08-13-2021, 08:37 AM
(08-13-2021, 08:05 AM)dirkfansince1998 Wrote: What was Draymond going to do when he got the ball from Curry? I guess that didn´t work either...I don't care if he's Jesus himself on defense, if he's the worst offensive player in the league in the playoffs he'll kill your team eventually.
You aren´t playing 4v5 on offense if you aren´t running the entire offense through post ups and isos. That´s what the 76ers are doing. Embiid in the post/face up. Harris on the ellbow. Of course a non shooting ballhandler will hurt the offense in that system. He hurts the spacing when he isn´t handling the ball and there is not space for him to attack the rim when he has the ball.
Even if Simmons never improves he would still be the 2nd best player on the current Mavs team. Just need to make sure that he is the only non shooter on the floor. Something the 76ers couldn´t do after the Green injury. And again it´s not like the 76ers were losing. Despite the obvious flaws their starting five with Green had the best +/- among all 5-men lineups in the playoffs. Even with his limitations Simmons is a high impact player.
I know that for some reason we don´t care about defense these days. Or maybe it is just a Mavs thing (we simply don´t know better after 20+ years of Don+Donnie running the show). But Simmons is the best defender in the league. Maybe not in the regular season but come playoff time. There is no bad matchup for him. From Trae, to Luka or John Collins. Best possible defender for all of them.
Two things on Draymond:
1) Ben Simmons can only pray that he ever becomes a tenth of the defensive leader that Draymond is... what makes Draymond special is not just his own defensive ability, although of course he is elite in that regard, but also his ability to raise the defensive floor of the entire team with his on-court quarterbacking. I don't think Simmons will ever be capable of that, it's not his personality (it also requires holding people accountable, including yourself... and we see how Simmons feels about accountability).
2) During their first few title runs Draymond made just enough threes to keep teams honest. Later on he got worse... but he was also on a team with Curry, Klay, and Durant. I don't see those guys on this team.