BFrizzy wrote:I dont agree that our defense is worse with Leonard, he has been one of our best individual defenders this year, and has given us the energy we have missed last season. If anything i can see RJ losing a few minutes (whilst still starting) to accommodate minutes for Kawhi. Also, on the Kawhi / Durant matchup, the impressive thing is that Kawhi kept him to below his average points, and also got his. Playing Durant to a narrow defeat is pretty impressive for any player in the league right now.
Also, the way that Neal is playing right now I think TJ doesnt get many minutes until he gets fit and firing and takes the minutes from Neal. If anyone I think TJ will be the odd one out if he doesnt find the form he had just prior to his injury.
Anyway, good to see the boys playing well and getting wins on the road. Go Spurs!
I didn't say our defense was worse with Leonard, I said our offense was worse with Leonard. What I said about Leonard's defense was that it was overrated. I also said our defense was worse this year than it was last year if you compare each rating to each year's league average. . .which is 100% true.
I also explained why you think it's better. League offense is down across the board because of "lockout ball". We are playing "better", in terms of points given up, etc etc, but it's because league wide offense is down. So, calling it "better defense" is fool's gold. It's not better, other teams are just scoring worse. Hence why I compared out defensive raitng this year to the league average, then compared that difference with what our defense was last year compared to the league average. And in doing so, it proves we were better last year. Last year, we were farther above the league average than we are this year thus far. If you don't understand what I'm getting at with that, then I'm not sure what else to say, because I've explained it as thoroughly as possible. Hopefully it's understandable for you though.
BFrizzy wrote:Also, on the Kawhi / Durant matchup, the impressive thing is that Kawhi kept him to below his average points, and also got his. Playing Durant to a narrow defeat is pretty impressive for any player in the league right now.
No offense, but I'm not sure why you said this when I already touched on that exact comment already. Here is the quote.
And no. . .Leonard's defense isn't locking down stars either. I remember reading that he did well on Durant, and I laughed at that because that isn't what I saw. Durant shot over him with ease and only scored just 22 points because the Thunder were getting blown out, so he played 10 minutes less than he usually does. Despte that, he killed Leonard on the glass with 11 boards, and packed Leonard on defense multiple times.
So technically, in terms of production based on his time on the floor, he only held Durant to basically 1-2 points below his typical average. By he, of course, I mean RJ and Leonard's collective effort. The only thing even keeping Leonard in that game was the fact that he lucked out and shot 3/3 from three, instead of his typical 30%.
co_laper wrote:Right now, i think it can be anyone. Still too hard to see who the odd man out.
But about Kawhi, I don't agree. Kawhi is obviously a better individual defender than Green. It is also why Pop has always assigned Kawhi to the opposing best player, not Green. Green is probably a better help defender. If we order the best defenders, it'll be Kawhi, Green, and then Neal. But if we order the best offensive players, it'll be Neal, Green, and then Kawhi.
It could be any of them. With Neal, you can make the argument that once TJ is back and we have Parker and Manu, Neal won't be handed much playmaking duties anymore. Now, if he's not knocking down his shots, he provides us nothing. Green, you can say he doesn't give us the best of both. He's not the best defensive player of the group, and he's not the best scorer on the group. Kawhi, you can say he gives us nothing offensively, and he's too inexperienced to be played in the playoffs guarding the Rudy Gay, Kobe Bryant, Jason Terry, Kevin Martin, etc.
At first I thought it was Neal the odd man out, then I thought Kawhi is. Now, I'm thinking it's Green. It just changes by the day. these next week or two is gonna be big for them 3 to prove themselves. Whoever plays worst will likely be relegated to the bench. This two weeks is their time to show they belong in the rotation.
If we had to rank the NJ game, I guess the front runner is Green, because he starts. And then Neal because he shot the lights out. And then Kawhi last because he didn't get to show off his defense much with no real stud SG/SF in NJ to defend.
Leonard's put on those guys because he's taller than Green. That's it. Taller defender on the taller player. Green is put on those same guys when Leonard isn't on the floor, and they don't switch Green to the SF to defend Durant when Leonard is a SF and is supposed to be guarding him. So that would make no sense.
The fact that green isn't the worst at something is why he's more likely to be in there than Green. You're really oversimplifying it to keep Leonard in the discussion. Neal is the best scorer, obviously, but Green is a MUCH better scorer than Leonard. Meanwhile, he isn't much worse defensively. . .if he is at all. If you check the stats, their defensive ratings are almost identical. Same with defensive win shares. So exactly how is Leonard so much better defensively? It's statistically almost the exact same. Gary Neal's D Rating is much lower. So like I said, green being BARELY lower than leonard on defense doesn't mean much since he's way better than leonard on offense.
Leonard needs to learn how to play both ends of the floor. Not just one. Green can play both right now, and he's almost as goodas Leonard on the one end of the floor that Leonard is any good on. Lemme put it this way. If you have Bruce Bowen on your team, only he can't shoot threes vs Bruce Bowen at 95-99% of his usual defensive ability only he can hit threes at a nice rate and also handle the ball a little and make some clutch plays, who are you taking? Because that's essentially the difference here.
The only way Green gets dropped down is if Leonard learns how to score, or Green stops scoring and starts choking.
You also forget that Leonard is a rookie, a BARELY 20 year old rookie at that. Pop hates rookies. He's only even got as much time as he did because of multiple injuries. Yeah, so since it ain't like Leonard is shutting people down anyway, he isn't providing nearly enough to make up for his ghost status on offense. You can barely notice him when we have the ball.
