UcanUwill wrote:Shaka_Zulu wrote:UcanUwill wrote:He had good statistical game yesterday, but I wasnt wowed, call me old fanboy but I thought Valanciunas had far more impact. Valanciunas created extra points from numerious offensive rebounds, points and possessions that wouldnt be there if not for him, KAt had his stats but burned possessions and I never felt that KAT is cooking or taking over the game. KAT and Vuc right now I think might not be empty stats completely, but definitely not as good as their stats.
Valenciunas is very difficult big to face. He isnt given the credit he deserves.
Yeah, he is hard to box out, but I heard Minny gave up 80 points in the paint yesterday, thats unacceptable for a team with ''star'' center.
Thats true, and if he was the main guy to blame, I would be right there with you, like he has been in few matchups before (certain Houston Rockets match in playoffs and others etc). But current Kat is actually average to decent in spurts post defender, has encouraging increase in effort and hustle there compared to previous seasons, and the better sense to lay off the bad fouling he was succumbing to alot in earlier seasons. Now mainly just walling up and blocking alot.
But Brooks, Kyle Anderson, Clarke were all big for their positions compared to Wolves (and Valenciunas being one of the hardest in league to box out/outmuscle), and Kat was playing with 4 smaller guards (or 8 minutes with Vanderbilt at PF) for most of the time. The size difference in all positions and lack of D&poor rebounding (TONS of 2nd chance pts for Memphis, sheer size bullying) lead to basically taking turns on driving in mass as whole group, with only Kat there with similar size as the onslaught he was facing. The small ball nonsense, and lack of defending in our guard positions leads to a COMPLETE sive in defense.
When I say currently Kat is the LEAST of the issues defensively in this team, trust me, I mean it. If you dont believe me, watch the games he was injured. They were 30 pt blowouts by the time it was middle of 3rd quarter (EVERY team had way bigger size, not just talent). With him out there with them, we were leading 10 pts start of the 4th. Then started bully ball trapping and abusing every single mismatch and bad coaching assignments our bad rookie coach has this team doing. Not to mention Memphis themselves are a brilliantly coached team.