[NBA] West Playoffs, Round Two
- Thread starter Mr. S£im Citrus
- Start date
- Status
Pnr is getting so out of balance that even that is starting to become an unviable defense. They don't follow the verticality rules at all anymore so bigs are basically screwed if they sit back. Bigs have to come up, show, or switch. No getting around it now. Every team left pressures pick and roll as a rule of thumb or switches.
Yeah, I feel like the "just go under" doctrine would have worked in the past but NBA athletes are so fast now that they'll still naturally create creases in defenses regardless of being a shooting threat or not. Hell, the Heat are in the ECF on the back of Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, who are possible the least perimeter oriented players in the league at this point.
The thing about Sabonis is that unlike pretty much all the other elite bigs in the league he's a classic 4 physically whereas guys like Jokic and Gobert and Embiid are all big even by traditional NBA standards. Sabonis is actually solid playing on the perimeter and hedging on switches. It's the traditional big man defensive tasks that he struggles with (blocking shots).
I don't know, I don't think they are building around Sabonis per se, it's the Fox and the Ox. I also still think if they let Sabonis switch and play up a little more in pick and roll while getting rid of this 3 or 4 guard midget ball or slow traditional PF types around he and Fox then it will take some of the pressure off. Length and versatility at SG/SF/PF means you are going to be more effective at close outs so you don't have to be glued to your man or too far out. The Kings tried closing out on help defense in units where Fox was basically the SF. Uh, no, not going to happen. With Davion, if he's next to Fox or another guard they have to let him be constantly attacking the dribble.
- Status