We are Free Cheese

[FriedRise]

Guards get blown by on all 30 teams. That's the entire point of having a center, to handle guard penetration.
Centers aren't given contracts or starting jobs to stop other centers from scoring in the low post these days, they're signed to defend situations where guards penetrate and dish. That's exactly what the Bulls bigs can't handle, nobody on the roster.

If the solution is to find guards who never let their man get a shot off or drive by them, we might as well quit the league. No defense in the NBA has that.

Good post.

I was actually thinking about this - we can't be the only team with bad defenders at guard. There are guards around the league who only play one side of the ball but somehow their teams don't get killed by automatically handing out free career nights to the opposing centers.

I do wonder though if this somehow correlates to our perimeter defense. We're the 2nd best team in the league at defending the 3 point shots, holding opponents down to an average of 34.5% from deep. Our guards are so aggressive at defending the 3pt line (passes the eye test because we foul 3pt shooters a lot, so we're definitely out there) that by taking away that option, we give up the drive. I'll have to pay attention to this more, but it feels like our guards like to go OVER the screen in most possessions to take away the 3, which of course makes it a 2-on-1 situation for our big. I'm not sure if the help defense was then supposed to recognize that and rotate, but that obviously hasn't been happening.

[MrSparkle]

If only Kirk Hinrich was here, Lauri's all-defensive potential would be unlocked.

[Jcool0]

I don't understand what the Bulls saw in WCJ. This is not a knock at him. But he's not a lottery talent.

You dont think a 5 star recruit the #4 player in his class who shot 41% from 3 in college & was the 2nd best player on a 29-8 Duke team was not a lottery talent? This kind of seems like revisionist history.

You don't draft a player based on where they ranked on their team.

You draft them on projectable traits. What lottery worthy projectable traits does WCJ have?

He's not big. He's not athletic. He's not especially skilled. He doesn't have a high BBIQ.

What exactly indicated that he was worth the #7 pick?

2018 draft rankings for WCJ

Sports Illustrated: #6.

ESPN: #6

CBS: #6

Sporting News: #10

NBADraftNet: #6

The Stephin: #4

The Athletic: #11

Seems like everyone thought he was a lottery pick except you.

[2weekswithpay]

I think Mark K brought this up in defense of WCJ but it applies to Lauri and Thad too. The guards (coby and Zach particularly) blow ass at the point of attack. They get blown by worse than a traffic cone leaving our big men in 2v1 situations.

Just tonight here are poeltls highlights:

Watch on YouTube

I count a grand total of 4 points that he got 1 on 1 (against Lauri). Those were contested well but he made them. Okay. The other 16(!) Points are blown coverages by the guards!

Worth mentioning that nobody tags Poeltl, after he sets the screen. Poeltl has a free unimpeded run at the rim. We suck at guarding the ball handler at the point of attack and we suck at guarding the roll man. Not really a surprise bigs have career nights against us when we suck at guarding the pick n roll.

[Leslie Forman]

2018 draft rankings for WCJ

Sports Illustrated: #6.

ESPN: #6

CBS: #6

Sporting News: #10

NBADraftNet: #6

The Stephin: #4

The Athletic: #11

Seems like everyone thought he was a lottery pick except you.

great, let's go get Jahlil Okafor too

[logical_art]

You dont think a 5 star recruit the #4 player in his class who shot 41% from 3 in college & was the 2nd best player on a 29-8 Duke team was not a lottery talent? This kind of seems like revisionist history.

You don't draft a player based on where they ranked on their team.

You draft them on projectable traits. What lottery worthy projectable traits does WCJ have?

He's not big. He's not athletic. He's not especially skilled. He doesn't have a high BBIQ.

What exactly indicated that he was worth the #7 pick?

2018 draft rankings for WCJ

Sports Illustrated: #6.

ESPN: #6

CBS: #6

Sporting News: #10

NBADraftNet: #6

The Stephin: #4

The Athletic: #11

Seems like everyone thought he was a lottery pick except you.

As usual, you're missing the point entirely.

[Jcool0]

You don't draft a player based on where they ranked on their team.

You draft them on projectable traits. What lottery worthy projectable traits does WCJ have?

He's not big. He's not athletic. He's not especially skilled. He doesn't have a high BBIQ.

What exactly indicated that he was worth the #7 pick?

2018 draft rankings for WCJ

Sports Illustrated: #6.

ESPN: #6

CBS: #6

Sporting News: #10

NBADraftNet: #6

The Stephin: #4

The Athletic: #11

Seems like everyone thought he was a lottery pick except you.

As usual, you're missing the point entirely.

If you had nothing say why did you respond?

[chefo]

WCJ's stats in the ACC tourney and the NCAA tourney:

4/4
14/9 (L)
9/8
13/6
14/12
10/2 (L)

In other words, in his most important games in college, he averaged 10.7 pts and 6.8 rebounds, including several outright stinkers like the game against the Jayhawks where he actually went against somebody with legit size and fouled out. That's on a team with 3(!) other future NBA players, so it's not like he was the sole focus of attention by the D.

The last 2 games before the tourneys were VT and UNC and he dominated to the tune of 5/8 and 9/9. So he ended the season in a huge funk, averaging 9.8 & 7.2 when the games mattered. Against arch-rivals UNC and their monstrous front court of gigantic 6'7 Maye and ripped 200 lbs Cam Johnson, he went completely invisible all three times, and the Dukies lost to a much less talented Tar Heels team twice that year.

Which tells you national writers generally suck at evaluating prospects. As a flyer in the mid 20s, I can understand, but a consensus high lottery pick?

By the way, he had huge fouling problems in college too and only played 25 min/game because he couldn't stay on the floor because of foul trouble. In effin' college against guys most of whom who go on to continue their careers in the local Y or some forsaken 3rd tier league in Europe. Bagley was so vastly better than him at pretty much everything it's not even funny.

Point being, it's not like there were no red flags about him pre-draft. Instead, he and his handlers somehow sold the story that he sucked to end the season because he wasn't featured enough on O and he wasn't that impressive as the foul-prone anchor of a defensively mediocre (college) team, despite playing next to a consensus top-2 big because...crickets. And our idiot FO bought it hook, line and sinker--because I refuse to believe that the scouts on the payroll did not tell them that kid talked a big game but was thoroughly mediocre on the court when the games mattered.

[CaPiTanAK]

WCJ's stats in the ACC tourney and the NCAA tourney:

4/4
14/9 (L)
9/8
13/6
14/12
10/2 (L)

In other words, in his most important games in college, he averaged 10.7 pts and 6.8 rebounds, including several outright stinkers like the game against the Jayhawks where he actually went against somebody with legit size and fouled out. That's on a team with 3(!) other future NBA players, so it's not like he was the sole focus of attention by the D.

The last 2 games before the tourneys were VT and UNC and he dominated to the tune of 5/8 and 9/9. So he ended the season in a huge funk, averaging 9.8 & 7.2 when the games mattered. Against arch-rivals UNC and their monstrous front court of gigantic 6'7 Maye and ripped 200 lbs Cam Johnson, he went completely invisible all three times, and the Dukies lost to a much less talented Tar Heels team twice that year.

Which tells you national writers generally suck at evaluating prospects. As a flyer in the mid 20s, I can understand, but a consensus high lottery pick?

By the way, he had huge fouling problems in college too and only played 25 min/game because he couldn't stay on the floor because of foul trouble. In effin' college against guys most of whom who go on to continue their careers in the local Y or some forsaken 3rd tier league in Europe. Bagley was so vastly better than him at pretty much everything it's not even funny.

Point being, it's not like there were no red flags about him pre-draft. Instead, he and his handlers somehow sold the story that he sucked to end the season because he wasn't featured enough on O and he wasn't that impressive as the foul-prone anchor of a defensively mediocre (college) team, despite playing next to a consensus top-2 big because...crickets. And our idiot FO bought it hook, line and sinker--because I refuse to believe that the scouts on the payroll did not tell them that kid talked a big game but was thoroughly mediocre on the court when the games mattered.

Honestly, in the past 5-6 years, I don’t even think Paxson or Gar did any work when it comes to scouting. It’s not hard to take the peezy cush life when your job is guaranteed regardless of results and your wife is close to the boss’s wife. Why work when you don’t have to? It shows as evident by bust after bust we drafted. It’s also evident when Garbage Kris Dunn was highly sought after due to predraft scouting reports instead of 1.5 season of games.