Civil Bear said:
bluesaxe said:
Bigs who can shoot threes are a valuable commodity if they aren't total liabilities elsewhere (see e.g. Ryan Anderson) but you don't have to shoot threes to space the floor. If Rabb continues to shoot 48% on shots from 10-16 feet he'll force his defender out of the paint enough for some systems. He's also a pretty good passer and a smart player. The Grizzlies have never had a very creative offensive system and have tended to play slow, so there are other teams where he might fit better. Strength and lateral quickness will be the big issues for him.
This may be sacrilegious, but I never really saw much of this while he was at Cal to rate him better than average in these areas. For instance, comparing in head-to-head matchups against Kuzma at Utah were telling, and I don't recall him making the players around him particularly better.
If you'll let me join the ranks of the sacrilegious, I'd like to second this and agree with you. I had great hopes for Rabb, when I saw him pass the ball in his first few games at Cal. As time went on, he seldom passed to an open man, even when double-teamed. Much of this may have been due to Counzo's offense, where players were encouraged not to look for open men, but to make a play themselves, either taking it to the rim or shooting a three. Players seldom worked to get open in Cuonzo's offense, or so it seemed. And maybe in defense of Rabb, the players who should have been open when Rabb was double-teamed, Okoroh or Rooks, both were very slow and had butterfingers when it came to catching passes. But if Rabb was smart and a good passer, then he should have been able to find an open player and passed him the ball. And we seldom saw it.
I think Rabb would have been better playing with a legitimate point guard, in a relatively unselfish offense with a good coach. I suspect what might have made him a better player at Bishop O'Dowd was that Paris Austin fed him the ball when he got open, and he did not have that at Cal.
As to his matchup with Kuzma, one of Rabb's big deficiencies was his inability to close out on his man when the man went out to shoot a three. Whether it was slow reflexes or slow feet, I don't know. And as to bluesaxe's comment about the Grizzlies slow style of play not being good for Rabb, I can't remember seeing Rabb quickly get out on a fast break at Cal. Maybe that was due to knowing he wouldn't get the ball even if he tried to get up the floor. We just weren't a passing team in those days. But it seems more likely he just wasn't very fast.
