Worm Guts wrote:Devilzsidewalk wrote:we need good defense everywhere, I don't think anybody gets a pass as a good defender. The rotations on the perimeter were just as bad as the lack of contests inside
Of course, but Kevin Love and Al Jefferson our are best players and
there's a question whether they're physically capable of playing defense together. I'm not questioning whether we need to get better defensively on the perimeter. I'm saying getting better defensively on the perimeter won't fully compensate for sucking defensively on the inside.
I don't think it's a question anymore, I think the answer's a resounding NO. Rambis was taking every opportunity to not put them out there together, even before the Darko trade, and it shows how disgusted he was with that pairing on the defensive end. 2 seasons of defensive crapitude from that frontcourt is more than enough proof it won't work, ever.
Guards need the bigs' help to be effective perimeter defenders, especially on the pick and roll. No one player can stop another on the P&R with the modern hand check rules. Darko showed an amazing ability to hedge the P&R, and a ton of that was because of his huge wingspan/reach advantage over Love. Watching the difference in defensive effort and understanding between Love/Al and Darko was like watching a varsity player practice with the B-team.
Darko isn't at the level that KG, Perkins, and D12 are playing defense, and he probably never will be. But that he makes the rest of our bigs look so awful in comparison defensively says everything we really need to know about how bad Al and Love are together.
To the original post, Love/Pekovic is pretty steep for 3, it's similar to love/16. I don't know that throwing in Pekovic honestly makes much difference, it all would center on whether NJ likes love better than Favors, Cousins, or Johnson. If they don't, I don't think any sweetener will make them trade away their pick.
