Snake & Bake Players...

[wolfen]

Snake & Bake Players

"Anthony Edwards is an awesome snake & bake guy".

I think we need to add "snake & bake" to our player terminology, because this type of player is hugely important and also asking a player to be a S & B guy when he isn't is a huge mistake.

Snake - This player can use his handles to get by guys, and often-times uses hesitations to create space once he does.

Bake - This player can "bake" at the rim, is able to score in the paint with floaters or at the rim with power or finesse or both.

The best S & B players in the league can find open teammates when snaking and baking. Starting PG's ABSOLUTELY need to have the ability to both snake, and bake. Do not, under any circumstances, start a PG who can't do both.

Current S & B Wolves: Ant, McLaughlin, Beasley
Wolves with potential S & B: McDaniels, Nowell

DLo is a unique cat in that he is the ultimate snaker. He can use his handles and slither to the mid-range and score, but this effectiveness is REALLY cut down when defenses clamp down and play hard (end of quarters, 4th quarter, crunch-time, etc.). He's not a baker, period, he doesn't have the physical skills or attributes to put pressure on defenses by being able to score at the rim or even in the lane.

Culver is the conundrum. I saw a really good S & B player when he was at Texas Tech. In fact, when I watched him as a freshmen I saw potential of him to be a PG. I guess that was a mirage, as his handles just aren't that good be be either a good snaker or baker, and that's what we thought we were getting.

Okogie - Who knew the guy couldn't dribble the basketball coming out of college!?!

Rubio - He's a snaker but only uses that to pass the ball to a teammate. He offers no offense after snaking into the lane, and of course he couldn't bake a cake.

If you're not a snake and baker you need to understand and realize that and play to your strengths, if you have any. The problem is, none of Okogie, Rubio, or Culver have much to offer in other areas offensively and even though they are good to very good defenders, that isn't enough, in my opinion, for them to be on the floor, period, especially on a good team.
This is why I have been pounding the drum for McLaughlin to either start. Or if not starting, play ahead of Rubio, AND, he should be out there OVER DLo in crunch time in hard defending scenarios. DLo has NEVER shown to be an effective offensive player when defenses are clamping down, it's just not his style, and, it bogs down the offense to be honest.

There's a chance that DLo sits tonight. I WISH Rubio was out tonight as well so Nowell could back up McLauglin so we could see how his snake and baking would play out, and also prevent us from seeing Rubio out there.

S & B's are hard to identify in the draft (see culver). Darius Garland is a S&B guy, we've seen that, and he was our target ahead of Culver. That being said, Garland is a bad, bad defender IMO and would be best suited to be a high level offensive backup.

S & B Draftees in this upcoming draft...

I haven't seen enough college hoops this year to list many, I'll be honest. And if we do somehow manage to nab a draft pick in a deal it would probably be a late first or early 2nd from a trade, so I've been focusing on S & B guys in that range. One player I have seen and like is Davion Mitchell. I really, REALLY like him because of his S & B, but he's also one of the best defenders in the country. Looking at mock drafts, other players who might fit the bill in the late first or early 2nd are: Cam Thomas (LSU), Josh Christopher (ASU), David Johnson (LOU), Terrence Clark (KEN), Tre Mann (FLA), Joel Ayayi (Gonz). Again, I haven't seen enough of any of those players to offer an opinion, but they fit the type.

Thoughts on Snake & Bake??

[Jedzz]

Shake and Bake?


I think JMac was really the only one that displays it a lot here before Edwards started showing the ability last few games. But Russell certainly has too, just not all that often this season in this offense. JMac uses it quite a bit to get inside untouched. So quick that sometimes you might miss it.

Russell, described as shake and bake in this video by broadcaster in one play.

Spoiler:

Watch on YouTube

[thinktank]

Haven't seen Russell use the floater very effectively. Just sayin.

Or Edwards.