#6 Greatest Defensive C of All-Time - Top 10 Defense at each position project

[70sFan]

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Granted, this is mostly late [post-prime] Thurmond, but some things I'm noticing....

*I take his rep as the best low-post defender as a given [based on H2H data], but there's not much opportunity to scrutinize it here, as GS just didn't have low-post threats (Clifford Ray and George Johnson).
**He does appear to box out.
***He's VERY active contesting shots (whether it's on his man, or stepping out to contest another player who's curled around a screen set by his man). Not blocking many in the sample I've watched so far, but contesting/changing shots like a champ.
****His open-court mobility looks pretty decent (particularly for his age: 34 at this point, I believe).

I forgot: the one criticism I had in watching some of those clips is that he's typically got his hands dangling down around his hips, especially when he's defending off-ball (he's not alone in this; Ben Wallace is typically the same). This means that in contesting a shot (which again: he's very active about), he has to swing those arms up (which takes a fraction of a second longer than if he'd had an arm raised or extended at shoulder-level already--->"hand down, man down"); it also means he's taking up less space in the passing lanes than he would if he extends his arms out at shoulder level.

Having the arms extended is something you can see Bill Walton, for example, doing fairly regularly on defense. Rudy Gobert can frequently be seen doing it, too. It eliminates some of the passing angles that might otherwise exist.

Thanks for replies. I always appreciate your "scouting reports" as you have really good eye. That's something Duncan was good at too (and Russell, Gobert is also great mention).

[trex_8063]

Granted, this is mostly late [post-prime] Thurmond, but some things I'm noticing....

*I take his rep as the best low-post defender as a given [based on H2H data], but there's not much opportunity to scrutinize it here, as GS just didn't have low-post threats (Clifford Ray and George Johnson).
**He does appear to box out.
***He's VERY active contesting shots (whether it's on his man, or stepping out to contest another player who's curled around a screen set by his man). Not blocking many in the sample I've watched so far, but contesting/changing shots like a champ.
****His open-court mobility looks pretty decent (particularly for his age: 34 at this point, I believe).

I forgot: the one criticism I had in watching some of those clips is that he's typically got his hands dangling down around his hips, especially when he's defending off-ball (he's not alone in this; Ben Wallace is typically the same). This means that in contesting a shot (which again: he's very active about), he has to swing those arms up (which takes a fraction of a second longer than if he'd had an arm raised or extended at shoulder-level already--->"hand down, man down"); it also means he's taking up less space in the passing lanes than he would if he extends his arms out at shoulder level.

Having the arms extended is something you can see Bill Walton, for example, doing fairly regularly on defense. Rudy Gobert can frequently be seen doing it, too. It eliminates some of the passing angles that might otherwise exist.

Thanks for replies. I always appreciate your "scouting reports" as you have really good eye. That's something Duncan was good at too (and Russell, Gobert is also great mention).

That's funny, I thought of Duncan and Russell right after finishing that post (almost went back to edit in their names).