re: Jalen Cook is a good player, but

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Cook is a very good player for us.

He is a very good ball handlers with excellent speed. That is helping us a ton in breaking past presses.

He is a good 3 point shooter and scorer who can create his own shot. Obviously needed on this team.

He is not a great passer or a true point guard who can penetrate and dish.

He works hard on defense and helps on the boards, but he has been matched up against some obviously talented guards in the SEC. If Collins can get healthy and provide some rim protection some of those concerns go away.

So many people have used the term "hero ball" as if that is a bad thing with Cook. Personally we could use some more of that at times. His worse mistakes have been when he has tried too many difficult passes.

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To say the team is better without Cook is untrue.

But there is a strong argument to be made that he has been a negative player for this team overall through SEC play. He's a volume scorer, but largely inefficient in doing so. You say he is a "good 3 point shooter". However, he's shooting 28%. That's not "good" anywhere, any time. His defensive effort is, at best, inconsistent. At worst, flat out bad. That's why you've seen McMahon have to replace him with Williams and Hannibal at times. Worst of all, are the turnovers. He's LSU's PG. He supposed to be the guy facilitating the offense. Yet, he's averaging nearly 4 turnovers for every 1 assist. That is a really big reason why LSU's offense remains very inefficient.

Fair or not, a LOT has been put on his shoulders. McMahon is essentially asking him to create the offense (much like Wade did with Waters). And, honestly, there is no one else LSU can comfortably turn to in that spot. Hannibal and Williams are too inconsistent. But Cook has to play better. Yes, the PPG is there. But everything else isn't...and it has been a bit surprising, and disappointing.