RealGM

Okay so obviously lotta people here don't want him, I don't think he's as bad as people say, I like him on the team (hopin he'll smarten up on the court), but I was watching him guard Kobe.. and yeah didnt work so well for him but I noticed he is a lil jumpy playin D. Havent noticed against other players, maybe it was cuz of Kobe's skill and all, but when kobe was in his 3 way threat he would be a lil jumpy and fidgety and would move at every lil tiny fake kobe did. Dudley did the same when on Kobe, and to me it drives me CRAZY to see defenders do that.
Given I never have to guard Kobe, but even in pickup and back in high school ball when i guarded people straight up better than me I always stayed dead still on my stance until they made a move. Anyone else gets irked over that lil jumpiness? Makes me feel like the guy is scared of gettin scored on or something. Any good defenders out there have that lil jumpiness in them, or is it generally bad defense?

I think it was just because they had to guard Kobe.

I figured as well, but i mean playin ball, as soon as I see a defender do that I want the ball EVERY time down the court, doin that with someone like Kobe you just playin into his mindset. Might as well show some confidence, cuz Kobe bein Kobe, he'll put up numbers but dont make him feel more confident to start off with

Having been a pretty decent HS ball player, and played a few years on the college level, I would say that being a little jumpy would be helpful. I wasn't a great defender, but average. Being on the balls of your feet and a slight but constant movement with your feet help your reaction time. That's why you always here "fast feet" and such when doing d drills and such. As a defender, I can't think of one time where staying flat footed, or even standing JUST on the balls of your feet was ever encourage. Always want a little movement, never want to be stone when defending someone.

But I think some of it, too, is the fact that they are going against the best scorer in the league right now. Jitters/being on the balls of your feet and moving.

Sreister wrote:Having been a pretty decent HS ball player, and played a few years on the college level, I would say that being a little jumpy would be helpful. I wasn't a great defender, but average. Being on the balls of your feet and a slight but constant movement with your feet help your reaction time. That's why you always here "fast feet" and such when doing d drills and such. As a defender, I can't think of one time where staying flat footed, or even standing JUST on the balls of your feet was ever encourage. Always want a little movement, never want to be stone when defending someone.

But I think some of it, too, is the fact that they are going against the best scorer in the league right now. Jitters/being on the balls of your feet and moving.

+1. If you watch any great defender's feet you will see the "fast feet". Your man standing without being jumpy is the real time when you should burn past him. Keeping those feet moving means being able to start shuffling with no delay.

Staying flat-footed are signs of bad defensive fundamentals. Being flat-footed means in order to react to the offensive player's move, you have to get onto the balls of your feet first and then react. By being on the balls of your feet and being ready to jump out would cut the need to "get ready."

If you watch great defenders like Bowen, Battier and Raja, they are constantly changing the angles of their defense, it makes it difficult for the offensive player to "choose" a direction because the defensive player makes the offensive player think they are ready no matter which direction they take. Also, with being jumpy, it makes it tough for offensive player to attempt a pull up shot.

Being "jumpy" and having fast feet is the basis of good fundamental defense.

which is why playing good defense is about hard work and conditioning - like boxing. Get up on the balls of your feet for a while and move around and see how hard it is

standin still dont mean your flat footed or not alert. I dont know I guess when I SEE someone do it, it just seems they're more susceptible (dont know if it's the right word there) to pump fakes and such. Either way, it just kills me to see it cuz man when I look at J Rich on paper, the guy is just built to be a beast on both ends. I'd kill to have that size and athleticism, but man crazy how much a lil brains can change your entire game. Aside from his potential to CONSISTENTLY score, I feel he COULD be a pretty damn decent defender, but idk.. whether it's the effort, or just not knowin better, I wanna see Gentry sit the guy or somethin to snap him out of it.

If youre interested in seeing what bad defensive footwork looks like, watch amare stoudemire

^I've noticed he's flailing his arms around a lot more...at least that's some effort he didn't do in the past

I seem to recall Battier did a great job on Kobe, and his movement was very efficient indeed. He didn't stand stock still or anything, but he certainly didn't flail around.

The best I've seen on Kobe - easily - was Sefolosha - he even blocked a couple of his jumpshots

Nobody can guard Kobe when he's in the zone with those up and unders, fadeaways, left handers etc - the guy's a freak and to think he's still only 31...

On another note, I'd have LOVED to have seen prime Jordan, Pippen, Moncreif, Alvin Robertson etc have a crack at Kobe, Lebron and Wade

Lebron would just post them up most likely...just too strong

The key to guarding kobe is to get up in his jock strap and swarm him a la raja and he will start throwing bows and committing offensive fouls.

doc shivers wrote:The key to guarding kobe is to get up in his jock strap and swarm him a la raja and he will start throwing bows and committing offensive fouls.

+1

The best way to cover Kobe is to piss him off and trash talk him. He'll go off and score a ton, but his team is better if he is taking all the shots.

Those 40 point on 35-36 shot nights are what you want.

It's the 25 point 8 assist games on 15 shots you don't want.

doc shivers wrote:The key to guarding kobe is to get up in his jock strap and swarm him a la raja and he will start throwing bows and committing offensive fouls.

+1. It's much harder to guard him now since he has very good team mates he can pass off to. But I agree, the best way to guard Kobe is to force him to make it a personal challenge through trash talk and playing him physical. Raja did well against Kobe because not only was he physical, he made Kobe take on the personal challenge. Sure Raja got burned a few times but he forced Kobe to take shots away from his team mates.

Like A roc 23 said, we want him to have 40 point games where he takes all his team's shots. It's only when he starts dishing out assists while shooting very efficiently then the game becomes incredibly easy for him.