Mike Brown hired as Head Coach
- Thread starter Tetsujin
- Start date
If a player is laying there and looking for a whistle and his coach picks him up back on his feet and he runs back on defense, then I'd consider that helping. It gets him back in the game a couple seconds quicker than he would have without the help and could potentially keep the other team from scoring.
Very interesting idea. It's hard to remove the old chucker label from Wiggins, but he's been excellent in his new support scorer/spacer role for GS. And the Kings have the horses to keep him in that role+the relationship with Brown who he apparently trusts. For the first time in forever too, he actually has very positive impact metrics, something I didn't think was possible.
If we could have our choice on 4/80 for 28 year old Wiggins or 4/80 for 31 year old Barnes, who would you rather have?
If we could have our choice on 4/80 for 28 year old Wiggins or 4/80 for 31 year old Barnes, who would you rather have?
I've always thought of Fox and Wiggins in the same vein - both highly talented defensively, both underachievers. Then Wiggins gets traded to the Warriors. And who after the trade has a long sit-down film session with Wiggins showing him and convincing him to be a consistently excellent defensive player for the Warriors? Mike Brown, that's who. Ya think Mike Brown might be having a similar conversation with Fox this off-season? Ya think Mike Brown after the stellar defensive performance of Wiggins and the Warriors might have the cred to transform Fox into the consistently excellent defensive player that we know he can be? If Mike Brown can't do it, then nobody on planet earth can do it.
We saw what Brown did for Wiggins, turned him into a defensive stud. Fox has the tools for good defensive play, he has even shown it on occasion. If Brown can get him to focus on it more and be, at a minimum, solid, then our defensive rotation of Fox, DDV, and Mitchell would be pretty scary. Throw in Barnes and Sabonis as both solid on the defensive end as well. Now, if we can get that 4 that can block shots and shoot threes, we may have a good defensive team on our hands.
We might have hired Brown at the exact right time, I imagine there would be a much hotter market for him after the Warriors got another ring when no one expected it. Something similar could be going on with Atkinson deciding to wait for greener pastures (or getting a fat bonus and raise from the Warriors if they really didn’t want to lose both guys same season)
as for the “Fox has defensive tools” I’m not as optimistic as most. We’ve seen him try on defense and he still gets blown by and sorta goes back to trying less after. Expecting him to become a plus defender reminds me of people expecting players to develop a 3 point shot, maybe sometimes but usually you get what you’re paying for.
i do think he can improve and, more importantly, get put in a scheme that hides his flaws by giving him help and avoiding him getting stuck on an island against elite players. Which having DDV and Davion is a good start for. But I doubt he’s ever gonna become an elite defender being fast and quick with the ball doesn’t mean he has the anticipation and tools to stay in front of someone
as for the “Fox has defensive tools” I’m not as optimistic as most. We’ve seen him try on defense and he still gets blown by and sorta goes back to trying less after. Expecting him to become a plus defender reminds me of people expecting players to develop a 3 point shot, maybe sometimes but usually you get what you’re paying for.
i do think he can improve and, more importantly, get put in a scheme that hides his flaws by giving him help and avoiding him getting stuck on an island against elite players. Which having DDV and Davion is a good start for. But I doubt he’s ever gonna become an elite defender being fast and quick with the ball doesn’t mean he has the anticipation and tools to stay in front of someone