07-23-2021, 10:46 PM
(07-23-2021, 09:37 PM)dirkfansince1998 Wrote: KP had the worst net rating among all rotation players this season. It wasn´t just the Clippers series. And yes THJ is not a good defender but he wasn´t horrible for most of the season. Not the smartest team defender but at least okay as an on ball defender. He actually had better defensive tracking numbers than DFS or Maxi in the series against the Clippers. KP on the other hand was a solid -7.6 on defense for the Mavs in the regular season. That´s all time bad for a big. He still provided some value on offense but the honest truth is that the Mavs played better when he wasn´t on the floor. Center is the most important defensive position. Nearly impossible to have a good team defense with a giant liability like KP in the middle.
THJ does indeed try hard but we've been getting torched by perimeter guys his entire time here. More than anything him and Luka as a starting backcourt may be the worst defensive backcourt in the league if you are playing them straight up with the other guards defensively at least. We tend to hide Luka by not doing that.
And of course he had better #s than those guys. He wasn't guarding Kawhi and Paul George haha. The role guys kept going off tho which he was guarding alot of the time.
I agree KP was bad defensively. Not arguing that at all. He was horrible. And so was Hardaway in that series. When you get matched up against role guys and they are going off on you... that's a problem.
There is a chance KP is back to a solid defender next year. There is 0 chance Hardaway is. There's also a chance, KP improve his overall offensive game. Hardaway probably isn't improving much more offensively.