eagereyez wrote:So let me throw out a hypothetical scenario: The Sixers trade Noel, and Embiid goes down. Do you still believe you have a championship caliber team with Okafor anchoring the defense? It's going to be impossible to hide him defensively playing next to Saric/Simmons, neither of whom are projected to be elite defenders. The team is doomed in that scenario.
Why are evaluating these guys as finished products? We got to believe in player development or else every player on this team will really disappoint you. Noel can't shoot and rebound. Saric can't defend and slow. Simmons can't shoot and defend. Embiid is one ankle injury from retiring. The team is doomed if all our players didn't improve on their weakness, that's for sure. We need to root for Noel to be stronger and to be a better shooter. For Jah to make better reads and our coaching staff to find schemes to hide him on D (if you think he's bad). Simmons NEEDS to be a very good defender, specially when you are just projecting him to be an average scorer/shooter, that is the reason why Rubio is still in the NBA and not playing with Sergio in euroleague. Saric needs to be a better defender and it's non negotiable. And the thing is.. Players usually become better defenders as they make better reads with experience and having better NBA physique.
With your question "Do you still believe you have a championship caliber team with Okafor anchoring the defense?", it really depends on a lot of variable. I mean, even if Embiid or Noel anchors a defense but he plays with Stauskas, Canaan and Wroten, they aren't going to make the play-offs. But say Okafor plays with Ibaka, Durant, Westbrook and Roberson or he replaces LMA with the Spurs, then I think the Okafor line-up is more likely to win a championship.
And quite frankly, nowadays offense is premium and centers don't flatout (in terms of minutes + impact) anchor a team's defense anymore and that is the biggest misconception IMO. Teams just put their best offensive scorers on the floor and let everyone play defense with their length and mobility with all the switching and rotations AS A TEAM.
Like I said, OKC was even able to hide Kanter on defense (not saying he's a good defender; To avoid any arguments.. OKC wasn't a bad defense when he's on court) and make him an effective player in the play-offs.
A team being good or bad on D is not because of a single player. It depends on the players and the scheme he plays with. So that question of yours I think did a "nice try good effort" job in trying to be rhetoric.
And with the team we have right now, and with a good defender version of Simmons and Embiid, they don't need Noel's D anymore than Jah's scoring.
There’s never been a time in history when we look back and say that the people who were censoring free speech were the good guys.
