Scoots1994 wrote:SF_Warriors wrote:Scoots1994 wrote:Needs:
PG backup ... Does Bowman or Poole step up and earn that PT or do they need to bring someone in?
Shooting ... 2nd round pick or the list of contenders in the Dubble or trade down in the 1st to take on the risk of a list of maybe good NBA shooters.
Interior defense ... Dray, Looney, Chriss are good interior defenders in the modern NBA, but they can use help. Nerlens Noel, Christian Wood, Willy Hernangomez, etc ... several TPMLE possibilities too.
Rebounding ... defensive rebounding numbers are over-rated. There are several rebounding beasts in the draft, some in the 2nd round and Wiseman, Smith, Oturu would certainly fit the bill at opposite ends of the 1st.
All of those positions are essentially functional without adding any new players to the roster.
Wing defenders/veteran role player/leader ... This is a problem. Wiggins HAS to show a consistent high effort on the defensive end. If he does he can be well above average, but there is no history to support that as likely. Okoro is the best defender in the draft to me and the only one who could have a significant impact on the Warriors in year 1. Vassell and Haliburton are fundamentally decent defenders but more limited than Okoro. Robert Covington, Wes Matthews, Pat Beverly, Marcus Smart, Eric Bledsoe, Kris Dunn, are veterans who can defend at a high level though 4 of them are more PG than wings. Ben Simmons would cost Wiggins and more but he would certainly firm up the wing defender/veteran/leader position.
Bottom teams in terms of defensive rebounding last season:
Bulls
Hornets
Wizards
Pistons
Warriors
Kings
Cavs
Those were some of the worst teams in the nba. Defensive rebounding makes a difference. 12 of the 16 playoff teams finished in top 15 for defensive rebounding.
But those teams did have players with good defensive rebounding numbers. The Cavs had Love, Thompson, and Drummond who all get good to very good rebounding numbers, and yet they suck overall. My point was that "elite rebounders" are over-rated and that supports it.
I think it is overrated in the sense that your team can still suck even with an elite rebounder or two on the roster, or even if your team is a great rebounding team overall, but you generally dont want it as a weakness, either. The cavs had good rebounders, but were overall below average in DRB%, so I am not quite sure how it supports your claim if the team itself is on the lower end of defensive rebounding numbers and they suck. So you are basically saying that a team who was 17th in DRB% is proof that defensive rebounding is overrated? Doesnt make sense to me.
Bucks were #1 in DRB%, Heat and Lakers were both top 7..I think that is more indicative of how defensive rebounding can help a team win combined with other factors of course such as perimeter/interior defense and versatility.
Many of the past 10-15 champions were top 15 or so in DRB%, with the only real exception being the warriors with one of the most stacked collection of perimeter talent in nba history, or the heat who had a pretty ridiculous collection of wing talent in their own right (bron, wade, battier, allen)
Lakers - 7th
Raps - 15th
Warriors - 29th
warriors - 25th
Cavs - 5th
Warriors - 18th
Spurs - 5th
Heat - 23rd
Heat - 4th
Mavs - 7th
Lakers - 9th
Lakers- 17th
Celts - 8th
Spurs - 3rd
Heat - 1st
But yes, you definitely can win without being a good defensive rebounding team, although it obviously helps. I think in our case it is a glaring weakness and we do not have the talent or depth to offset it. So unless a team has elite wing talent on both ends, I think rebounding, especially defensive, is important.