He is still adapting and it's fun to watch this team because the more experience they get playing together the better we will be

I really enjoyed the great plays today. In particularly liked the period near the end when Baylor got multiple steals in a row. I think RayJ was responsible for at least 2 of them.

Edit: I checked the play by play: we had 3 in a row, one right after another, the first 2 by RayJ. A fourth was a glee plays before these three. I hope we can see some of that against Pitt, MSU & Duke!

With all due respect to Flagler and Butler and every great point guard we've had the past few seasons, we needed a playmaking point guard and RayJ Dennis really fits that mold.

Crawfoso1973 said:

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RayJ looks nice but let's tap the brakes before putting his playmaking ahead of Butler.

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Butler was essentially an undersized two guard. He was always kind of a fish out of water at the point. If he was a true point guard, he'd be more than an end of the bench guy in the NBA right now.

Jared was awesome, don't get me wrong. But we won a title because we had Mitchell to push Butler into his more natural tweener role.

Butler is / was a combo guard. He and Davion were interchangeable playing PG or off the ball. That's why our offense was so effective during our championship run, because defenses couldn't key in on one guy. I am not saying RayJ and Nunn are as good as Davion / Butler, but they give us a similar dynamic.

On the subject of RayJ, has there been any talk here or elsewhere since he signed about why his left calf is so much larger than his right?

After googling it, apparently he was born with a clubfoot, which makes what he's doing all the more impressive.

Crawfoso1973 said:

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Butler is / was a combo guard. He and Davion were interchangeable playing PG or off the ball. That's why our offense was so effective during our championship run, because defenses couldn't key in on one guy. I am not saying RayJ and Nunn are as good as Davion / Butler, but they give us a similar dynamic.

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Davion was a point guard. Butler was an off guard masquerading as one. That doesn't make either better or worse than the other, as both were excellent at what they did. But Butler wasn't a natural point guard.

And I agree on Nunn and Dennis. Both bring similar things to what those two excellent guards on our title team did. And I would say this year that Dennis is the more natural creator than Nunn is, so the roles are reversed from that previous iteration.

Crawfoso1973 said:

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RayJ looks nice but let's tap the brakes before putting his playmaking ahead of Butler.

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Butler's handle was so good, probably the best in ncaa that year. Ray J's handle isn't that level.

But Ray J's initial passing ability and vision for those skip passes is really really good. He is a little loose with the ball early but if that gets cleaned up he has pro level passing vision. Some of those skip passes and one handed whip passes he makes are very difficult but he's made them look easy. His length (I think 6' 8'' or 6' 7'' reach) help a ton with that passing. Butler's passing improved a lot over time. He was just limited with his size/length.

Both were mediocre level athletes with Butler being a tad more explosive. Butler was also a much better long range shooter. As of now Butler was the better player but they have different roles and I think Ray J can thrive here.

Great analysis I would only add that Butler was more efficient in the turnover department. Tiny sample size but RayJ has been a turnover machine while Butler averaged under 3 turnovers his time at Baylor which was elite considering how much he had the ball in his hands. Big area of improvement for RayJ.

I really like RayJ. Short sample so far but it looks to me by conference time he is likely gonna need to play more minutes than most of our other guys simply because there's a large dropoff from him to next man up than for other spots on the floor. This could change, however, as the season is just starting.

I agree he's been really loose with the ball early. He's been working through nagging injuries from what I understand while adjusting to more consistent high D1 comp. I know we don't have time but I would have him and Nunn go hard in 1 v 1 drills as Nunn is the one guy on our team that can really press and disrupt guys.

Still hopeful it gets cleaned up and I think it will.

Crawfoso1973 said:

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Great analysis I would only add that Butler was more efficient in the turnover department. Tiny sample size but RayJ has been a turnover machine while Butler averaged under 3 turnovers his time at Baylor which was elite considering how much he had the ball in his hands. Big area of improvement for RayJ.

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The good thing is turnovers haven't been an issue for him in the past. I understand it was at a lower level in the Mountain West and MAC, but 1.7 turnovers per game while playing point guard for most of a four-year career is really good.

That turnover rate should certainly earn him a wait-and-see period at Baylor. I think we'll likely see him clean up that aspect of his game pretty dramatically.

But I'm really excited about his ability to get to and finish in the paint and create for others. I think he's going to be a special player -- like a Jared Butler -- by the time this season is over.

Didn't RayJ have zero turnovers in the second half of the Auburn game? If so whatever halftime adjustments he made certainly worked. Even though he had a few in the first half yesterday, I don't think it will be something we gave to worry about much. He should feel more confident and better able to overcome those threats by conference play, hopefully much sooner.

How about him posting people up. That is fun to see and could create some mismatches since he is 6'2

gobears20 said:

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How about him posting people up. That is fun to see and could create some mismatches since he is 6'2

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That's my favorite part of his game. Butler used to do the same thing.

I love the one-handed (seemingly the left every time), palmed iso driving move to the basket for a score, where he holds the left hand and ball far enough behind him that impossible to block the shot by the defender he has in iso. He's done it a couple of times for us, which made me go back and watch some of his prior highlights from last year and it seems he did that frequently and successfully.