it's the "how to stop paying westbrook half a hundred million dollars to be a mediocre pg so that we can keep monk next year" thread.
Monk has stepped up when we needed SOMEBODY to. He has a nice two man game with Lebron that I'm glad we went with to end the game. His defensive limitations are worth the offensive spark he gives.
I was dubious about his defense early on but yeah 20 points per game will quiet me down on that front. He’s been superb in this stretch and even his D has picked up too. Great to see.
Vogel has directed him enough on that side of the ball to keep him on the floor. His effort defensively wasn't good enough to stay on the floor to start the season, but he's really trying and has some respectable attempts now. Hats off to him. He's so smooth out there during this stretch. I think any shot of his at any point in the clock has a good chance of going in. Getting some quality dishes to his teammates too. Going to be interesting when AD is back. If he keeps this up, he's a lock in the starting 5. There's a lot of competition for that 5th and final starting spot.
that's a good blog post. i wonder how much of monk's defensive improvement is just familiarity with vogel's system. newcomers say it's hard to pick up (i noticed stan got lost a couple times in his first games, which was to be expected, but also could be a marker of difficulty). if so, it begs the question as to why we feel like turning the whole roster over every year. also, i think this was the deal with dj: they gave him a while to figure out the system, and he basically never picked it up well enough. just my theory. monk seems to have picked it up enough to warrant playing time (and i agree with others that early in the season, i didn't think this was going to be the case).
Monk is getting all the plays that KCP used to get with Lebron. Monk is a better scorer and is taking advantage everytime.
Also have to keep in mind that Monk is also only 23. KCP came to us a year older and did some monumental growing as a player in his 4 years here. Went from being Bron tax to a key cog to us winning. If we had Monk for 4 years, I think he would grow into a much better defender. He wouldn't draw the nightly assignment of the best guard, but I think he'd be good enough to solid.
in fairness, kcp came to us with a much better rep as a defender than monk did. he was a plus in most metrics, whereas monk's defensive numbers prior to this year were just terrifying. honestly, they're not good this year, either. but better than they were. if what we say is real will it make him want to steal?
No doubt. KCP entered the league with a better defensive reputation and has always been better. But he also had a more demanding start to his career defensively and more was expected from him there. He spent 3 years being yelled at by SVG every day about defense. He probably still hears that hoarse yelling in his ears at night. And they had a few good vets early on to teach the kids...Billups for a blip, Prince, Caron Butler, and one of our coaches John Lucas 3. Monk went to a team with awful coaching, no veteran player guidance... unless we're counting Tony Parker. Not sure he was all that helpful.
KCP is also bigger both in terms of size and bulk. The Bubble is obscuring the fact that the Lakers at their best were one the best and simply biggest defensive teams in history (Howard,AD,Lebron, KCP, Caruso) In terms of Monk: i think his numbers are trending way better. Average may obscure what he was doing now (it was an ugly first few games for him on defense) but I think it's reasonable to see - he has athleticism but as noted his size maybe a hindrance
