07-13-2021, 04:25 PM
(07-13-2021, 03:55 PM)KillerLeft Wrote: However, what I feel like I have learned throughout this KP saga is that even the most offensive-minded center MUST at least be better than average on defense for the team to win.
This isn’t a perfect analogy, but my mind kind of goes to the idea that if the best offensive player in major-league baseball happened to be a short stop, his team should be OK with overlooking the fact that he is the worst defensive shortstop and the leak. No matter how many home runs that guy cranks, he’s still going to hurt the team more than he helps, imo. You’re even worse off in basketball, because that shortstop can be moved to a different position, probably, whereas it seems clear to me that Porzingis cannot play any other position in the modern NBA.
I think it’s possible to build a good team defense in the NBA if one of your guards and one of your forwards is defensively challenged. But, after living through this KP thing I am more convinced than ever that if your center can’t play defense, your team is not going to be very good defensively.
I totally agree with all of this (except for the baseball analogy, you can move the shortstop to a different position, can't with a center). The most important aspect of a center today is that they can guard the rim and be mobile enough to not get completely killed on switches. Offensively they just need provide some kind of space (generally vertically) to not kill an offense.
In fairness to KP, until this year I think he has generally been a slightly above average rim protector/defender. He just totally shit the bed this season, and that could be that he never really got his legs under from coming back (possibly early) from his injury. The kicker is I don't know that the FO is going to be able to make that assessment before free agency.
If we do manage to dump KP, I would rather go after Holmes than Collins because he is the better defender, will not cost assets and is cheaper. And if we have Holmes, it seems a huge waste of resources to spend all of that for Collins who has way too much overlap with Holmes offensively.