SkinnyOMiller wrote:thamadkant wrote:darealjuice wrote:
Not sure why any of that would sound like an excuse. Personnel and matchups are a very important part of defense, and most of the time Ayton was defending the same position that JJ, Tatum, and Isaac were in college instead of his natural position. Despite this, he was the only player with consistent playing time that had an individual DRTG below the team DRTG and he had the highest BLK% of any starter that Sean Miller has had. He's certainly not an elite defensive prospect, but people on here are trying to make him out as a defensive moron that only played bully ball on offense are wrong.
It's easy to say, "Ayton joined the team, their defense is bad, Miller is supposed to be a good defensive coach, so Ayton must be bad," but look at who Ayton shared the court with this year: Trier's defense fell off a cliff, PJC is a clear defensive liability, Rawle was out for half of non-conference play while his replacement had the worst DRTG on the team, and Ristic has been a defensive liability his entire time in Tucson. Now look at the 2 Sean Miller-era Arizona teams that had top 25 defensive KenPom ratings: 2014 had AG and RHJ and 2015 had Stanley and RHJ, i.e. 2 versatile NBA defensive prospects with other solid defenders like Brandon Ashley and McConnell on the court.
I did a high school study as well as college and Ayton only averaged 2.8 blocks there. Howard and even Mitch Robinson are in 6bpg and 5bpg respectively.
Guys that big who are such poor shot blockers worry me a lot. There is no reason to believe he will suddenly become a whole lot better in that area either.
When you consider his size, length and athleticism you would reasonably expect his shot block numbers to be a lot higher, even as a forward.
Watch this video. Watch how much of the time Ayton is guarding MUCH smaller players at the three point line and beyond. The UofA defensive scheme had him out of position to get block much of the time. Its kinda hard to be a rim protector when you are not able to stay near the rim.