WizarDynasty wrote:So i guess you don't think McGee isn't going to spend alot of time outside of the paint guarding powerforwards that attempt to take him off hte dribble. Or McGee doesn't need superior agility when he is out on the perimeter guarding the pick and roll which is the bread and butter play of the nba right now. McGee is guarding powerforwards out on the perimeter and if can't keep his chest in front of them on the a drive he is going to be called for the foul. A shot blocker with no agility is a easy foul call for the refs. Not having a low center of gravity while defending out on the perimeter against a quick powerforward is called...Blow by. Powerforwards that can shoot a jumper are going to force mcgee out on the perimeter and if doesn't have good agility he is going to get call for the foul like he did 90 percent of the time when he was guarding out on the perimeter this season because of his poor agility. And McGee is guarding jumping shooting powerforwards a majority of the time..i don't think Shaq qualifies as a powerforward. You also need a low center of gravity when battling for rebounding position. The reason mcgee gets nudge out of position so easily is because his center of gravity is so high that its easy to knock him off balance.
Guarding out on the perimeter..the lower your center of gravity, easier it is the change directions in response to the offensive player. The higher you center of gravity means you can't maintain your balance when you change directions. McGee is going to spend the majority of his career guarding shooting powerforwards outside of the paint which requires agility. Teh main reason he can't be counted on his because of his poor defensive stance and agility movements.
KG plays excellent perimeter defense because he has the abilty to maintain a low defensive stance and change directions in response to the player he is guarding out on the perimeter. McGee is horrible at changing directions if you ever noticed i assume that you have. KG maintains a low center of gravity when guarding out the perimeter or outside of the paint so yes athletic pf/c that are great defenders do make themselves smaller on the perimeter to increase their agility and they make themselves big right under the basket or when a player is in a shooting motion. You don't maintain a high center of gravity if you are guarding a player one one out on the perimeter doesn't. Last i checked player like amare stoudemire drive the basket from the perimeter and with McGee's poor agility and defensive stance, its and automatic foul if mcgee tries to guard him.
So in order for mcgee to become more valuable to us, he needs to develop his defensive perimeter skills so he can match up well with athletic powerforwards that can put the ball on the floor which many powerforwards jumpshooting powerforwards can do. Hopefully this clears things up for you.
If you ever played defensive back in football, this would make clear sense to you and you have to mimic the players moves without bumping him.
no, mcgee doesn't need footspeed because he's 7 feet and change and has the reach of an albatross. even if a player does blow past him, he's long enough to recover and come from behind.
reference top play #7 for a visual example on how length allows for recovery:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIdOj_my ... re=relatedthis effect would be magnified if rotated on a pg during the pick and roll.
it's also ironic that you used low basketball iq, unskilled, wilcox-esque Amare in your example since about 24 hrs ago you were insinuating that amare dosn't possess the requisite brain cells to realize that he could drive on mcgee. yeah. good job choosing the one pf who's unstoppable in driving to the hoop in your example. you're right. mcgee can't check amare. he also can't check Bosh, Duncan, KG, or Dirk. However, outside of those 5 insanely talented players, he can definitely keep up with: Varajao, David West, David Lee, Lamarcus Aldridge, Rasheed Wallace, Kenyon Martin, and a host of various scrub PFs that i don't care to enumerate.
segue:
The pick and roll defense made me nauseous last year. I remember making a note about how we always switched and never once have a guard fight through the screen. It was almost as if EJ/ET coached the defense to switch automatically on all picks. That's inexcusable especially with the youthful athleticism we had on the floor last year. Nick Young is quick enough to fight through 75% of the picks set for him and yet i didn't count one time where he shoved through, or even slipped under the screen. It was auto-rotate and he was stuck guarding a post player. absurd.
post-script:
actually a DB's stance is not an ideal defensive position for basketball. their weight is shifted back and their legs are staggered because they're preparing to keep up with a WR going out at a dead sprint. a linebacker's stance is a much better stance for basketball because their weight is on the balls of their feet and they're leaning forward with their feet/shoulders square on the man.
Magnumt
