He will always be a bad defender player, because with his size and lack of wingspan and strenght it’s impossible not to be especially in the current era.
But in the last 2 seasons I’ll say he has gone from absolute worst defender in the world to at least showing effort when I saw him, not sure if it’s consistent, but still
2009 was his athletic peak IMO, he would wrecked the league in transition and would have like a 65%TS with today’s spacing (aka not playing with either Andy Varejao or a washed Big Ben at the 4) + even tho he hadn’t peak defensively his athleticism would make him such a dangerous switching defender/backside roamer
I would just like consistency that’s it, I hate that some players are rewarded for falling down while other are basically penalized just because they are considered strong
Not to put all of the Rockets terrible culture in the last few years on Silas (who was hired expecting to coach Harden and Westbrook), but reminder that he wanted to start Bruno Fernando over Sengun because Kevin Porter Jr. needed a lob threat.
Not saying it was obvious that Sengun was gonna be a star, but it was obvious he was gonna be more then Bruno Fernando and Kevin Porter Jr.
Lavine has the contract of a superstar and is barely an all star
Derozan is a wing who can neither shoot nor defend his position
Vucevic is a center who has 0 defensive versatility
Caruso is an AWESOME role player but can’t really play starter’s mins
The first one is a good shot, the last one is okay because of the timing, all the other ones are awful shots, like honestly even Steph taking those same shots would be considered bad process
I love the Hornets even more now that Collins is doing everything he can to ignore Bridges.
Love the Pelicans too, Antonio Daniels is great.
Knicks and Lakers are good, Wolves and Kings too.
Celtics ain’t as bad at it used to be.
Warriors sucks. Strongly dislike the Pistons, but might just be because I’m biased and tired of watching those shitty games
The others I’m either neutral on, or just haven’t heard em enough
Luka > (huge gap) Haliburton, Fox >(decent gap) Lamelo, Brunson
He’s shooting 44% at the rim lol, he’s making 68% here in his career, is he playing hurt or something ?
It’s really hard to build a true contender with a forward who can neither shoot nor defend his position.
I don’t think he’ll shoot 32% from 3 for the rest of the season, but I also don’t think he’s reliable enough to be the second option on a contender, and considering that his defense just isn’t anything special anymore (and that may even be generous), he’s just not that valuable anymore
I think SGA is a better player but I think Haliburton should be 5th for now, the Pacers being the number one offense with, I guess, Buddy Hield as the second best offensive player on the roster, is pretty insane
Kinda like Monte Morris last year : we sometimes overvalue this good/solid back up point guards who know how to run a second unit, but whose athletic limitations get exposed when they have to play vs starters
Glad that once he realized he wasn’t good enough to be a star offensively he worked hard to become a really good on ball defender since last year, went from one of the most overrared players in the NBA to a very useful rotation piece
They need to give chances to Beauchamp, Jackson, maybe even Green, vet minimums guys will still be there in 3 months
It’s KD honestly, what he’s done as a mid range shooter since coming back from injury is absolutely insane.
Btw I have to say, Tim Duncan is one of the 7/8 best players of all time, but this weird perception that he was an elite mid range shooter is not backed up AT ALL by the eye test or the numbers
The Clippers say no because PG is way better and Mobley is a weird fit.
The Cavs say no because Mobley is way younger and under team control
Nobody ever mentions him as an elite scorer, he was great one, but his main strenght on offense was his passing and his ability to fit with anybody because of his shot (yes back then a mid range shooter = spacing)
He basically never got to play spread PNR as a scorer because he always played with a center when he was still in his athletic prime, maybe in the current era he’d look better playing more center and being the main roll man
They have A LOT of defensive talent, Brooks, Tate and Eason are all All defense level, FVV, Jabari and Holiday are all between good and very good, Sengun has improved a lot too