Kilroy wrote:Godfather13 wrote:Kilroy wrote:
I'd be legit curious what adjustments you saw... The only adjustment I saw affecting Vando's play was the fact that calls started going against him and Hamm having an incredibly short leash with him. He'd get a foul and immediately get pulled... It's hard to be effective like that. Especially as an energy defender...
I agree that the GSW series marked a change... And I also think we were incredibly lucky to get past them, not because they were the better team, but because about 3 games into the series, we seemed to forget what made us the better team... And one of those factors was maximizing Vando's effectiveness on D... I understand maybe he got a little banged up too, so maybe I understand taking the focus off him a little, but still... Hamm seemed to fall back to his old 'small ball/outscore em' mentality and we nearly fumbled that one away... We also completely mismanaged the Denver series... and Vando was a factor there as well...
Reaves and Vando were the primary reasons, along with more intensity and better play from AD, that we were even in the playoffs in the first place... And while Reaves Offense was incredible, I'd say his D and defensive chemistry with AD and Vando, might have been even more impressive... It's no wonder when that started to fall apart and Vando started having trouble staying on the floor, we were cooked...
Grizzlies Series - Vando's primary assignments - Bane(G1) & Ja(G2) were getting whatever they wanted till Ham switched up to playing AD in a really high drop on a low activity poorest shooter on the floor(Tillman), as Lebron switched onto JJJ, to contain Ja basically driving right through Vando right to the bucket. It needs to be said Grizzlies coaching staff made no adjustments to this and just watched the paint dry. And as Ham learnt the the lack of impact he was having on defense + the absolute liability he is to offensive spacing and flow, his minutes regressed each game.
Minutes - 23 > 21, 21 > 19 > 17 > 15
GSW - Kerr adjusted from playing Steph off ball after G1 to putting Steph on ball and exposing Vando's biggest weakness - screen navigation, after which he became useless for the rest of the playoffs, including the Denver series, while Ham didn't get it for like 8 games after it.
Minutes - 25 > 19 > 15 > 11 > 10 > 3
Denver came with a better game plan from the jump and just exposed him on both ends in the same manner with screens & occasionally exploiting him in mismatches in post ups, where he has horrible defensive technique adding to his lack of weight/strength to be ever an average defender.
Minutes - 10, 16, 13, DNP
And this isn't an aberration in the playoffs, Vando has been game planned out of minutes in the two months he spent in the regular season as well if anyone wants to just look at his game logs for his time with the Lakers. For someone who is known to make his bread and butter on the defensive end as a POA defensive specialist, these are massive weaknesses that basically eliminate him from any consideration of even whiffing at being an All NBA level defender -
- Screen Navigation
- Lack of discipline to defend without fouling
- Lack of speed to keep up with faster guards
- Lack of size/strength & technique when he gets switched into post ups - like it or not, this is not the 90s and even James f***ing Harden is a better post up defender than Vando
Given context, I think he's just a slighlty above average defender, who gets a lot more credit than he should on that end because of his high activity play style, ala Pat Bev. Frauds Inc.
So we're now saying Vando always sucked on D, but everyone was just duped and bamboozled into thinking he was good?
So why did Kerr and Denver adjust then?
The fact that Hamm had no answer to those adjustments doesn't make Vando a fraud... It makes Hamm one.
He did adjust by removing Vando’s minutes because he doesn’t have the skill set to overcome those weaknesses. And “we’re now saying” is not accurate, Vando being able to exposed on defense has been a hot topic since the playoffs.