Rawle Alkins

[ChooChooCat]

Scratching my head at some of the posts in this thread.

I'm pretty sure I read the phrase 'I don't think Lauri would be able to guard the Derrick Williams type 4s of the world, which are rampant in college,' Is it just me, or did someone just criticize a recruit for not being able to defend a conference player of the year and eventual 2nd overall NBA pick while in the very same sentence imply that that level of player is commonplace in college basketball...? Damn, why'd we recruit Markannen then? Shoulda just grabbed another one of those Derrick Williamses. They're all over the place.

Pretty sure I also read this: 'I'll take the 6'8 210lbs (Smith will likely be heavier next year) athletic 4 man over a Ryan Anderson type in college basketball 10000000 times out of 10000000, especially defensively.' Right. So, we're going to take a highschool SF who's never played a college game over a proven all PAC-12 player who was easily our team's most effective player a year ago? Ten million times out of ten million? Christ, the all PAC-12 team last year must've been a bunch of chumps. Hell, our roster must've been garbage as well.

Scratching my head...

Someone said mentioned Derrick Williams in regards to Lauri's defense?

I'm not sure if you were paying attention or not to the end of last season, but Ryan Anderson was losing playing time due to his horrid defense. The point is a former high school SF (did he even play SF in high school, are we just saying that because that's what his scout profile lists him as) who is 6'8 and has probably 10 times the amount of athleticism than Anderson even with shaky knees would be a superior defender than Ryan Anderson. Hell I don't even think I went on a limb saying that as Anderson was absolutely atrocious on the defensive end as good as he was as a junkyard dog on offense.

Our roster last year was kind of garbage outside of some pieces Puerco...hate to break that to you if you watched with your homer glasses. Last year was a down year for college basketball and we couldn't get past the 1st round.

I'm still scratching my head at your first paragraph. Who said that exactly?

[ChooChooCat]

Look if Lauri's better it should be Lauri. If Ray's better it should be Ray. If Rawle or Ferguson aren't good enough then it should probably be both Lauri and Ray. We're all speaking in hypotheticals at this point, but play the best damn 5, whoever they are. Let's agree to that.

My only caveat (and I swear I'm not just arguing to argue) is I don't see it as Lauri vs Ray. I think both are likely to start. I think it is probably more likely Lauri and Ray vs Ferguson and Alkins, because that's who it really boils down to being in or out of the lineup.

Well that's like your opinion man...

One where 6'8 wings can't play the 4 position in college and only 6'11 guys can just because. I'm kidding....but still

Dude, that's why I thought you were misunderstanding me. I've never said Ray can't play the 4. I'm advocating for him to do that for 10-12 mpg. I just don't want him as a 4, but a 3 who slides up to create an alternate lineup.

It is definitely my opinion. The opinion that really matters is Sean Miller's though. Look, maybe he'll finally run a 2-3 like Riseandfire wants and we both lose...? In the offseason, ain't much to do but argue opinions, I guess.

I'm increasingly enamored of the idea of starting PJC at center for at least one game. Preferably as a middle finger to ASU.

I wasn't misunderstanding you, I was just dicking around that last post. I understand your position completely and we'll see what Miller decides to do. In the end my guess is who gets the majority of minutes at the 4 will depend on matchups and this whole discussion will be null and void anyways as both you and I will probably be right.

[Puerco]

Scratching my head at some of the posts in this thread.

I'm pretty sure I read the phrase 'I don't think Lauri would be able to guard the Derrick Williams type 4s of the world, which are rampant in college,' Is it just me, or did someone just criticize a recruit for not being able to defend a conference player of the year and eventual 2nd overall NBA pick while in the very same sentence imply that that level of player is commonplace in college basketball...? Damn, why'd we recruit Markannen then? Shoulda just grabbed another one of those Derrick Williamses. They're all over the place.

Pretty sure I also read this: 'I'll take the 6'8 210lbs (Smith will likely be heavier next year) athletic 4 man over a Ryan Anderson type in college basketball 10000000 times out of 10000000, especially defensively.' Right. So, we're going to take a highschool SF who's never played a college game over a proven all PAC-12 player who was easily our team's most effective player a year ago? Ten million times out of ten million? Christ, the all PAC-12 team last year must've been a bunch of chumps. Hell, our roster must've been garbage as well.

Scratching my head...

Someone said mentioned Derrick Williams in regards to Lauri's defense?

I'm not sure if you were paying attention or not to the end of last season, but Ryan Anderson was losing playing time due to his horrid defense. The point is a former high school SF (did he even play SF in high school, are we just saying that because that's what his scout profile lists him as) who is 6'8 and has probably 10 times the amount of athleticism than Anderson even with shaky knees would be a superior defender than Ryan Anderson. Hell I don't even think I went on a limb saying that as Anderson was absolutely atrocious on the defensive end as good as he was as a junkyard dog on offense.

Our roster last year was kind of garbage outside of some pieces Puerco...hate to break that to you if you watched with your homer glasses. Last year was a down year for college basketball and we couldn't get past the 1st round.

I'm still scratching my head at your first paragraph. Who said that exactly?

Here ya go:

I don't think Lauri would be able to guard the Derrick Williams type 4s of the world, which are rampant in college. I think even Brandon Ashley types would give him trouble.

Regarding Ryan Anderson, I think we can both agree that he had his bad moments on defense. But that is literally all they were -- moments. Anderson's defensive rating was 94.1, which was second on the team behind only Tarc's 93.7. I don't think you get that kind of a statistical rating if you're regularly 'atrocious' on D. Chance Commanche was a 97, and everyone's excited about his defense, right?

Or we could just stick to the eye test?

I'll tell you one thing: if a redshirt freshman SF coming off two ACL tears can switch to PF at the University of Arizona and be more impactful for the team than PAC-12 First Team Ryan Anderson was last year, then our future is going to be very bright indeed.

I know everyone's worried about our frontcourt, but barring injury I think they're going to be very good. Ristic is a proven commodity: he has his problems defensively, but he has offensive skills to more then make up for that on most nights. Commanche looked really promising last year, and Markannen and Smith ooze potential. Those four guys are going to hold their own at least throughout the season. There may be a bad matchup or two lurking out there for us, but on most every night we'll out-talent the bad guys. I'm sure we'll play small ball 20-30% of the time as well, so depth isn't as crucial as it normally would be. Barring injury.

[ChooChooCat]

Regarding Ryan Anderson, I think we can both agree that he had his bad moments on defense. But that is literally all they were -- moments. Anderson's defensive rating was 94.1, which was second on the team behind only Tarc's 93.7. I don't think you get that kind of a statistical rating if you're regularly 'atrocious' on D. Chance Commanche was a 97, and everyone's excited about his defense, right?

Or we could just stick to the eye test?

I'll tell you one thing: if a redshirt freshman SF coming off two ACL tears can switch to PF at the University of Arizona and be more impactful for the team than PAC-12 First Team Ryan Anderson was last year, then our future is going to be very bright indeed.

I know everyone's worried about our frontcourt, but barring injury I think they're going to be very good. Ristic is a proven commodity: he has his problems defensively, but he has offensive skills to more then make up for that on most nights. Commanche looked really promising last year, and Markannen and Smith ooze potential. Those four guys are going to hold their own at least throughout the season. There may be a bad matchup or two lurking out there for us, but on most every night we'll out-talent the bad guys. I'm sure we'll play small ball 20-30% of the time as well, so depth isn't as crucial as it normally would be. Barring injury.

Moments? The guy was repeatedly abused all year by any forward with a microcosm of athleticism. Like I mentioned he was benched quite a bit at the end of the year for defensive purposes, so I'm far from on an island here in regards to how bad his defense was.

Smith won't put up Anderson's numbers next years obviously considering the talent around him will be infinitely better than anything Anderson, so he won't have to, but if Smith gets abused on defense as much as Anderson did it won't be due to a lack of ability like it was with Anderson. Bottom line is Chance Comanche didn't start stealing minutes away from Anderson at the end of the season because Comanche improved so much in practice.

If you want to use arbitrary stats he had a defensive plus/minus of 2.8, good enough to put him behind the defensive powerhouse that is Mark Tollefsen.

[Chicat]

Put Rawle at the point.

Very interesting, Chi.

Dude has nice handles and brings the ball down-court as an intimidator and if he decides to continue to the rim, goes in a straight line more often than not. Result, brave wing defenders often try to close on him and perimeter is open all over the place. So Rawle pulls up and kicks to a Ferguson, Zo, Simmons, Allen? Or he continues to the rim and makes defenders a little sore the next day.

Feels good.

Doesn't it?

[threenumberones]

Put Rawle at the point.

Very interesting, Chi.

Dude has nice handles and brings the ball down-court as an intimidator and if he decides to continue to the rim, goes in a straight line more often than not. Result, brave wing defenders often try to close on him and perimeter is open all over the place. So Rawle pulls up and kicks to a Ferguson, Zo, Simmons, Allen? Or he continues to the rim and makes defenders a little sore the next day.

Feels good.

Doesn't it?

I'm huge on Rawle, but being able to dribble and look scary doesn't qualify. He's a supercharged Momo. No more hero ball from the point.

[NYCat]

Here ya go:

I don't think Lauri would be able to guard the Derrick Williams type 4s of the world, which are rampant in college. I think even Brandon Ashley types would give him trouble.

Regarding Ryan Anderson, I think we can both agree that he had his bad moments on defense. But that is literally all they were -- moments. Anderson's defensive rating was 94.1, which was second on the team behind only Tarc's 93.7. I don't think you get that kind of a statistical rating if you're regularly 'atrocious' on D. Chance Commanche was a 97, and everyone's excited about his defense, right?

Or we could just stick to the eye test?

I'll tell you one thing: if a redshirt freshman SF coming off two ACL tears can switch to PF at the University of Arizona and be more impactful for the team than PAC-12 First Team Ryan Anderson was last year, then our future is going to be very bright indeed.

I know everyone's worried about our frontcourt, but barring injury I think they're going to be very good. Ristic is a proven commodity: he has his problems defensively, but he has offensive skills to more then make up for that on most nights. Commanche looked really promising last year, and Markannen and Smith ooze potential. Those four guys are going to hold their own at least throughout the season. There may be a bad matchup or two lurking out there for us, but on most every night we'll out-talent the bad guys. I'm sure we'll play small ball 20-30% of the time as well, so depth isn't as crucial as it normally would be. Barring injury.

Lauri wouldn't be able to handle smaller more athletic, agile, quick 4s (aka Derrick Williams types who are the norm in college) there's no way. Even Brandon Ashley, Anderson had trouble with them. Twin towers haven't haven't won in college in a while, Kentucky got beat by a small UConn team.

Anderson was terrible on defense, stats are like bikinis, they show you a lot but they cover up the most important parts.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Here ya go:

I don't think Lauri would be able to guard the Derrick Williams type 4s of the world, which are rampant in college. I think even Brandon Ashley types would give him trouble.

Regarding Ryan Anderson, I think we can both agree that he had his bad moments on defense. But that is literally all they were -- moments. Anderson's defensive rating was 94.1, which was second on the team behind only Tarc's 93.7. I don't think you get that kind of a statistical rating if you're regularly 'atrocious' on D. Chance Commanche was a 97, and everyone's excited about his defense, right?

Or we could just stick to the eye test?

I'll tell you one thing: if a redshirt freshman SF coming off two ACL tears can switch to PF at the University of Arizona and be more impactful for the team than PAC-12 First Team Ryan Anderson was last year, then our future is going to be very bright indeed.

I know everyone's worried about our frontcourt, but barring injury I think they're going to be very good. Ristic is a proven commodity: he has his problems defensively, but he has offensive skills to more then make up for that on most nights. Commanche looked really promising last year, and Markannen and Smith ooze potential. Those four guys are going to hold their own at least throughout the season. There may be a bad matchup or two lurking out there for us, but on most every night we'll out-talent the bad guys. I'm sure we'll play small ball 20-30% of the time as well, so depth isn't as crucial as it normally would be. Barring injury.

Lauri wouldn't be able to handle smaller more athletic, agile, quick 4s (aka Derrick Williams types who are the norm in college) there's no way. Even Brandon Ashley, Anderson had trouble with them. Twin towers haven't haven't won in college in a while, Kentucky got beat by a small UConn team.

Anderson was terrible on defense, stats are like bikinis, they show you a lot but they cover up the most important parts.

Derrick Williams is the norm in college?

Also, the notion that bigger lineups fail is a bit off. Duke won last year by starting Okafor and Jefferson in most of their games. UNC went to the NC this year with a traditional lineup.

[HiCat]

Put Rawle at the point.

Very interesting, Chi.

Dude has nice handles and brings the ball down-court as an intimidator and if he decides to continue to the rim, goes in a straight line more often than not. Result, brave wing defenders often try to close on him and perimeter is open all over the place. So Rawle pulls up and kicks to a Ferguson, Zo, Simmons, Allen? Or he continues to the rim and makes defenders a little sore the next day.

Feels good.

Doesn't it?

I'm huge on Rawle, but being able to dribble and look scary doesn't qualify. He's a supercharged Momo. No more hero ball from the point.

Rawle's ability to get to the bucket and create shots (like Trier) is huge. He's
the kind of guy that can get points especially at crunch time. Along with TF's 3's and AT's speed..good God!

[gumby]

We're all speaking in hypotheticals at this point

Its mid-April, what else are we supposed to do?

Plant a garden.

[gumby]

We need a starting lineup for every possible contingency. One that could shut down every conceivable player (past and present). There is a formula for every single national champion. Follow it.

It's a wonder these coaches make so much when it's so simple.

[NYCat]

Derrick Williams is the norm in college?

Also, the notion that bigger lineups fail is a bit off. Duke won last year by starting Okafor and Jefferson in most of their games. UNC went to the NC this year with a traditional lineup.

Yes, Derrick Williams isn't 6'10 plus and doesn't play like Tim Duncan prototypical 4. Most college 4s are smaller and play similar to Derrick Williams game (I'm not saying they're Dwill, but they play like he played at the 4).

Justise Winslow played a lot of minutes at the 4. Duke main guys were, Okafor, Winslow, Tyus Jones, Quinn Cook and Matt Jones or Amile Jefferson (6'9). Their other guy was Suliamon and then a big dropoff, Ojeleye next but was 6'8. Amile Jefferson is 6'9, again more inline with the fact that most college 4s stretch from 6'7 (smaller schools, undersized teams) to 6'9.

It's rare you have a 6'10+ guy out there at the 4 and win, you're just too big and slow and get killed by guards in tournament play.

[ChooChooCat]

Also, the notion that bigger lineups fail is a bit off. Duke won last year by starting Okafor and Jefferson in most of their games. UNC went to the NC this year with a traditional lineup.

First of all Jefferson didn't start last year for Duke, Winslow and Okafor started together. Jefferson typically filled in for Okafor as much as he actually played beside him as well. All depending on the matchup of course.

You're absolutely right about UNC, but that's definitely a rarity in college basketball. Plus look at the national championship game, Kennedy Meeks was absolutely useless and their best lineup was with Brice Johnson playing the 5. Same goes for when they played Notre Dame. Not really much of a surprise when you go up against teams that are athletic and are perimeter oriented.

[NYCat]

I guess what I'm thinking is, I don't care if Markkanen plays the 4 as main guy in the regular season, play him all you want there during the season. But during the tournament we'll be in trouble if he's the main guy there, guards win and they'll always win. We probably have a better shot with Smith playing off position and as a stretch 4.

Very few teams would be able to adjust, matchup or defend Arizona with Smith in the 4, that's the deadliest offensive/defensive/most talented/best players core that it can have out there. Make them adjust and play unorthodox.

Needless to say, I stopped caring about the regular season years ago, objectively speaking they're meaningless. I'll enjoy them during the moment but retrospectively they don't mean anything. What does a loss to UCLA in Jan really mean, or a win vs Stanford or Missouri. Personal opinions we fight feel the season is important and mean something, but they really don't -- not like the CFB season. The return in investment isn't always there.

[ChooChooCat]

I guess what I'm thinking is, I don't care if Markkanen plays the 4 as main guy in the regular season, play him all you want there during the season. But during the tournament we'll be in trouble if he's the main guy there, guards win and they'll always win. We probably have a better shot with Smith playing off position and as a stretch 4.

Very few teams would be able to adjust, matchup or defend Arizona with Smith in the 4, that's the deadliest offensive/defensive/most talented/best players core that it can have out there. Make them adjust and play unorthodox.

Needless to say, I stopped caring about the regular season years ago, objectively speaking they're meaningless. I'll enjoy them during the moment but retrospectively they don't mean anything. What does a loss to UCLA in Jan really mean, or a win vs Stanford or Missouri. Personal opinions we fight feel the season is important and mean something, but they really don't -- not like the CFB season. The return in investment isn't always there.

+1 to everything

[Chicat]

Put Rawle at the point.

Very interesting, Chi.

Dude has nice handles and brings the ball down-court as an intimidator and if he decides to continue to the rim, goes in a straight line more often than not. Result, brave wing defenders often try to close on him and perimeter is open all over the place. So Rawle pulls up and kicks to a Ferguson, Zo, Simmons, Allen? Or he continues to the rim and makes defenders a little sore the next day.

Feels good.

Doesn't it?

I'm huge on Rawle, but being able to dribble and look scary doesn't qualify. He's a supercharged Momo. No more hero ball from the point.

Rawle's ability to get to the bucket and create shots (like Trier) is huge. He's
the kind of guy that can get points especially at crunch time. Along with TF's 3's and AT's speed..good God!

HiCat gets it.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Also, the notion that bigger lineups fail is a bit off. Duke won last year by starting Okafor and Jefferson in most of their games. UNC went to the NC this year with a traditional lineup.

First of all Jefferson didn't start last year for Duke, Winslow and Okafor started together. Jefferson typically filled in for Okafor as much as he actually played beside him as well. All depending on the matchup of course.

You're absolutely right about UNC, but that's definitely a rarity in college basketball. Plus look at the national championship game, Kennedy Meeks was absolutely useless and their best lineup was with Brice Johnson playing the 5. Same goes for when they played Notre Dame. Not really much of a surprise when you go up against teams that are athletic and are perimeter oriented.

Jefferson started 26 games last year.

The rarity is a good thing. Yes, UNC lost in the final, but being a consensus top five team all year plus losing the natty in the final seconds isn't really much of a fail. 2 of the #1 seeds this year ran traditional 2 big lineups. Virginia had 2 bigs, but they were only 6'7, 6'8 although being inside oriented. Oregon was the only 1 seed to truly run a smaller, nontraditional lineup.

[rgdeuce]

Pretty sure I also read this: 'I'll take the 6'8 210lbs (Smith will likely be heavier next year) athletic 4 man over a Ryan Anderson type in college basketball 10000000 times out of 10000000, especially defensively.' Right. So, we're going to take a highschool SF who's never played a college game over a proven all PAC-12 player who was easily our team's most effective player a year ago? Ten million times out of ten million? Christ, the all PAC-12 team last year must've been a bunch of chumps. Hell, our roster must've been garbage as well.

Scratching my head...

Last year, absolutely not. For this upcoming team though? I don't think that is that ludicrous. Increased versatility/athleticism, we will see, but probably better defense and outside shooting. Doubt he is a guy who will get killed by 180 pound 4's and a donut shy of 280 pound 4's on the perimeter on a consistent basis. We absolutely needed a junkyard dog last year and that role made him very efficient and our best option for buckets most nights when we lacked weapons (especially considering the injuries). He put up big numbers, and I dont want to call them empty because they weren't, but his 17 and 11's didnt feel like 17 and 11's quite a few nights and sometimes, especially down the stretch, his limitations and poor low post moves kept him from being a "throw the ball to Ryan so he can get us a bucket guy." Don't get me wrong, plenty of offensive boards that bailed us out on misses and bad shots, and plenty of willing us to victory. He was easily the most valuable player on last years team. I guess the point im trying to make is, most valuable to one team may not be most valuable to another. We will see how Ray plays out this year, but if he plays like many think he is capable of... he could be a better player top to bottom.

Regarding Anderson's defensive numbers, clearly stats dont always paint an accurate picture. I mean honestly, you can watch the games last season and tell me that he is a 2.1 defensive win shares guy? The prior two seasons at BC, 0.5 and 0.8 more accurately reflect how I though he looked, and there were other factors influencing that. Heck, just look at PJC's defensive win shares = 2.1, vs Kadeem's 1.7. Obviously there are other things influencing that one as well.

[ChooChooCat]

Also, the notion that bigger lineups fail is a bit off. Duke won last year by starting Okafor and Jefferson in most of their games. UNC went to the NC this year with a traditional lineup.

First of all Jefferson didn't start last year for Duke, Winslow and Okafor started together. Jefferson typically filled in for Okafor as much as he actually played beside him as well. All depending on the matchup of course.

You're absolutely right about UNC, but that's definitely a rarity in college basketball. Plus look at the national championship game, Kennedy Meeks was absolutely useless and their best lineup was with Brice Johnson playing the 5. Same goes for when they played Notre Dame. Not really much of a surprise when you go up against teams that are athletic and are perimeter oriented.

Jefferson started 26 games last year.

The rarity is a good thing. Yes, UNC lost in the final, but being a consensus top five team all year plus losing the natty in the final seconds isn't really much of a fail. 2 of the #1 seeds this year ran traditional 2 big lineups. Virginia had 2 bigs, but they were only 6'7, 6'8 although being inside oriented. Oregon was the only 1 seed to truly run a smaller, nontraditional lineup.

No shit? Welp he didn't start any games in the NCAA tourney and I don't think it's a coincidence that Duke and its defense was better in the tourney.

I don't see the rarity as a negative or a positive. Each game and matchup is unique. Typically the quicker you are at each position the more likely your opponents have to adjust to your style, especially considering the college game has many many many more fast guards than they do skilled bigs.

I'm not sure why seeds matter here. The teams that made the final four mean more than the higher seeded teams. I mean Kansas was the #1 ranked team that had a true 4 and a slow plodding 5 man starting. They lost to a quicker team. That's not a coincidence IMO.

[threenumberones]

Very interesting, Chi.

Dude has nice handles and brings the ball down-court as an intimidator and if he decides to continue to the rim, goes in a straight line more often than not. Result, brave wing defenders often try to close on him and perimeter is open all over the place. So Rawle pulls up and kicks to a Ferguson, Zo, Simmons, Allen? Or he continues to the rim and makes defenders a little sore the next day.

Feels good.

Doesn't it?

I'm huge on Rawle, but being able to dribble and look scary doesn't qualify. He's a supercharged Momo. No more hero ball from the point.

Rawle's ability to get to the bucket and create shots (like Trier) is huge. He's
the kind of guy that can get points especially at crunch time. Along with TF's 3's and AT's speed..good God!

HiCat gets it.

He can score, let's stick him at point! Yea! I bet Alford would agree.

[Harvey Specter]

Here ya go:

I don't think Lauri would be able to guard the Derrick Williams type 4s of the world, which are rampant in college. I think even Brandon Ashley types would give him trouble.

Regarding Ryan Anderson, I think we can both agree that he had his bad moments on defense. But that is literally all they were -- moments. Anderson's defensive rating was 94.1, which was second on the team behind only Tarc's 93.7. I don't think you get that kind of a statistical rating if you're regularly 'atrocious' on D. Chance Commanche was a 97, and everyone's excited about his defense, right?

Or we could just stick to the eye test?

I'll tell you one thing: if a redshirt freshman SF coming off two ACL tears can switch to PF at the University of Arizona and be more impactful for the team than PAC-12 First Team Ryan Anderson was last year, then our future is going to be very bright indeed.

I know everyone's worried about our frontcourt, but barring injury I think they're going to be very good. Ristic is a proven commodity: he has his problems defensively, but he has offensive skills to more then make up for that on most nights. Commanche looked really promising last year, and Markannen and Smith ooze potential. Those four guys are going to hold their own at least throughout the season. There may be a bad matchup or two lurking out there for us, but on most every night we'll out-talent the bad guys. I'm sure we'll play small ball 20-30% of the time as well, so depth isn't as crucial as it normally would be. Barring injury.

Lauri wouldn't be able to handle smaller more athletic, agile, quick 4s (aka Derrick Williams types who are the norm in college) there's no way. Even Brandon Ashley, Anderson had trouble with them. Twin towers haven't haven't won in college in a while, Kentucky got beat by a small UConn team.

Anderson was terrible on defense, stats are like bikinis, they show you a lot but they cover up the most important parts.

Best. Quite. Ever.

[Puerco]

If you want to use arbitrary stats he had a defensive plus/minus of 2.8, good enough to put him behind the defensive powerhouse that is Mark Tollefsen.

DRTG is hardly arbitrary. He also had the highest defensive win shares on the team. Box plus minus is a truly arbitrary stat, and I think you probably know that considering Tollefsen ranked first and Hazzard second on overall BPM.

What other stats would make you happy? DReb% (2nd on the team to Tarc, by 0.2%)? Total defensive rebounds (1st by 60)? Steal % (best frontcourt player)? Block % (okay, not so good).

However you cut it, I'm not buying that Ryan Anderson was an atrocious team defender over the course of the season. You can disagree, but unless you come up with some way to substantiate your position I'll continue to believe that you're relying on the eye test in the selection of games you watched.

[Puerco]

Pretty sure I also read this: 'I'll take the 6'8 210lbs (Smith will likely be heavier next year) athletic 4 man over a Ryan Anderson type in college basketball 10000000 times out of 10000000, especially defensively.' Right. So, we're going to take a highschool SF who's never played a college game over a proven all PAC-12 player who was easily our team's most effective player a year ago? Ten million times out of ten million? Christ, the all PAC-12 team last year must've been a bunch of chumps. Hell, our roster must've been garbage as well.

Scratching my head...

Last year, absolutely not. For this upcoming team though? I don't think that is that ludicrous. Increased versatility/athleticism, we will see, but probably better defense and outside shooting. Doubt he is a guy who will get killed by 180 pound 4's and a donut shy of 280 pound 4's on the perimeter on a consistent basis. We absolutely needed a junkyard dog last year and that role made him very efficient and our best option for buckets most nights when we lacked weapons (especially considering the injuries). He put up big numbers, and I dont want to call them empty because they weren't, but his 17 and 11's didnt feel like 17 and 11's quite a few nights and sometimes, especially down the stretch, his limitations and poor low post moves kept him from being a "throw the ball to Ryan so he can get us a bucket guy." Don't get me wrong, plenty of offensive boards that bailed us out on misses and bad shots, and plenty of willing us to victory. He was easily the most valuable player on last years team. I guess the point im trying to make is, most valuable to one team may not be most valuable to another. We will see how Ray plays out this year, but if he plays like many think he is capable of... he could be a better player top to bottom.

Regarding Anderson's defensive numbers, clearly stats dont always paint an accurate picture. I mean honestly, you can watch the games last season and tell me that he is a 2.1 defensive win shares guy? The prior two seasons at BC, 0.5 and 0.8 more accurately reflect how I though he looked, and there were other factors influencing that. Heck, just look at PJC's defensive win shares = 2.1, vs Kadeem's 1.7. Obviously there are other things influencing that one as well.

I'm not arguing that Ray Smith will not become an excellent college PF. I'm arguing against Choochoo being so confident that he'd take a redshirt freshman who's never played PF and is coming off two ACL tears ten million times out of ten million over the guy who was undoubtedly our best player the previous year, and who was an all PAC-12 performer at that position. I'm arguing against Choochoo's take that Anderson was 'atrocious' on defense, because I cannot find a single statistic which backs that up. The stats, while perhaps inflated versus his real impact, paint a picture of a very good defensive player. I know he had weaknesses, and I know that he was liable to get beat in isolation against smaller, quicker guys on the perimeter, but having a flaw or two on defense can be overcome by grabbing an incredible percentage of boards, by taking up space, by being mostly reliable and very durable, and by playing with a lot of effort. The advanced stats reflect a player's impact on team defense over the course of the season. The eye test reflects what an individual remembers about the games he or she watched. I'll leave it to you which is more reliable.

Like I said, if Ray Smith can step into the PF spot and make near the level of contribution overall that Ryan Anderson did for us last year, then we are going to be a very dangerous team. I'm not saying he won't, but I think expecting that to happen in his first year back after two away from the game may be a little too much, and not really fair to Ray.

[Puerco]

Derrick Williams is the norm in college?

Also, the notion that bigger lineups fail is a bit off. Duke won last year by starting Okafor and Jefferson in most of their games. UNC went to the NC this year with a traditional lineup.

Yes, Derrick Williams isn't 6'10 plus and doesn't play like Tim Duncan prototypical 4. Most college 4s are smaller and play similar to Derrick Williams game (I'm not saying they're Dwill, but they play like he played at the 4).

Justise Winslow played a lot of minutes at the 4. Duke main guys were, Okafor, Winslow, Tyus Jones, Quinn Cook and Matt Jones or Amile Jefferson (6'9). Their other guy was Suliamon and then a big dropoff, Ojeleye next but was 6'8. Amile Jefferson is 6'9, again more inline with the fact that most college 4s stretch from 6'7 (smaller schools, undersized teams) to 6'9.

It's rare you have a 6'10+ guy out there at the 4 and win, you're just too big and slow and get killed by guards in tournament play.

You seem to be implying that Derrick Williams was under-sized at power forward in college. Derrick Williams played 4 and 5 in college. He was nothing if not a 'prototypical' college 4 at 6'8" and what, about 230 lbs? Likewise, Tim Duncan is not a 'prototypical' college 4. He was a prototypical college 5 at Wake Forest.

I think it's rare to have a 6'10" guy out there at the 4 because there simply aren't many skilled 6'10" guys around, so most of them play center in college. Does that mean I think Markkanen will be better than Smith at PF? Nope. Have no clue and won't till I see them each play. I wouldn't write Markkanen off, though. My gut feel is that Smith splits minutes at 3 and 4 while Markkanen splits 4 and 5.

We really should move this discussion to a different thread. Poor Rawle.

[ChooChooCat]

Pretty sure I also read this: 'I'll take the 6'8 210lbs (Smith will likely be heavier next year) athletic 4 man over a Ryan Anderson type in college basketball 10000000 times out of 10000000, especially defensively.' Right. So, we're going to take a highschool SF who's never played a college game over a proven all PAC-12 player who was easily our team's most effective player a year ago? Ten million times out of ten million? Christ, the all PAC-12 team last year must've been a bunch of chumps. Hell, our roster must've been garbage as well.

Scratching my head...

Last year, absolutely not. For this upcoming team though? I don't think that is that ludicrous. Increased versatility/athleticism, we will see, but probably better defense and outside shooting. Doubt he is a guy who will get killed by 180 pound 4's and a donut shy of 280 pound 4's on the perimeter on a consistent basis. We absolutely needed a junkyard dog last year and that role made him very efficient and our best option for buckets most nights when we lacked weapons (especially considering the injuries). He put up big numbers, and I dont want to call them empty because they weren't, but his 17 and 11's didnt feel like 17 and 11's quite a few nights and sometimes, especially down the stretch, his limitations and poor low post moves kept him from being a "throw the ball to Ryan so he can get us a bucket guy." Don't get me wrong, plenty of offensive boards that bailed us out on misses and bad shots, and plenty of willing us to victory. He was easily the most valuable player on last years team. I guess the point im trying to make is, most valuable to one team may not be most valuable to another. We will see how Ray plays out this year, but if he plays like many think he is capable of... he could be a better player top to bottom.

Regarding Anderson's defensive numbers, clearly stats dont always paint an accurate picture. I mean honestly, you can watch the games last season and tell me that he is a 2.1 defensive win shares guy? The prior two seasons at BC, 0.5 and 0.8 more accurately reflect how I though he looked, and there were other factors influencing that. Heck, just look at PJC's defensive win shares = 2.1, vs Kadeem's 1.7. Obviously there are other things influencing that one as well.

I'm not arguing that Ray Smith will not become an excellent college PF. I'm arguing against Choochoo being so confident that he'd take a redshirt freshman who's never played PF and is coming off two ACL tears ten million times out of ten million over the guy who was undoubtedly our best player the previous year, and who was an all PAC-12 performer at that position. I'm arguing against Choochoo's take that Anderson was 'atrocious' on defense, because I cannot find a single statistic which backs that up. The stats, while perhaps inflated versus his real impact, paint a picture of a very good defensive player. I know he had weaknesses, and I know that he was liable to get beat in isolation against smaller, quicker guys on the perimeter, but having a flaw or two on defense can be overcome by grabbing an incredible percentage of boards, by taking up space, by being mostly reliable and very durable, and by playing with a lot of effort. The advanced stats reflect a player's impact on team defense over the course of the season. The eye test reflects what an individual remembers about the games he or she watched. I'll leave it to you which is more reliable.

Like I said, if Ray Smith can step into the PF spot and make near the level of contribution overall that Ryan Anderson did for us last year, then we are going to be a very dangerous team. I'm not saying he won't, but I think expecting that to happen in his first year back after two away from the game may be a little too much, and not really fair to Ray.

As the other guy pointed out, PJC had a higher DRTG than Kadeem Allen. If that doesn't lend credence to that statistic I don't know what will Puerco. If we went exclusively by defensive rating and defensive win shares Ryan Anderson should've been on the conference all defensive team by a landslide and only fell short to Chris Boucher for DPOY. I just don't see a reality where he was a good defender when he was in the wrong place on defense often and had physical limitations. I mean do you really expect me to believe Anderson was a better defender than Kadeem Allen & Gary Payton this season Puerco? Just baffles my mind. His coach benched him due solely to defense at the end of a season man. If he was that much of a defensive genius I don't think that would have even been an option in Miller's head.

Ray Smith is more likely to succeed as a 4 than as a 3 after 2 years of not playing basketball. It's an easier position to defend in college that's for damn sure and it's also not as if he didn't play the position in high school either. I mean what do you guys think a 4 does that a 3 doesn't outside defend a bit more in the paint area here and there?

Look Ray Smith was our best NBA prospect on the team last per every NBA scout that came on campus. He's a very good player and ACL injuries aren't death certificates. Now if he had his meniscus taken out a la Jawann McClellan then we'd have something to worry about, but thankfully that was not the case. Ray is much better at things that Anderson wasn't all that good at and he won't have to put up the numbers Anderson did, because the rebounding will be more spread out than last season and so will the scoring. So will Ray have the impact that Anderson did last year? No. Will he be a better overall player? IMO yes.

Btw Puerco where do you live my man? Overseas? I enjoy waking up and seeing fresh posts in the morning and you're always the latest poster. Do you happen to live in a land Down Under?

[Chicat]

I'm huge on Rawle, but being able to dribble and look scary doesn't qualify. He's a supercharged Momo. No more hero ball from the point.

Rawle's ability to get to the bucket and create shots (like Trier) is huge. He's
the kind of guy that can get points especially at crunch time. Along with TF's 3's and AT's speed..good God!

HiCat gets it.

He can score, let's stick him at point! Yea! I bet Alford would agree.

[Puerco]

As the other guy pointed out, PJC had a higher DRTG than Kadeem Allen. If that doesn't lend credence to that statistic I don't know what will Puerco. If we went exclusively by defensive rating and defensive win shares Ryan Anderson should've been on the conference all defensive team by a landslide and only fell short to Chris Boucher for DPOY. I just don't see a reality where he was a good defender when he was in the wrong place on defense often and had physical limitations. I mean do you really expect me to believe Anderson was a better defender than Kadeem Allen & Gary Payton this season Puerco? Just baffles my mind. His coach benched him due solely to defense at the end of a season man. If he was that much of a defensive genius I don't think that would have even been an option in Miller's head.

Ray Smith is more likely to succeed as a 4 than as a 3 after 2 years of not playing basketball. It's an easier position to defend in college that's for damn sure and it's also not as if he didn't play the position in high school either. I mean what do you guys think a 4 does that a 3 doesn't outside defend a bit more in the paint area here and there?

Look Ray Smith was our best NBA prospect on the team last per every NBA scout that came on campus. He's a very good player and ACL injuries aren't death certificates. Now if he had his meniscus taken out a la Jawann McClellan then we'd have something to worry about, but thankfully that was not the case. Ray is much better at things that Anderson wasn't all that good at and he won't have to put up the numbers Anderson did, because the rebounding will be more spread out than last season and so will the scoring. So will Ray have the impact that Anderson did last year? No. Will he be a better overall player? IMO yes.

Btw Puerco where do you live my man? Overseas? I enjoy waking up and seeing fresh posts in the morning and you're always the latest poster. Do you happen to live in a land Down Under?

I'm in Switzerland, Choo. I get to wake up to all of last night's discussions, but I don't get to participate in them as they're happening. Used to drive Farva absolutely crazy -- he thought I was some weird dude staying up all night in a basement just to talk about UA sports. Ah, I miss that dude.

So in whose world did PJC have a better defensive rating than Kadeem Allen? PJC had a 101 and Allen had a 96. That means PJC gave up 5 more points for every hundred possessions, which is a mighty big difference statistically. Anderson vs. Kadeem Allen? Good question. Probably not as an individual in isolation, but in the context of team defense? Sure. The dude got every defensive board that came his way, which has a huge impact on reducing the other team's points per possession. My eye test didn't have Allen as a particularly good defender. Anderson better than Payton? I don't think you can compare DRtg for players on different teams. At the end of the day it's measuring team defense when a particular player was involved, and Arizona's overall defense was better than Oregon's. Payton had his team's best DRtg by a mile, so that's pretty telling.

I think you and I are disagreeing over semantics. Let's frame the discussion a different way. On a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 being the best and 5 being the average NCAA player, my take is that you'd give Anderson's defense a 1 or 2. That's what I'm arguing against. My eye test would give it about a 6-7, while the season long statistics would rate it about an 8. I think it was adequate, the statistics say it was really good, and you imply (to me at least) that it was terrible. In reality, I don't think that you think he's as bad as all that, and I simply can't find a single statistic to back up him being that bad. I mean, hell, anyone who's that strong of a rebounder brings an awful lot of value to a team's defense.

To place this all in some larger Arizona context think Gordon, Nick, RHJ and TJMC all being 10's on my scale. Ashley might've been a 5, which makes him a decent defender but certainly below average by that UA team's standards. I think Anderson was a slightly better defender than Ashley, but I wouldn't want either one of them isolated against, well, almost anyone off the dribble.

I hope you're right about Ray. I know he was highly rated before he hurt his knee. I know he was highly thought of in practice before his other knee. Hopefully he remains highly thought-of after he starts playing! I worry whether he'll ever play again though -- I mean ASUHater's basically already pronounced him dead.

[ChooChooCat]

As the other guy pointed out, PJC had a higher DRTG than Kadeem Allen. If that doesn't lend credence to that statistic I don't know what will Puerco. If we went exclusively by defensive rating and defensive win shares Ryan Anderson should've been on the conference all defensive team by a landslide and only fell short to Chris Boucher for DPOY. I just don't see a reality where he was a good defender when he was in the wrong place on defense often and had physical limitations. I mean do you really expect me to believe Anderson was a better defender than Kadeem Allen & Gary Payton this season Puerco? Just baffles my mind. His coach benched him due solely to defense at the end of a season man. If he was that much of a defensive genius I don't think that would have even been an option in Miller's head.

Ray Smith is more likely to succeed as a 4 than as a 3 after 2 years of not playing basketball. It's an easier position to defend in college that's for damn sure and it's also not as if he didn't play the position in high school either. I mean what do you guys think a 4 does that a 3 doesn't outside defend a bit more in the paint area here and there?

Look Ray Smith was our best NBA prospect on the team last per every NBA scout that came on campus. He's a very good player and ACL injuries aren't death certificates. Now if he had his meniscus taken out a la Jawann McClellan then we'd have something to worry about, but thankfully that was not the case. Ray is much better at things that Anderson wasn't all that good at and he won't have to put up the numbers Anderson did, because the rebounding will be more spread out than last season and so will the scoring. So will Ray have the impact that Anderson did last year? No. Will he be a better overall player? IMO yes.

Btw Puerco where do you live my man? Overseas? I enjoy waking up and seeing fresh posts in the morning and you're always the latest poster. Do you happen to live in a land Down Under?

I'm in Switzerland, Choo. I get to wake up to all of last night's discussions, but I don't get to participate in them as they're happening. Used to drive Farva absolutely crazy -- he thought I was some weird dude staying up all night in a basement just to talk about UA sports. Ah, I miss that dude.

So in whose world did PJC have a better defensive rating than Kadeem Allen? PJC had a 101 and Allen had a 96. That means PJC gave up 5 more points for every hundred possessions, which is a mighty big difference statistically. Anderson vs. Kadeem Allen? Good question. Probably not as an individual in isolation, but in the context of team defense? Sure. The dude got every defensive board that came his way, which has a huge impact on reducing the other team's points per possession. My eye test didn't have Allen as a particularly good defender. Anderson better than Payton? I don't think you can compare DRtg for players on different teams. At the end of the day it's measuring team defense when a particular player was involved, and Arizona's overall defense was better than Oregon's. Payton had his team's best DRtg by a mile, so that's pretty telling.

I think you and I are disagreeing over semantics. Let's frame the discussion a different way. On a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 being the best and 5 being the average NCAA player, my take is that you'd give Anderson's defense a 1 or 2. That's what I'm arguing against. My eye test would give it about a 6-7, while the season long statistics would rate it about an 8. I think it was adequate, the statistics say it was really good, and you imply (to me at least) that it was terrible. In reality, I don't think that you think he's as bad as all that, and I simply can't find a single statistic to back up him being that bad. I mean, hell, anyone who's that strong of a rebounder brings an awful lot of value to a team's defense.

To place this all in some larger Arizona context think Gordon, Nick, RHJ and TJMC all being 10's on my scale. Ashley might've been a 5, which makes him a decent defender but certainly below average by that UA team's standards. I think Anderson was a slightly better defender than Ashley, but I wouldn't want either one of them isolated against, well, almost anyone off the dribble.

I hope you're right about Ray. I know he was highly rated before he hurt his knee. I know he was highly thought of in practice before his other knee. Hopefully he remains highly thought-of after he starts playing! I worry whether he'll ever play again though -- I mean ASUHater's basically already pronounced him dead.

Ahhh Switzerland, beautiful. I was hoping you were an Aussie so I could rap with someone here about my favorite country in the world though.

It's definitely an argument over semantics as I just can't wrap my head around Anderson being as statistically good at defense as he is. Usually the stats correlate with the eyes at least to some degree a la Gordon, TJ, Rondae, etc., but I just never saw it on the court. That is unless of course his defensive rebounding correlates into those ratings, but obviously I'm not too familiar with how they come up with those stats. Either way I've made it pretty clear I prefer a big athlete at the 4 (yes 6'8 is big) rather than a junkyard dog type like Anderson primarily for defensive purposes and possible mismatch on the offensive end as well. The ceiling with defense will just always be much higher with an athlete obviously. I agree with you on Ashley and Anderson pretty much being on par, although Ashley's superior length theoretically should've given him a one up over Anderson, but that never really translated unfortunately.

You've got a point there. I think we wasted valuable bandwidth discussing Ray Smith's ability to play the 4 effectively when we should've been writing his obituary this entire time.

[waysouthcat]

As the other guy pointed out, PJC had a higher DRTG than Kadeem Allen. If that doesn't lend credence to that statistic I don't know what will Puerco. If we went exclusively by defensive rating and defensive win shares Ryan Anderson should've been on the conference all defensive team by a landslide and only fell short to Chris Boucher for DPOY. I just don't see a reality where he was a good defender when he was in the wrong place on defense often and had physical limitations. I mean do you really expect me to believe Anderson was a better defender than Kadeem Allen & Gary Payton this season Puerco? Just baffles my mind. His coach benched him due solely to defense at the end of a season man. If he was that much of a defensive genius I don't think that would have even been an option in Miller's head.

Ray Smith is more likely to succeed as a 4 than as a 3 after 2 years of not playing basketball. It's an easier position to defend in college that's for damn sure and it's also not as if he didn't play the position in high school either. I mean what do you guys think a 4 does that a 3 doesn't outside defend a bit more in the paint area here and there?

Look Ray Smith was our best NBA prospect on the team last per every NBA scout that came on campus. He's a very good player and ACL injuries aren't death certificates. Now if he had his meniscus taken out a la Jawann McClellan then we'd have something to worry about, but thankfully that was not the case. Ray is much better at things that Anderson wasn't all that good at and he won't have to put up the numbers Anderson did, because the rebounding will be more spread out than last season and so will the scoring. So will Ray have the impact that Anderson did last year? No. Will he be a better overall player? IMO yes.

Btw Puerco where do you live my man? Overseas? I enjoy waking up and seeing fresh posts in the morning and you're always the latest poster. Do you happen to live in a land Down Under?

I'm in Switzerland, Choo. I get to wake up to all of last night's discussions, but I don't get to participate in them as they're happening. Used to drive Farva absolutely crazy -- he thought I was some weird dude staying up all night in a basement just to talk about UA sports. Ah, I miss that dude.

So in whose world did PJC have a better defensive rating than Kadeem Allen? PJC had a 101 and Allen had a 96. That means PJC gave up 5 more points for every hundred possessions, which is a mighty big difference statistically. Anderson vs. Kadeem Allen? Good question. Probably not as an individual in isolation, but in the context of team defense? Sure. The dude got every defensive board that came his way, which has a huge impact on reducing the other team's points per possession. My eye test didn't have Allen as a particularly good defender. Anderson better than Payton? I don't think you can compare DRtg for players on different teams. At the end of the day it's measuring team defense when a particular player was involved, and Arizona's overall defense was better than Oregon's. Payton had his team's best DRtg by a mile, so that's pretty telling.

I think you and I are disagreeing over semantics. Let's frame the discussion a different way. On a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 being the best and 5 being the average NCAA player, my take is that you'd give Anderson's defense a 1 or 2. That's what I'm arguing against. My eye test would give it about a 6-7, while the season long statistics would rate it about an 8. I think it was adequate, the statistics say it was really good, and you imply (to me at least) that it was terrible. In reality, I don't think that you think he's as bad as all that, and I simply can't find a single statistic to back up him being that bad. I mean, hell, anyone who's that strong of a rebounder brings an awful lot of value to a team's defense.

To place this all in some larger Arizona context think Gordon, Nick, RHJ and TJMC all being 10's on my scale. Ashley might've been a 5, which makes him a decent defender but certainly below average by that UA team's standards. I think Anderson was a slightly better defender than Ashley, but I wouldn't want either one of them isolated against, well, almost anyone off the dribble.

I hope you're right about Ray. I know he was highly rated before he hurt his knee. I know he was highly thought of in practice before his other knee. Hopefully he remains highly thought-of after he starts playing! I worry whether he'll ever play again though -- I mean ASUHater's basically already pronounced him dead.

Ahhh Switzerland, beautiful. I was hoping you were an Aussie so I could rap with someone here about my favorite country in the world though.

It's definitely an argument over semantics as I just can't wrap my head around Anderson being as statistically good at defense as he is. Usually the stats correlate with the eyes at least to some degree a la Gordon, TJ, Rondae, etc., but I just never saw it on the court. That is unless of course his defensive rebounding correlates into those ratings, but obviously I'm not too familiar with how they come up with those stats. Either way I've made it pretty clear I prefer a big athlete at the 4 (yes 6'8 is big) rather than a junkyard dog type like Anderson primarily for defensive purposes and possible mismatch on the offensive end as well. The ceiling with defense will just always be much higher with an athlete obviously. I agree with you on Ashley and Anderson pretty much being on par, although Ashley's superior length theoretically should've given him a one up over Anderson, but that never really translated unfortunately.

You've got a point there. I think we wasted valuable bandwidth discussing Ray Smith's ability to play the 4 effectively when we should've been writing his obituary this entire time.

Richard Cranium and I both live/lived in Australia (I am in Saudi Arabia at the moment) if you have any questions.

[gumby]

Switzerland, but not neutral. Are they aware of this?

[Puerco]

Switzerland, but not neutral. Are they aware of this?

Unfortunately, yes.

[dcZONAfan]

I've joined the ranks of the overseas fans. Hello from Barcelona. If any of you have a chance and haven't already, you should really come here. It's fucking amazing.

[Bangkok Wildcat]

I've joined the ranks of the overseas fans. Hello from Barcelona. If any of you have a chance and haven't already, you should really come here. It's fucking amazing.

Hello from Bangkok and the frickin' heat of our hottest time of year!!! Funny, was just thinking about you yesterday and how cool it must be to live there. Would love to check it out someday....have met a few Spaniards over here and they seem pretty cool.

Enjoy being an exPat! BTFD.

[waysouthcat]

I've joined the ranks of the overseas fans. Hello from Barcelona. If any of you have a chance and haven't already, you should really come here. It's fucking amazing.

Send us some hot tips, I will be there, Seville, Granada and Malaga with my family for holiday in late May.

[Puerco]

Barcelona's the best.

[waysouthcat]

We need to start a general Travel thread in the General section, perhaps incorporating the existing airports thread?

[dcZONAfan]

I've joined the ranks of the overseas fans. Hello from Barcelona. If any of you have a chance and haven't already, you should really come here. It's fucking amazing.

Send us some hot tips, I will be there, Seville, Granada and Malaga with my family for holiday in late May.

I've been here for two weeks, but have a lot of great ideas for you depending on how long you will be here for.

Must see sites:
Park Güell (the sites are stunning)
Sagrada familia (i haven't been inside yet but I've heard that it's amazing and you should try to get tickets online ahead of time i think)
Plaça Catalunya and Las Ramblas for shopping (i still haven't been to Las Ramblas yet though) Walking up Passeig de Gràcia is fun, there are high ends shops and amazing architecture all the way up the street (including some Gaudí buildings)
The neighborhood of Gràcia has so many cute and tiny side streets with lots of stores, highly recommend walking around there.
I haven't taken the train up to Tibidabo but that's not far and is apparently really cool.
We went to Sant Cugat Friday and it's a really cute little town in a valley outside of Barcelona with a very old monastery.

Oh and i have about 20 amazing restaurants to recommend already, since all we have done is eat like kings since our arrival. So once you give me an amount of time you plan on being here I'll chime in with that.

[dcZONAfan]

Barcelona's the best.

Where are you on Switzerland? I'll definitely go there at some point in the next two years, but not sure if I'll do Swiss alps or something else

[HiCat]

I've joined the ranks of the overseas fans. Hello from Barcelona. If any of you have a chance and haven't already, you should really come here. It's fucking amazing.

Very cool dc, sounds like you're enjoying it.

[Puerco]

I'll start another thread. Poor Rawle deserves this one!

Go here: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=3619

[Chicat]

There's actually a travel subforum: http://www.beardownwildcats.com/viewforum.php?f=33" target="_blank

[gumby]

There's actually a travel subforum: http://www.beardownwildcats.com/viewforum.php?f=33" target="_blank

Didn't know this. Or forgot it. Must travel there some day.

[rgdeuce]

The advanced stats reflect a player's impact on team defense over the course of the season. The eye test reflects what an individual remembers about the games he or she watched. I'll leave it to you which is more reliable.

For certain things, you are right. I'm not going to argue about Anderson's interior defense when he was in good position. I would say he was solid there, not flashy, but got the job done more times than not and used his strength as an asset. Not good, not great, but somewhere between above average to good, and when the effort was there, I would say I would the lean would be much closer to good than above average. Obviously his finishing a play on defense by securing a rebound speaks for itself, eye test or numbers. These are all eye test but not going off of mere recollection like you would for small things within individual games, this is a whole season of material and really, this stuff can be picked up with a decent sample size of games, which I think a lot of us did throughout the season itself. With that said, the negatives, pretty much all of which are intertwined:

-Inconsistent effort: we saw several benchings and there would have been plenty of more if he wasn't the savior of the team in several aspects and there was actually someone adequate to replace him with. Anderson was an offensive- and rebounding-minded player who picked and chose when he wanted to defend. Took a lot of plays off per game. This goes hand-in-hand with pretty much everything that follows.
- Frequency of bad hedges, poor and lazy hedge recovery, bad decisions around screens and poor recovery off screens in general.
- Below average position integrity on the floor. In terms of denying/being in the right position on the interior against bigs, there were some flaws, but no complaints from me and his strength helped him a lot.
-Perimeter defense: was below average. Small school, mid-major and power conference 4's gave him fits on the perimeter. He couldn't keep guys in front of him, slow, fast, fat, skinny. Anyone that could put the ball on the floor from outside 15 feet gave him fits. Largely caused by,
- Both Lazy and Late closeouts (effort, lack of focus and awareness, poor positioning (in general, noted above, and, )
- Hyperfocus on rebounding. While you love the kids effort and its nice to have someone so hungry to finish the play, this also was a fault a lot of the time. Hanging around the basket to be there to grab the board, or thinking a shot was coming and leaving his man or the proper position so he could be there for a rebound but the shot didn't come. The amount of time this happened when there were already two Arizona jerseys in position was astounding. Im not sure I've ever seen a player fight with 1, 2 teammates for a rebound more than he did last year. That stuff happens, but when it is that frequently..

[Spaceman Spiff]

One of the reasons RA's drtg numbers are higher than an eye test would lead you to believe is that defensive rebounds are weighted in. RA always excelled there, at a much higher rate than his overall defensive proficiency.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/about/ratings.html" target="_blank

That's the formula, and counting defensive rebounds as ending opponent possessions really helps RA.

[Puerco]

Good stuff, guys. Agree with all you wrote, deuce, and thanks for that formula, spiff. Was wondering about the exact details.

[UAEebs86]

[HiCat]

Very cool!

[gumby]

Very cool!

Positionless basketball? No! Takes away all preseason fun! We MUST have a 4 and a 5 and so on. I can't process ring ball this way!

[Jefe]

That picture isn't even from the game...

He put up 23 & 11 and ran the point most of the time he was in. Really sloppy game though. He had a couple Harden moments on defense

Theres about 40 videos on youtube but these 2 are some of the only ones showing Rawle scoring

[Jefe]

@kingrawle
No Words Needed! Just me & the fam @omostanimal