deneem4 wrote:ConSarnit wrote:FeatheryTouch wrote:
I haven't seen the Pels much lately but that seems surprising, i thought that the calling card of Herb Jones was defense and that BI and Murphy were + defenders.
Zion is NOT a good defender, you might assume defense would actually get better with him out and Murphy in.
They also have Grand Theft Alvarado coming off the bench, and coming into the season everyone assumed they had a "deep" team.
Even factoring in the Zion loss it feels like they are underperforming.
Yeah, it’s confusing as to why they are so bad. I would say Murphy is not a good defender. Jones can’t shoot this year. BI is probably below average defensively. CJ and JV are not good. They still shouldn’t be this awful defensively. I think Zion has progressed to “ok” as a defender but he’s not near good enough to lift this team defensively. NBA.com doesn’t allow me to break down transition stats by date ranges so I can’t separate for when Zion was in the lineup.
My theory: the current starters have been bad offensively this year. Zion, while not great defensively is maybe the best player at getting to the rim in the league. He is also an incredible finisher and draws fouls. High volume super efficient rim scoring makes it very tough for opposing teams to a) get out in transition and b) allows the Pels to get back on defense because the other team is inbounding the ball. Even bad defensive teams can do ok if they have time to setup their half court defense. I don’t know if the transition numbers bare this out, but it sort of makes sense as to why they are better defensively with Zion.
Or maybe Zion is a great defender, that shift the opposing team offense to either attack him or watch out for him,
Like how teams use to/(sometimes still do) game plan to attack curry to wear him down so he can be tired offensively, only difference is Zion is well Zion, and that strategy helps Jv/nance be better rim protectors
To say Zion isn’t a good defender when his team literally statiscally becomes the worst defensive team of all time when he’s out is well…ummm
Zion is an above average defender. What you’re suggesting is crazy.
Starters with Zion: 111 defrtg
Without Zion: 129 defrtg
Are you arguing that Zion is such a good defender that he can single handidly raise a team from “worst defense of all time” to “top 5 defense in the league”? Nance lineups are good defensively with or without Zion so that blows a hole in your argument.
Go to NBA.com and look at defensive play type. Zion is not getting attacked with any type of excess frequency. There is nothing to suggest teams are targeting him.
