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Are we still beating up AR as a less than average defender? I think when he’s not dog tired from minutes and having to carry the offense he’s an above average defender due to his smarts, strength and “sneaky” athleticism. A POA stopper NO of course not but he sure isn’t some turnstile out there either. Seems to me as well that he’s working hard on doing his best laterally and has good size going for him. Push come to shove (literally) with game on the line defense only I think AR is a better POA defender than everyone’s new flavor of the month Goodwin.

 

our best games this season have been when our defense has been in tip-top shape though, not necessarily our offense.

we can probably get away with a Luka-AR backcourt but the rest of our team has to be defensive-minded.

and remember we don't have AD anymore who for many, many games for us was a one-man defensive team.

 

What helps Jokic and Doncic to a certain extent is they are excellent rebounders. Jokic is like a 90% percentile + plus rebounder both on offense and defense while Luka is 90% percentile at least on the defensive glass. Getting boards means more possessions for you and less for the defense.

 

he's certainly not a worse defender than Kyrie and the Mavs went to the finals last year.

but we need front court D, man.

 

Steph,Lebron and Kobe did rely on their athleticism. It's part of what made.them great. Steph is athletic in a different way. Dirk and Duncan were both in decline at 35. Bigs are different than guards but the fact remains the same.

Kobe,Steph,Lebron, Jordan were also fanatics about conditioning too. I'm really not sure about KD.

Luka has even gained weight, during the season in Dallas! I don't see any evidence of that level of fanaticism, in his approach to the game. I say his window is 5 years. Still 3 rings in 5 years is an amazing run.

 

That's true..it still doesn't refute my point, about being mediocre defensively, especially one on one. You can't always have everything, and it doesn't mean that you can't win a chip.

Personally, I'm looking forward to a healthy Luka, proving my point about something. I think having the ability to score, against a good defensive team, (especially late in games)is more important, than just being a great defensive team. I never said that defense doesn't matter at all, but you can compensate for not having a good defensive team.

 

It's unrealistic to expect average defensive players, to play great defense consistently in the playoffs. Instead of AD, now we are supposed to expect Vando and Finney-Smith to play all the D?

However..having 3 guys that can flat out get buckets, even against good defensive teams, that can still get the job done IMO.

 

Let Austin be Austin. There ain't jack wrong with that. He gives a 100 percent, that's just fine with me.

 

Kyrie Irving has a career defensive rating of 110.

 

I fixed it. That's weird because I quoted somebody else and your name came up

 

lol, i was messing with you. your boy is marc gasol.

again, point being that looks can be deceiving. if teams could truly just feast on jokic and doncic, their teams wouldn't constantly whip a**.

 

don't like that stat for individual defenders. i prefer dbpm, which has kyrie as a slight minus consistently across his career.

again, luka is a plus. jokic is a huge plus. you can argue that scheme and offense skew those numbers, and i'd agree, but the larger point stands: it's not a huge concern unless they stop producing on offense.

 

Well Jason Kidd said that Kyrie was amazing on defense in the playoffs, the best he'd ever seen him play.

That said, that last part is the thing. Luka and Jokic are both high level machines on offense. You can overcome a lot with players like that.

While I might be skeptical of Luka's longterm viability, as an All NBA caliber player. I do think that he's capable, of pulling a Charles Barkley type of transformation, for a few years though. Chuck was washed at 35 too.

Get me 3 rings and he can get as fat as he wants, and retire at 30. He'll still get a statue outside of the Crypto.

 

Of course. I just get tired of this notion continuously being stated that he’s a problem or ineffective on defense. Not what my eyes see. He’s above average for sure for guards with the level of offensive skills and impact he brings. Just talking one on one not to mention team D, steals and what he can immediately do with the ball after those steals. There’s more to all around D than just the ability to stay in front of the best PGs.

 

Fat people don't deserve statues

--- Tragic Johnson (Probably)

 

We lost paint touches and points with AD .

Smart defensive teams ( I've already seen glimpses in the last 2 games ) will limit Bron and Austin drives .. Pb is the Lakers are not a good 3pts team and Luka shoots too many 3s too .

I'm not sure the offense will be that good