andyhop wrote:I hope Butler concentrates more on the defensive end of the court than he has done the last couple of years, although Thibs seems set to run a lot of the offense through him so I expect it will be very spotty given his offensive load
What? Have I missed something about his defense lately? The Bulls(a .500 team) were +17 per 100 possessions when he was on the court, when on the court the Bulls gave up 107 points per 100 possessions with the lowest on the team being 106(they've been getting worse the less Thibs taught players are there).
If anyone needs to concentrate on defense maybe you should look at Wiggins, by far the worse regular starter with +/- per 100 possessions. When Wiggins was on the court the team gave up 115 points per 100 possessions, odd with Dieng and Towns only giving up 110 and Rubio giving up 112. But Wiggins was working hard on the offensive end to have the team score 107 points per 100 possessions. You may say that's because the team was so bad, but Minnesota put up 121 points per 100 possessions with Towns on the court, 114 with Dieng on the court, 115 with Rubio on the court and even LaVine's lineups put up 112 per 100.
Even though statistics don't say everything about a player, that -8 is says a whole lot about his defense and almost average scoring efficiency when you look at the rest of the starters. He's got the athletic ability, he just doesn't have the will to play defense at this point.