Mario looks ridiculously slow moving laterally

[Grindo_Tangelo]

Has anyone else noticed this? I worry ihs defense will never be even average (man-to-man) primarily due to his lack of ability to move laterally quickly. Worrisome... Before this season, I'd say that it's impossible to cover up the defensive deficits of both Hezonja and Vucevic, but Skiles has put in some real work with Vuc, and he's not a man to man defensive liability to the same extent that he was last season.

[tooler]

Asked about Hezonja as a defender, Skiles answered, "I think athletically — laterally, especially — there isn’t any reason he can’t be a really good defender, and he also has some toughness. Like a lot of great offensive players, especially young, great offensive players, he probably takes a possession or two off maybe right now at a young age when maybe he shouldn’t. But that isn’t anything that can’t be corrected."

He's probably just a step slow mentally. The game is too fast for him right now. He'll be okay.

I left the latter part of the quote in, but I think at the moment he's consistently slow getting around screens rather than just taking a possession or two off (which he may also be doing). Again, not worried about it.

[eyriq]

Not something I've noticed. What has stood out to me are his poor handles. Yikes!

[MagicFan101]

Not something I've noticed. What has stood out to me are his poor handles. Yikes!

I pointed this out during the drafting scouting process as the one thing about him I didn't like. Once I finally started watching tape of him, I was overall blown away... but his handles and high dribble stood out as needing work.

Still, I am quite happy to have him here.

[Optimus_Steel]

He looked fantastic guarding in the Toronto game.

[Skin]

Not something I've noticed. What has stood out to me are his poor handles. Yikes!

I'm glad someone else has said it.

[NBAchamps2017]

Not something I've noticed. What has stood out to me are his poor handles. Yikes!

I have been shouting about this since July. That's why I said that it is better for him to stay in Amway facility last July to Sept to work out with his handles. Three months of dribbling the ball will do wonders. Especially with a coach like white chocolate.

[j_n]

He looked fantastic guarding in the Toronto game.

Not really, there is a channel on youtube that follows every game of Hezonja and some other euro players and he posts every play including the bad ones and the notable ones on defense, you can look at everyone of his plays defensively and see that he made a lot of mistakes even though some of them didnt result in a made basket like on 3:20:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7OUBOVS61Q[/youtube]

[Patrick1978]

This thread is a total nonsense
Ce pulla!!

[zelenooq]

hezonja is better and better in D every game

[Bergmaniac]

He looks fine to me athletically, but he makes too many mental mistakes on D, slow to react and makes poor decisions often . But he's improving in that and it's something that can be fixed.

[tooler]

He looked fantastic guarding in the Toronto game.

Not really, there is a channel on youtube that follows every game of Hezonja and some other euro players and he posts every play including the bad ones and the notable ones on defense, you can look at everyone of his plays defensively and see that he made a lot of mistakes even though some of them didnt result in a made basket like on 3:20:

Fantastic is too strong a word, but that video has many clips of him staying in front of DeRozan one-on-one using lateral movement. It's anticipating screens and straight-line drives that he struggles with at the moment. (Even Aaron Gordon gets fooled by those sometimes.)

In the post-game interview, Skiles praised his defense in the first half. You'll see most of the mistakes in that video are in the second half.

hezonja is better and better in D every game

Yeah, this is the takeaway. Like the team, we're just looking for longer and longer stretches of good defense.

[j_n]

He looked fantastic guarding in the Toronto game.

Not really, there is a channel on youtube that follows every game of Hezonja and some other euro players and he posts every play including the bad ones and the notable ones on defense, you can look at everyone of his plays defensively and see that he made a lot of mistakes even though some of them didnt result in a made basket like on 3:20:

Fantastic is too strong a word, but that video has many clips of him staying in front of DeRozan one-on-one using lateral movement. It's anticipating screens and straight-line drives that he struggles with at the moment. (Even Aaron Gordon gets fooled by those sometimes.)

In the post-game interview, Skiles praised his defense in the first half. You'll see most of the mistakes in that video are in the second half.

hezonja is better and better in D every game

Yeah, this is the takeaway. Like the team, we're just looking for longer and longer stretches of good defense.

He was bad overall, too many easy buckets or free throws because he didnt defend well and caused a breakdown, I think people judge players ability to defend based on their athleticism, thats the only way can look at that video( and the rest of his videos ) and come to the conclusion that he played even OK defense.

I have nothing against him btw, I think he can become a good defender eventually but hes a 20 years old rookie from Europe, it will take him some time to get used to that level, no reason to sugarcoat it, hes a bad defender right now and will likely be one for at least another year or two.

[pogiro]

He looked fantastic guarding in the Toronto game.

Not really, there is a channel on youtube that follows every game of Hezonja and some other euro players and he posts every play including the bad ones and the notable ones on defense, you can look at everyone of his plays defensively and see that he made a lot of mistakes even though some of them didnt result in a made basket like on 3:20:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7OUBOVS61Q[/youtube]

And1 for the youtube clip but Hezonja showed big improvement defensively. I really like what I see from him. I'm not seeing too many glaring weaknesses that experience cannot fix. He's shown to be a capable and willing defender. The vibe I get from him on defense is that he's not intimidated. He'll defend you with the same intensity whether you're LeBron or some scrub. His shot looks beautiful and I'm confident that will come around. His handles are probably the most concerning, but it something he can improve. But the most promising in my eyes has been his attitude and his competitiveness. I find it pretty odd that his big question mark leading up the draft was his attitude... (knock on wood, hope reputation doesn't manifest)

[tooler]

He was bad overall, too many easy buckets or free throws because he didnt defend well and caused a breakdown, I think people judge players ability to defend based on their athleticism, thats the only way can look at that video( and the rest of his videos ) and come to the conclusion that he played even OK defense.

You could look at it like a tale of two halves, just like our experienced, defensive-minded coach did when he praised Hezonja's defense in the first half.

Or we could listen to the RealGM opinion!

[premo321]

I could understand slow initial reaction, not best awareness or something like that in topic name (and I would then comment here smth like, yep its not great D, but were month or max two away from him playing okish D), but calling really fast guy ridiculously slow moving laterally is just ridiculous, ffs hes not perkins

[pogiro]

Not really, there is a channel on youtube that follows every game of Hezonja and some other euro players and he posts every play including the bad ones and the notable ones on defense, you can look at everyone of his plays defensively and see that he made a lot of mistakes even though some of them didnt result in a made basket like on 3:20:

Fantastic is too strong a word, but that video has many clips of him staying in front of DeRozan one-on-one using lateral movement. It's anticipating screens and straight-line drives that he struggles with at the moment. (Even Aaron Gordon gets fooled by those sometimes.)

In the post-game interview, Skiles praised his defense in the first half. You'll see most of the mistakes in that video are in the second half.

hezonja is better and better in D every game

Yeah, this is the takeaway. Like the team, we're just looking for longer and longer stretches of good defense.

He was bad overall, too many easy buckets or free throws because he didnt defend well and caused a breakdown, I think people judge players ability to defend based on their athleticism, thats the only way can look at that video( and the rest of his videos ) and come to the conclusion that he played even OK defense.

I have nothing against him btw, I think he can become a good defender eventually but hes a 20 years old rookie from Europe, it will take him some time to get used to that level, no reason to sugarcoat it, hes a bad defender right now and will likely be one for at least another year or two.

I think that if this is your takeaway from that clip, then your expectations of an NBA defender are too high. The only WTF moment I had watching Hezonja's D was the very last possession in the video. Other than that, he showed a lot defensively.

[MrTwister]

Do you guys seriously need a new thread anytime a rookie does something wrong? Cant remember it was like this last year with Gordon.

[Instincts]

He looked great on derozan, which is no small task. Effort length and lateral quickness was there, just needs more experience. He is just 20 and this is his first taste of nba level.

As mentioned the handles are the weakness, but we knew that predraft.

[OrlandO]

Not something I've noticed. What has stood out to me are his poor handles. Yikes!

I think he just needs to learn how to protect the ball once he gets in the paint. He seems to be getting stripped on most of his turnovers.