darmani wrote:sunsbg wrote:bwgood77 wrote:
Depends on how much he wants to be great. Kobe did it on both sides. Butler did. Even if he can just get to Harden/Doncic/Curry levels of D it would be fine...and in that game he was better than those guys are. I imagine Doncic will at some point start to lock down more on that side though because all he wants to do is win...he is already a pretty neutral defender as a second year player. Booker doesn't have the length of some of those guys, but neither does Butler.
How do you know Doncic will become better on D ? There is a great chance he starts chasing Harden's scoring records and gives even less effort on D going forward.
After watching some Mavs games maybe give feedback what makes Doncic a better defender than Booker ? No stats, please. What I see is a player, who "defends" the likes of Bazemore/Ariza, O'Neale 3m away, just to collect a rebound, which probably is considered a great team defense. Meanwhile Devin is often on the likes of Lillard/McCollum and Mitchell.
I'm really just curious why stats show Doncic is a "neutral" defender, while Devin is not. Watching both of them there is no big difference in effort. DB is actually faster and I have seen him play very good D when engaged, while I have yet to see Doncic do anything similar. Even someone like Ingles did blow past him in the Jazz game.
About that...
DRPM:
Booker -1.64
Doncic -1.89
Defensive rating
Booker: on 111.5, off 104.3
Doncic: on 111.4, off 104.3
Defended Field Goal Percentage:
Booker 44.0%
Doncic 46.0%
Uh oh...so my eye test is confirmed even by stats...I assumed Doncic's empty rebounds give him some advantage in the advanced stats though I wouldn't count uncontested rebounds as any kind of defense...