The Key Will Be Defense

[TheNewEra]

Zubac did fairly well as a help defender

[TheNewEra]

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He also previously posted some positive stats about Zu's defense. I'm no authority on this or defense in general, but when I see Zu on the court I see a classic big man with excellent footwork and pretty good court awareness and athleticism. Not in a guard 4 different positions way, but someone who can become a good rim protector IMO. He was clearly a big upgrade over Gortat in multiple ways (which granted is a low bar.) He just needs time, seasoning, and some work in the lab.

Getting a full camp as a starter and expectations I’m sure he’s working even harder

[madmaxmedia]

Zubac did fairly well as a help defender

That used to be the only thing Deandre used to do well defensively. Granted he was younger than Zubac, but he was a lot rawer when he joined our team.

[Guardian]

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He also previously posted some positive stats about Zu's defense. I'm no authority on this or defense in general, but when I see Zu on the court I see a classic big man with excellent footwork and pretty good court awareness and athleticism. Not in a guard 4 different positions way, but someone who can become a good rim protector IMO. He was clearly a big upgrade over Gortat in multiple ways (which granted is a low bar.) He just needs time, seasoning, and some work in the lab.

Getting a full camp as a starter and expectations I’m sure he’s working even harder

The fact that there’s two perennial all-stars across the hall should be more than enough motivation for him to work even harder this summer. And he’s for sure going to have to face them on national TV this season.

[Goner]

The fact that there’s two perennial all-stars across the hall should be more than enough motivation for him to work even harder this summer. And he’s for sure going to have to face them on national TV this season.

There's no doubt in my mind that Trezz will come into this season even better than last. However, I still see him coming off the bench. The quirk with Trezz's game is that the more tired the opponent is, the more valuable Trezz becomes. So I see him being one of the first players off the bench but also closing out most games, very similar to his role last season. If he starts at Center, the other team will have fresh legs and will be able to keep up with him, but his lack of size will pose a problem for us early in the game.

[Ranma]

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[madmaxmedia]

A nice counter-example is what's going in Houston- people generally talk about if Harden and Westbrook can co-exist on offense, how they are gonna share the ball, etc. People are talking basically only about the offense, not the defense. If RB's shots aren't falling early in the season, its going to lead to big question marks, possible coaching change, etc.

The best way to establish an identity and groundwork for a new team is defense- if you have the guys (and boy do we have the guys, and the coach.) We have a bunch of guys that can get stops, we do that and the wins and offense will come.

[madmaxmedia]

The fact that there’s two perennial all-stars across the hall should be more than enough motivation for him to work even harder this summer. And he’s for sure going to have to face them on national TV this season.

There's no doubt in my mind that Trezz will come into this season even better than last. However, I still see him coming off the bench. The quirk with Trezz's game is that the more tired the opponent is, the more valuable Trezz becomes. So I see him being one of the first players off the bench but also closing out most games, very similar to his role last season. If he starts at Center, the other team will have fresh legs and will be able to keep up with him, but his lack of size will pose a problem for us early in the game.

I can see a lot of night where our second unit is similar to last year's- led by Lou and Trez. Except now we have KL and PG in the first unit (plus a fair amount of overlap since we have superstar minutes to spare.)