Prokorov wrote:If DJ gets outplayed by Claxton and is out of the rotation because they would rather give 15-20 backup minutes to a stetch 5 I can live with that. The idea that we jettison him from the team to me is really short sighted given claxton's health and the lack of any other shot blocking beyond claxton and DJ.
The hate for DJ here is all-time bad. Like you would think he is the TLC of centers. He knows his role and is an elite finisher. The guy is shooting 77% from the field. and I know that "harden gets tons of dunks for his centers" which is true but 77% is still absurd. as a comparison, claxton is at 59% and Allen who was as good a rim running finisher as the league has was at 68% as a Net.
DJ doesnt do dumb shaqtin' a fool stuff like try and shoot threes, fade aways or take his man if the clock isnt ticking down to 0. He is an outstanding screener both as a role man and to free up others with a relatively high IQ. Defensively he has his lapses but he is athletic enough not to be a negative on switches and is still a plus weakside help shot blocking presecece.
The idea he is a net negative, awful, hurts this team, or is not one of the better backup/20 mpg centers in the league to me is just nonsense and unwanted hate.
I think people will realize the grass isnt greener when we get a huge sample of blake/griffin/green playing 15-30 minutes a game at center. We have seen this team score 130-140 poonts and lose. Offense isnt a huge issue. the stretch 5 helps in spots. i just worry like D'antoni did in Houston we over do 1-way floor spacing to the point we get diminished returns.
Claxton playing 14 minutes last game has me more concerned though. if they go with a C rotation of LMA/Blake/Green that doesnt bode well. We need some resistance inside and D at the 5 spot.
at 10 million DJ is overpaid as 20 mpg backup. but like, barely. he is probably an 8 million player instead of a 10 million player. for a comparison:
Capella - 16M
Dieng - 16M (before he was bought out)
Jonas Val - 15M
Zeller - 15M
Brook Lopez 13M
Dien
Olynck - 12 M
Favors 10.5 M
Deandre Jordan - 10 M
Tristan Thompson - 9.5 million
Thomas Bryant - 9 M
Plumlee - 8.5 million
Poetl - 8M
Baynes - &M
Nerlens Noel - 6 M
The rest of the league is either guys on rookie deals who havent gotten paid yet, guys making 20M+, or scrubs/buyout guys making peanuts.
You could say DJ is overpaid at 10M, but his salary is right smack in the middle of guys who are in the same tier of skill as him. He is far from some albatross contract you would need to pay to get rid of or anyone who really hurts your cap flexibility.
He has 2 years left at 19.6M total (9.8M per year). He is giving us 8/7/1.5 in 20 minutes a game on elite finishing/FG%/TS% and every single defensive metric shows him as a net positive (DBPM, DRPM, DRAPM).
The hate for him is way out of bounds.
Everything you said there is true, however the hate stems from the eye test in that he's visibly giving no effort on D and allowing open 3 after open 3. The fact we struggle in the 1st and 3rd when DJ plays most of his minutes would back that up.
If he was playing hard and not capable of defending I think the hate wouldn't be as strong. ie - I don't get mad at TLC when he's out there doing his patented TLC step out of bounds turnovers, I'm more mad at Nash for putting him in there.
Having said that, I think the DJ we'll see in the playoffs won't be the lacksidaisical mid-season DJ. He's saving his body for when it matters since he's shown flashes this season and not at the age where he should be washed
