DAL OFFSEASON: Trade & FA | Mavs "mostly done...but you never know."

[Scott41theMavs]

I think THJ is okay on the ball but one of the worst pick and roll and team defenders in the league. No one on the roster misses more rotations. In two of the early bubble game threads I posted some video breakdown. Sadly I cannot find it right now.

I wish everyone would take note of how dirkfan does the eye-test in his posts. He backs it up with actual concrete observations (often specific plays) rather than just generic statements: "________ is a TERRIBLE defender!"

The "eye-test" is legit, but it is so often a lazy man's evaluation tool for making unfounded declarations, when in reality it requires just as much work as good statistical interpretation.

How about 6 years of watching Powell guard the post and defend the rim against drivers (whether guards or forwards) and not being able to do anything to bother their shots, much less block them? He's a big. Bigs are supposed to be able to do *something* on defense in the post. Powell can stay with his guy pretty well on drives due to his athleticism, but once his opponent reaches the rim, it's lights out virtually every single time. Maxi is a much better defender, even though his blocks are somewhat low, because he has enough extension, timing, and savvy to at least bother the shot. Powell may as well not be there (unless he commits a body foul) at the rim. Say what you will about WCS, but he's much better at defending the rim, both as a one-on-one defender and weakside, than Powell. He happens to make much less money as well. Even if he lacks Powell's BBIQ, he is far less of a defensive liability, and I believe his superior body and athleticism make him nearly Powell's equal on offense (ducks waiting for Kamm and Dan's flames, but I saw what I saw this year).

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I think THJ is okay on the ball but one of the worst pick and roll and team defenders in the league. No one on the roster misses more rotations. In two of the early bubble game threads I posted some video breakdown. Sadly I cannot find it right now.

I wish everyone would take note of how dirkfan does the eye-test in his posts. He backs it up with actual concrete observations (often specific plays) rather than just generic statements: "________ is a TERRIBLE defender!"

The "eye-test" is legit, but it is so often a lazy man's evaluation tool for making unfounded declarations, when in reality it requires just as much work as good statistical interpretation.

I think defense as a whole is really hard to evaluate for fans. We simply don´t know the schemes or play calls. It´s easy to blame the guy that gets scored on in an iso mismatch that only happens because his teammate missed a rotation or did not fight over a screen. Same for pick and roll defense. I have watched games and complained about the bad pick and roll defense but after the post game interview I realized that the players did exactly what the coach wanted when they went under the screen.

I think the current Heat-Celtics series shows that coaching and team defense are way more important than individual on ball defense. The Heat can shut down the Celtics offense with bad on ball defenders like Dragic, Robinson and Olynyk. Neither of them is any better than Powell, THJ or Curry when it comes to on ball defense.

Then it might be good if we got RC a top-flight defensive assistant.