toooskies wrote:jbk1234 wrote:Collin doesn't go over picks - ever. He often quits the play altogether in the PNR. He consistently helps off of good shooters without actually helping. He's a fundamentally unsound defender in a addition to be undersized. What was infuriating about this season is that he was often being hid.JonFromVA wrote:Collin ball watches too much when off the ball. It's an obvious flaw, and fixable.
Darius needs to either continue to get stronger so he can hold his ground, or increase his intensity and try to strip the ball when facing a mismatch. Hopefully both.
Kyrie was downright lazy/uninterested on/in defense and couldn't run a team or win ... yet still got the full max. He's still not good at it, but can at least he can be pesky when it matters. I wouldn't question either Darius or Collin's effort in a tight situation.
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Seems like a lot of coaching decisions here, particularly never going over screens.
Byron Scott was a big proponent of old school defense and was asking the guys to fight through screens. Kyrie literally stopped trying after some of those early injuries. He also stopped trying to draw contact on his drives as well and instead turned to his fancy finishes to get the ball in the hoop.
My point is two fold, here. I'm not saying I wouldn't prefer Collin to be a tough rugged defender who willingly threw his body around and was able to absorb blows, rather that there are other ways to run a defense without requiring guards to fight through screens, and that guards who outright refuse to do what's being asked of them can still end up getting maxed.
82games has updated their stats for the season, and one area Collin continues to stand out is in clutch situations shooting around 62 eFG% from pretty much anywhere on the floor. The problem is in terms of impact because he's not raising our team's offensive rating high enough to outscore opponents. He's giving up the ball and his teammates aren't efficient enough to keep up the offensive rating.
Similarly Irving also struggled with this early in his career until LeBron came home. Irving had a big came against Boston similar to how Collin beat Brooklyn, other teams around the league woke up and realized they needed to pay them extra attention. Get the ball out of their hands or make them try to score against 3 defenders and the Cavs lose.
There's a lot Collin could do to manipulate defenses in those situations, but it has a lot to do with where his teammates are at as well. The more they can keep their man honest and step up in the clutch, the easier time Collin will have making an impact.
We've gotten used to having a generational player on the team who would manage those situations and make the most of them whether we went with a shooting lineup, a defensive lineup, or a pickup team of D-Leaguers; but mere mortals need a lot more help.