billinder33 wrote:JK's defense actually improved a quite bit as the season went on. Most posters here act like every basket scored on a Ws defender is a travesty and a failure like that screaming Youtube idiot. But we have to keep in mind that opposing teams are full of professional basketball players. They hit tough shots, it's why they're in the NBA.
The reality is that JK's defense has already reached the fine/ok/acceptable stage. But it's not really consistently fine/ok, it's actually more of a random mixed bag, which understandably gives people lots of angst. There are times where his defense is actually really good or borderline great. Then other times when it's way below average. Often you'll see both the best and worst of JK's defense all in the same shift. And those visibly obvious bad moments create huge a drag in perception against all the good that's happening.
On the possessions where he's at his worst, the biggest issue is that he just not getting to the right floor positions early enough. And because we all know he's a plus athlete, visibly it looks like disinterest or a lack of motivation. It's actually the exact same issue with his rebounding. Establishing the most optimal position early instead of just reacting after the fact. And this is probably a symptom of his lack of experience and reps than anything else. If that's the case, he'll continue to get better over time.
Of course, the issue could be that his brain just doesn't process real-time information fast enough, and that a much harder problem to fix. Even if that's the case, more experience should help mitigate the issue. But you really hope it's just a lack of experience against the world's best players and not actually psychological reaction time. His early position did improve a bit over the course of the season, and he doesn't strike me as a 'Kelly Oubre 10 bong hits before practice' type, so there is hope.
The upside is definitely there. He has the physical facility to get to an Iguodala level of defensive play. Doubt he'll ever get there, but mostly due to his general psychology, and the fact that he has SO much to work on, on-ball defense, off-ball defense, post defense, rebounding, 3-point shooting, post moves, shielding the ball on drives, etc, etc, etc. and there are only so many hours in the day.
So despite the lackluster season ending (especially the knee tendonitis, which is a legit concern), the trend is still moving upward. IMO the first 20 games of next season should add a lot of clarity about what his NBA future is going to be. And the FO should finally have enough info in terms of whether to keep him or move him at the trade DL, assuming he even makes it past the offseason trade activity.
Agree with Bill, he's a feast or famine defender. He might look great, defending Tatum or lamelo, contesting without fouling, weak side and on ball rim protection, playing passing lanes without gambling too much. Other times (more often), he's out of position, loses his man off ball, is off balance or a myriad of other issues.
Agree with cdm that his offense will be most important, particularly his shooting. Wonder if he's not going to sign anything below 30M like the vassel extension or if we can get him to sign something like the keldon Johnson one.
