01-21-2023, 04:21 PM
(01-21-2023, 04:01 PM)mvossman Wrote: Don't think its really fair to blame starting Wood for our defensive woes when the real problem was our top three defensive players were out. Lets see what it looks like when we put a couple of defensive players in the starting lineup with him. The 4 man lineup of Wood/Luka/Timmy/Green has a DEF rating of 96 and a net rating of +36. Its a small sample and was likely against second units, but we don't have nearly enough sample to suggest Wood can't make it as a starting center defensively.
That’s a crazy net rating combo I hadn’t heard about. I know that Luka/Maxi/Wood also has a crazy one.
I agree that Wood isn’t solely responsible for the defense falling apart and also believe that Wood as a solo big with the wings we have can be good enough defensively against the majority of teams once they get enough reps. I think what I was trying to layout is there could be a path here to build a roster where we can utilize Woods offense while also building an ELITE defense against all sorts of teams which is what it will take to become a true contender. I imagine a roster with like an OG and Nerlens (just random combo of names that have been floated) that you can now add to Wood and Maxi and Finney and now you basically have a bunch of different lineup combos with Wood that will be very good on defensive end.