pepe1991 wrote:OKC in 2011-12 was 9th best defense and he was huge reason why. Same was year later where they were 4th best defense. However, team that played at times Harden, Westbrook and Derick Fisher in same lineup was never going to be elite defensive team without somebody to "patch" things up.
There was period of time when Ibaka guarded most isolations in whole nba. And did good job.
His defense slipped over time and you mentioned his RPM. His RPM in year 3 ( overall) is still higher than Isaac ever had to this point ( +2,3 ).
Ibaka's third year was his best year by a wide margin from a BPM perspective. He was +2.3 that year, but he never topped +1.7 at any point after that. He just never came close to replicating his third year from a BPM perspective.
Isaac's a +2.0 BPM guy in year 3. Personally, I think Isaac's going to keep getting better and not regress like Ibaka did defensively because the style of play in the league isn't shifting dramatically around him.
When Ibaka had the best defensive year of his career, the NBA average was 19 3PT attempts per game. Three years later it was up to 24 threes a game. Today it's 34 threes a game per team on average. The way teams play offense changed significantly and Ibaka simply wasn't suited to adapt defensively.
Isaac doesn't have to deal with that. The game pretty much is what it is at this point and Isaac's already proven he can be an extreme disruptor defensively in an offensively minded era.
pepe1991 wrote:Isaac only played 32 games whole season, being " top 5 defender in entire nba" really is exaggeration for somebody who is on pace to once again miss 60% of a season. He was done by the new calendar year. That's why he is not mentioned in any "all nba defense" whatsoever. Simply not enough games.
In the 32 games Isaac played this past year, he was one of the very best defenders in the league. This is undeniable. Yes, he got injured, but it doesn't change the fact he was one of the best right up until the night he got injured. I don't see any reason why he wouldn't have continued to be a dominant defensive player over the course of the entire season.
pepe1991 wrote:My whole point is that being 12 ppg player in era of offense ( with so little focus on defense all together) is not max contract worthy player. For same reason guys like Robert Covington, Smart, Al Horford, Dejounte Murray , if they don't offer close to elite offense, should not be max contract guys. All guys mentioned had +2,0 DBPM at one point.
My counter to this is that Isaac is already a significantly more impactful defensive player than every guy you mentioned.
DBPM Career Highs
Horford +2.0 (career +1.1)
Smart +2.0 (career +1.3)
Covington +2.1 (career +1.1)
Murray + 2.2 (career +1.7)
Isaac's career best is already +2.9 and I see no reason why it won't be over 3.0 moving forward. That's rare air. If Isaac is going to continue to be THAT good defensively, then his OBPM only has to be around +1.0 for him to have top 20 player impact.
pepe1991 wrote:Add to that 1/3 healthy seasons, it's flat out dumb to offer max to somebody who can't even stay on the floor. Add to that fact that his FGA still bring netative value to offense, that his efficiency is still below average, talking in "old" dollars, before corona, 4 years, $80M is logical offer. That's what Gordon got, guy was only hurt in his rookie year.
We talk about max contract here. Him getting same money as Tatum or Mitchell who are allstar level players is simply silly. Adebayo is allstar and i highly doubt he'll get max... Same Adebayo has +3,6 BPM.
Now this I agree with. I wouldn't blindly give Isaac a max contract. The Magic don't need to negotiate against themselves here.
I think something in the 20-25M range should work fine. The cap will probably dip or level off this upcoming offseason, but it's inevitably going to increase again once fans are able to return.