Kilroy wrote:Sedale Threatt wrote:Just to follow up, Real Plus-Minus pretty much nails what type of player Isaiah is.
Last year he finished fourth among NBA point guards in offensive RPM, behind only Curry, Harden and Westbrook. That's pretty awesome, especially given the obvious advantages those players have.
On the defense, he not only finished dead last among 76 players who qualified, he finished dead last by roughly half a point per 100 possessions. Translation: He was the worst defensive point guard in the NBA, and it wasn't even close.
Take positions out, and only one player out of 468 who qualified was worse: Doug McDermott.
A team like the Celtics, who are ranked 1st in defensive rating this season, can overcome that because they've got an abundance of good defenders and a good scheme. Although we've been solid on that end this year, we're not on that level, so Thomas' shortcomings are going to be magnified.
We played horribly as a team against the Mavericks, so that wasn't his fault. But you can expect to see plenty of other teams do what they did by attacking him relentlessly.
Don't underestimate how adding one bad defensive player can mess up team D, and make those around him look crappy... What I saw in Dallas was a team trying to play with IT rather than IT trying to play with a team... It made our guys look like crap and covered some of his weeknesses...
Only way this works is if we do our thing and demand IT figure it out... Meaning bench his ass until he does... I still think he should be our Lou Williams...
For sure. I don't think it's an accident that the Celtics have gone from 12th or 13th in defense to 1st now that he's gone. His impact on our defense bears watching as we don't have a lot of margin for error, especially with Ball out.
At this point I don't think it's a matter of figuring it out. People say that defense comes down to effort, and while there might be some truth to that, it also helps to have some tools: Size, strength, wingspan, This is just what Thomas is as a player: He's tiny, not especially athletic, and doesn't seem to have much in the way of instincts.
While I don't think he flat-out loafs like James Harden -- maybe he does, just haven't seen him enough to make that determination -- he certainly isn't a pugnacious little bastard like Chris Paul, who isn't going to back down under any circumstances. Isaiah has a lot of heart, but it definitely doesn't manifest itself on that end.
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Won't happen, unless he comes off the bench and is happy with 23 minutes per game.