Tarik_shaq wrote:has anybody ever came into the draft with projected poor defense, but actually became an adequate or elite defender? if so, then no need to worry about jahlils defense!
The players who projected to have poor defense and continued to have poor defense greatly outnumbers poor defenders who become solid to elite defenders.
ALL HAIL wrote:Anyone, and I do me anyone, who spews the misguided rhetoric that "the league has changed to a guard-driven league", and uses said delusion to justify picking Russell over Okafor, simply put, just doesn't understand general principles of roster construction and the foundations of overall basketball knowledge.
It's ironic because many of the same people who hail Kupchak's basketball acumen, yelling from the highest hill, " in Mitch I trust," are the same ones who, misguidedly, preach about the dramatic manner in which the game has changed away from the importance of bigmen and low post play.
If you listen to the Cowherd interview above, you see that Kupchak, clearly, isn't drinking from the well of this new-age Kool-Aid frame of thought.
Thank God for gray-haired, wise, old men.
I only agree with half of what you're saying. It's important to not be so close minded to completely disregard a player who projects to be a good post player. However the basketball we're seeing today isn't some "new age Kool Aid" as you frame it. The game that we're seeing now is just part of the ongoing process of its evolution. I strongly feel the grind it out, "throw it to the low post guy and everyone else just watch" style of offense will never be seen again simply because it's not good basketball. I do think with a good passer in Okafor, it provides an additional passing hub to attack from. Having that type of low post playmaking dynamic is what's valuable. Being stuck with an "gray haired, old man" line of thought makes things worse. If Okafor were simply just a good scorer without the passing skills, I'd pass on the guy in favor of someone else.
This leads to me to expand on the evolution of the game. As it is now, there aren't a lot of offensively good bigs in the league. And the bigs who do have talent like DMC, maybe he's not being used to the best of his abilities in a league that now demands ball movement. We now know that, in general, a low post player is a ball stopper. But there will, or at leats should, come a time when coaches figure out how to better integrate a guy like Okafor. If Okafor turns out to be a Shaq or Kareem like offensive player, then it makes things a ton easier. But we all know that it's not exactly fair to project him to be a top 5 all timer. In 5-10 years, we will likely being seeing better strategies than what we're seeing now which is important to keep in mind.
