(07-06-2022, 09:23 AM)Kammrath Wrote: 100% completely agree with you here.
I gave him no time of day in my draft evals because his D was SOOOO bad. On ball, off ball, doesn't matter, I saw very, very little I liked about his D. Occasionally I have seen him move his feet and there are glimpses of potential there and with steals. But that is it.
I think 36 picks went ahead of him because of his D and then his more mediocre athleticism.
That's the thing, there are plenty of very good NBA defenders who are bad athletes. You need other stuff to make up for it. Low motor and bad awareness is not the combo you want in a sub optimal athlete on defense. Haven't looked at him much defensively, but If that's what he's suffering from, it's prob not gonna work because that kind of thing is not very easy to fix. I could see him being gone and turning into Dame Lillard somewhere else which would be a pretty big shame. I guess he will be working with one of the best coaches in the league when it comes to helping turning sub par defenders into a cohesive defensive unit, so there's some hope.