Comments on: Season Review: Raymar Morgan Edition

By: Spartans Weblog » Raymar shooting the rock

Spartans Weblog » Raymar shooting the rock — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 20:57:12 +0000

[...] and look at Morgan’s field goal shooting performance from last season. We’ve already looked at his standard shooting stats, concluding that this overall stats were very good but didn’t reflect weaker performances [...]

By: arvid

arvid — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 03:18:37 +0000

I like Raymar at the three–if he cures the other issues, he’s an unstoppable matchup there and, although it gets overlooked, really defended pretty well at that spot. I think big fours can post him up. Plus, that keeps two other bigs on the floor for rebounding.

Nice thing is–next year at times Raymar and Roe will be somewhat interchangeble and we will have flexibility to go big or small.

Who would ever accuse AA of not being tough?? Find that dude and beat him with a large stick.

By: spartanproducer

spartanproducer — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 01:27:17 +0000

while KJ’s logic is sound (over playing Raymar at the 3) I think I prefer him at the 4 for two reasons.

1. less likely to get turnovers (especially in transition, where Raymar likes to catch the ball 20 feet from the rim and tries to score without dribbling)

2. I really liked having AA at the four in ‘05, six-six guy who got matchup advantages.

Of course I realize that one flaw with this is that we probably have more other guys who can play the four, than we do guys who can play the 3. And if Morgan is “good Raymar” then he’d be fine at the 3, but because of his inconsistency, the four might make his shortcoming less obvious (plus he can always rebound and get lots of put backs).

Of course AA was once accused of being mentally not tough, and things worked out pretty well for him . . .

By: DMP

DMP — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:41:00 +0000

kj, you have it right: Morgan is too good to give up when his shots aren’t falling. His fresheman year showed that on pure hustle, his physical gifts allow 10-12 points and 7 rebounds a game.

I think we all have to hold some prediction about next year until anyone sees Roe play. Even if he is 100%, which is doubtful with the timeframe after microfacture surgery (it seems), he won’t have played competitive basketball in many months.

I’d be ok with smaller, 3-guard line-ups if the three guards weren’t all below 6 feet. I think the concept is ok, MSU just had a bad combination for it this year in practice.

By: umhoops

umhoops — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 06:45:36 +0000

If you have Roe and Morgan at the 3 and 4 then at least one of them will probably be a mismatch. Too big for the 3 or too fast for the 4. That will be a nasty front court, especially when you add in Suton who did pretty damn well down the stretch while receiving little credit. That’s how this UM fan sees it at least.

By: kj

kj — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 20:14:57 +0000

I’d say we’re a little better off when Morgan is playing the 3. At this point, at least, I think he’s better at using his size to beat a smaller player than at using his quickness to beat a bigger player. But he does need to reduce the turnovers he tends to commit when trying to beat perimeter players off the dribble.

If Roe is really 100% for next season, a frontline of Morgan, Roe, and Suton would be pretty tough for most teams to match-up against.

Note: I’m somewhat biased against the smaller lineups at this point since I thought we played too many multiple-point-guard lineups this season. I’d rather see more traditional lineups (Lucas/Allen/Morgan/Roe/Suton) next year.

By: hubert

hubert — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 17:55:33 +0000

Right on. The numbers pretty much tell the story we all suspected.

where do you stand on the debate about whether MSU and Raymar are better off when he plays the 4 rather than the 3?

If he wants to play at the next level, it will clearly be as a 3; In college, however, he probably causes more of a mismatch at the 4 because of his quickness, and his ball handling and decision-making/passing skills are not great — that is the main cause of his turnovers.

How much he improves in the off season, both mentally and skill wise stands be one of the key factors in determining how good the team is next year. Unlike the last two years, however, the team will not need him quite as much, given the number of wing players. I am extremely curious to see how much competition for playing time Raymar gets and how he responds to it.