babyjax13 wrote:sipclip wrote:No Royce is not a top 10 perimeter defender in the league. There is a reason why perimeter players regularly destroy this team and that is because we don't have an elite perimeter player to put on the opposing teams top players. These are the perimeter players that I feel are clearly better than Royce defensively in my opinion.Catchall wrote:
Wing defense is a huge need for every team in the league, and Royce is one of the 10 best wing defenders. He has value.
As for what the Spurs do at #11, I think Patrick Williams or Isaac Okoro would be their priority.
Kawhi
PG
Beverly
Danny Green
Jason Tatum
Chris Paul
Torrey Craig
Garry Harris
Jimmy Butler
Ben Simmons
Robert Covington
Eric Bledsoe
Dejounte Murray
Marcus Smart
Lonzo Ball
Kris Dunn
Lowry
Those are the guys that are clearly ahead of him for me. Then you have a bunch of guys like Norman Powell, OG Anunoby, Josh Richardson, Khris Middleton, PJ Tucker, Harkless and a few other guys that I view him similar to. This off-season I think Harkless could probably be had for 4 million a year or less and I think he would be just as effective as O'Neale for us. That doesn't mean that I don't like Royce but to me this elite defender talk doesn't match with the reality of us regularly getting roasted by non elite perimeter players. When you have an elite perimeter player you give him the assignment to cool those guys and we clearly don't have that player right now based on the results on the court.
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I have Royce as a better defender than most of those players. Clearly better, IMO:
Marcus Smart
Kris Dunn
Dejounte Murray
Kawhi Leonard
Paul George
Ben Simmons
That's about it. I don't think Rudy + Royce can entirely make up for the rest of the defensive sieves on the team. We have four positive impact defenders: Rudy, Joe, Royce, and Bradley...that's pretty awful.
Kawhi doesn't play defense like he did 3 years ago. Not sure where he's at these days.