This man has never been this wide open, and he was an elite shooter last year in Washington.

He’s taken 38 shots and is 60% from 2 and 62% from 3.

Everyone is talking about the Giannis/Dame PnR, but I believe the Tatum/Porzingis PnR is going to be as deadly because of their size and shooting combination.

  • BatmanNoPrep@alien.topB
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    11 months ago

    He does not provide any rim protection. Anyone who watched him in DC and Dallas knows that he’s near useless as a rim protector. His value is entirely on the offensive side of the ball.

      • crunkadocious@alien.topB
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        11 months ago

        I agree with you, lmao. I will say that it’s possible to hunt blocks to the detriment of the overall defense. You rush for a block, and the ball handler just dumps it to the guy you were supposed to guard? Uh oh!

    • Exodus100@alien.topB
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      11 months ago

      Wtf you clearly didn’t watch him in Dallas. I remember seeing plenty of stats detailing number of drives he deterred while he was here. His rim protection is fine

      • JoJonesy@alien.topB
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        11 months ago

        He’s definitely been inconsistent at times defensively, but that’s pretty clearly due to injury. I feel like we have a pretty good picture of who he is on that end— an excellent rim protector with some vulnerabilities due to his size and frame, who mostly plays drop but isn’t completely helpless in other coverages. We’re well-equipped to compensate for his weaknesses, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he looks even better here than he did in Washington defensively (health willing, of course)

    • AgadorFartacus@alien.topB
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      11 months ago

      Points Allowed Per Pick-and-Roll defended last season according to Second Spectrum:

      1. Anthony Davis (0.91)
      2. Steven Adams (0.92)
      3. Giannis Antetokounmpo (0.92)
      4. Kristaps Porzingis (0.93)
      5. Walker Kessler (0.93)
      • manbare@alien.topB
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        11 months ago

        Would you be able to see the numbers here for KP with Gafford on the floor vs. him off the floor?

    • Dreamlifehunting@alien.topB
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      11 months ago

      10th in Blocks per game last year. So that’s more than the top shot blocker on 2/3rds of the teams in the league.

    • Cark_Muban@alien.topB
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      11 months ago

      He provides rim protection, he is just injury prone. His entire tenure in Dallas was him recovering from some injury, and he looked a bit slower as a result. The one healthy year he had, the bubble, he was pretty good

      • paicer96@alien.topB
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        11 months ago

        Maybe on the perimeter or by beefy centers in the paint, but we have some of the best perimeter defenders in the league and Al Horford, who is still one of the best big man defenders in the league, to make up for that. He’ll slot right into the Robert Williams III roaming center role and add his length to contests at the rim, while Al comes in to match against Embiid/Giannis/Jokic, and Jrue, D-White and the Jays lock up the perimeter.

        He’s definitely no AD on defense but he’s no slouch, especially if you have the pieces to surround him like the C’s do.

        • makeanamejoke@alien.topB
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          11 months ago

          Al Horford is old and won’t be a threat in the playoffs and most of the regular season. Putting two centers on the floor will make them really slow.

          Watching him in the Robert Williams role would be hilarious. I would love to watch that. I think he’ll get lost out there.

          • paicer96@alien.topB
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            11 months ago

            All Al needs to do at this point is guard the players I named as best he can if we match up and hit open 3s. If he’s missing, it’s not the end of the world, because everyone else the C’s play can hit them. He doesn’t need to be a “threat.” But I do think his performance in last season’s playoffs was more of an aberration and less of an age-based regression, since he hit them at the highest clip of his career in the regular season before it. So I wouldn’t be surprised if a role off the bench would help him carry that performance over into the postseason.

            As for KP in the RW3 role, our defense was at its best when we were running double bigs, even when Timelord was limping around. I’m sure KP can step in and provide at least some of what Timelord did, even if it’s just being a big body under the rim when a defender gets blown by. Not that hard to picture.