kodo wrote:Nembhard and Haliburton are also two bad defenders, they had the 26th defense in the league in '23. They solved it by getting Siakam, not replacing either guard. If individual defense at your guard spots was a requirement, Kyrie Irving & Luka Doncic could never had made the Finals.
I don't think either Nembhard or Haliburton are bad defenders. Granted, it's hard to judge defense, and I'm not watching a crapload of Pacers games. It's worth noting that defensive rating isn't always a good indicator of defense, because style of play can impact defensive rating a lot too. Like the Pacers slowed down their pace by two possessions a game, their net rating actually got worse because their offense lost more points than their defense gained.
Did they become worse offensively and better defensively, or did they slow down a bit and have two or three less easy opportunities for both themselves and their opponent each game due to that? I'm sure there's some really good stats out there somewhere that help differentiate all this stuff looking at defense in different scenarios (like half court vs transition or whatever), but it really takes some time to sus that out.
I agree with your general thought though that your bigs probably play an outsized role on your defense vs your guards. Probably with your guards you need more team defenders than individual defenders. Like are you quick enough to recover and get to a guy vs are you good enough to lock down a guy.