and he beat all 3 off the dribble. Winslow and Jones will get drafted this year. G as a point forward next year surrounded by McC, Malachi, TC , etc is scary. Ds will not be able to double G and G has shown he can take top prospects one on one. You can look at it two ways, the pessimists look at G as a dreaded tweener (and he might be as a pro and that may hurt his nba chances). Optimists see G as a very tough matchup problem at the college level. Duke is a top 3 fav for the natl title and they struggled bigtime to matchup to G last night. It bodes well for the future

 

[orangefan13]

Teams don't put their best defender on Cooney they just face guard him and basically give him nothing open in the halfcourt. Duke put its best defender on Gbinije in Quinn Cook and Ginijie still had a better second half than Cooney because G can drive and catch and shoot.
Cooney isn't the focal point he is just easier to defend because he is a pick and pop guy and is driving has gotten better but not as good as Gbinije's.
Cooney is our third best player Rak is first team all-ACC and G is going to make 2nd or 3rd team. Cooney is a great third scorer but he isn't getting the best defender he is just having his guy stay on him in the half court.

Just for conversation, Yeah but Quinn cook is how tall 6'1 last I checked Gbinije is 6'7 and Gbinije wasn't scoring as a point when Kaleb came back in he went back to it.

Agree Gbinije is better one on one, but cooney is forced to take shots alittle more contested even with gbinije at sf. Its just the way it is right now. So soon we forget his over the backboard floater he made to beat wake, and wasn't that a really high scoring game. Yeah we had rough offense the second half against duke but our defense wasn't stopping them very well either, and Rak had a rough offensive game sadly (second one in a row) he hasn't been aggressive enough the last two and nobody is bashing him

 

[MikeSU02]

Cooney went 4-14 last night.

In conference he is averaging 5.1 FGM and 14.5 FGA.

If you thought he had a bad night last night, then you should have an overall issue with how he has been playing for a while.

I'll say it again, he's our Ricky Davis.

If you think that's good. That's fine. If you think that's bad. That's fine.

But if you look at the numbers that should help Trevor, TS%, eFG%, win shares, etc, they aren't showing him to be a very good player.

Is he in a tough spot, yes. Not a lot of depth. But Rak may make an AA team and G is playing lights out. It's not like there are no weapons.

I really wish he could play 32 minutes a game and get better on the break (finding his sweet spot to fill, knowing when to get rid of the ball, understanding how his first few steps pushing the ball impact the break overall).

I honestly think TC could score 15ppg in 32 minutes and take two to three less shots a game next year.

 

[Alsacs]

Just for conversation, Yeah but Quinn cook is how tall 6'1 last I checked Gbinije is 6'7 and Gbinije wasn't scoring as a point when Kaleb came back in he went back to it.

Agree Gbinije is better one on one, but cooney is forced to take shots alittle more contested even with gbinije at sf. Its just the way it is right now.

Fair point I don't want the narrative to be Cooney is getting the toughest defender and that is why he struggles when that is not the truth. Cooney is a SG who does well in catch and shoot situations. His driving has improved but not to the level of G and G had the best perimeter defender on him in the second half. Cooney just gets his defender to face guard him and give him no open looks.

 

[Alsacs]

Cooney went 4-14 last night.

In conference he is averaging 5.1 FGM and 14.5 FGA.

If you thought he had a bad night last night, then you should have an overall issue with how he has been playing for a while.

I'll say it again, he's our Ricky Davis.

If you think that's good. That's fine. If you think that's bad. That's fine.

But if you look at the numbers that should help Trevor, TS%, eFG%, win shares, etc, they aren't showing him to be a very good player.

Is he in a tough spot, yes. Not a lot of depth. But Rak may make an AA team and G is playing lights out. It's not like there are no weapons.

I really wish he could play 32 minutes a game and get better on the break (finding his sweet spot to fill, knowing when to get rid of the ball, understanding how his first few steps pushing the ball impact the break overall).

I honestly think TC could score 15ppg in 32 minutes and take two to three less shots a game next year.

Good comp he is a good character non marijuana smoking Ricky Davis.

 

[orangefan13]

Fair point I don't want the narrative to be Cooney is getting the toughest defender and that is why he struggles when that is not the truth. Cooney is a SG who does well in catch and shoot situations. His driving has improved but not to the level of G and G had the best perimeter defender on him in the second half. Cooney just gets his defender to face guard him and give him no open looks.

Yup and thats cooneys game although hes learning to pull up some off the dribble this year

But compared to joseph fair gbinije devendorf probably even rautins(those types of go to guys) hes going to be contested alittle bit tighter when he releases. That being the case a offbalenced shot off a screen might get less of a hand in his face.

imo