Tisk Tisk my dude you are using both a strawman and a hasty generalization when referring to my stance on the topic. You yourself who tends to be more level headed than most has forgotten himself to an extent and have gone full terminator mode, and thats fine. Curious, but okay in my book I aint mad at ya.
What is the goal, though? What do we need defense for, really? Yes this team needs defense more than scoring to be a better team next year - but when you are the worst team in the league, what does "better defense" really get you if you still aren't sniffing the playoffs with that "better defense"? The goal should be how do we build a future legit title contender which is the long view - not the short term...and the lesson from the last 20+ years of title teams is that the team with the better elite scoring guard or forward usually wins - whether that's Lebron, Steph, Durant, etc. Good offense beats good defense and typically adding elite offensive players is a lot harder to add to your roster after you are a contender than adding good defense unless you are in a super friends situation(like Brooklyn, the old Lebron Heat, etc). Plus I would argue in the modern NBA you are only as strong as your weakest defender on the floor because teams hunt matchups in the playoffs. AD and Rudy Gobert are two of the best defensive big men of the last decade and yet both player's playoff success has been more driven by how good the scorers are around them - Lebron for AD, and the growth of Mitchell for Gobert. You could say the same about Jokic and Embid - the Nuggets lost their elite scorer and that doomed them this year and the 76ers don't have a consistently reliable scoring wing/guard and that's limited their title chances. I don't doubt Mobley will be good and can be a big on a title winning team but unless he plays like a guard/wing and becomes Durant 2.0, I think his team's ceiling is much lower with him alone and I doubt he will be a Durant 2.0 because he isn't anywhere near where Durant was offensively with his polish at the same age. ....if we are being really stingy about it - getting worse next year but retaining a future stud from this year is probably a best case scenario because it allows us to take a swing at another lotto pick next year. If we add Green to KPJ & Wood this year and next year get a lotto pick - we can focus more on defense and wing support because defense tends to be undervalued in the draft and this year there aren't any opportunities for future elite wings so next year we get another crack to find a modern big or a 3 and d wing to fill out our future.
I generally agree with this but a little worried with Chris Wallace from Memphis running our scouting division because his track record hasn't been great in the draft. Highlights between the 07 and 18 drafts include Hasheem Thabeet, Xavier Henry, and OJ Mayo(traded Love for him). I guess technically they took Conley in 07 but Wallace had been with the org for a couple of days before the draft so I don't know if I would classify that as his pick necessarily. In fairness, the Griz built a title team during that era through trades/FA signings so it's not that Wallace isn't without his strengths but maybe draft scouting is not one of them.
I don't buy this logic as it can be used to excuse any flaw in a G League prospect. In any event, other young G Leaguers looked way better on D, like Green's teammate Isaiah Todd who is climbing up the draft boards.
KD is an above average defensive player, and Tatum is a significantly above average defensive player.
What is often overlooked is the work ethic - All I have read shows Green has the drive beyond his years… Does Mobley have a drive and work ethic to put in work 24/7? It certainly doesn’t look like it during games where I see apathy and a lack of aggression. I have more studying to do though, and I trust our FO.
You are missing the point entirely. One more time. The point is Green isn't your average G league prospect who bounced between various Euro leagues and collegiate careers - this is a relatively new phenomenon where high school players are starting to consider skipping college to get a start on their pro career in a league that is more catered to developing their game in the pros. The NBA previously considered college to be their development grounds for teenagers coming out of high school but that changed within the last two years where the NBA is now actively funding and promoting professional development to compete with the NCAA. There is very little precedence for what teenagers look like in the g league because before 2020, they would always go to college for their development and Green is really the first high level(as in one of the top players in the nation) high school player to go straight to the G-league. The concept of a G league "one and done" has never been a thing until now - that's why evaluating Green against other NCAA players is not wise because he isn't playing against other teenagers and coached by collegiate level coaches - he's competing against other former NBA vets and long time semi pros and being coached by NBA level coaches. Guys like Amir Johnson, Bobby Brown, and Jarett Jack and coaches like Brian Shaw(who has title rings), are far better preparation for a young player trying to learn to be a professional NBA player than college players/coaches are. Jarett Jack is going to be a much tougher defender than 99% of college players so if you can score on him, it means something different than what it means scoring against a 20 yr old collegiate defensive specialist who is a good defender for his age.
Seems to me that neither green or mobley seem to be can't miss prospects like Zion, Luka, AD etc. In that case, it's hard to make definitive arguments about one or the other. It's going to be a gamble either way. You just hope whoever is doing the picking has done their best prognosticating work during the scouting, measuring and interview process.
No, I got the point. You act like Green is the only 18-19 yr old prospect in the G League. I watched two other such prospects -- Kuminga and Todd -- on his same team and both looked way better on D than Green. Kuminga, for example, looked like he has the tools to be a elite defender, just not the experience. THAT's that kind of thing you can excuse. Green, on the other hand, just often looked unengaged on D. That's worrisome and has nothing to do with the level of play.
Mobley was double teamed on every single possession - that will not happen in the NBA - and USC won by 18. They also held Utah to 46, largely because Utah couldn't score in the paint. That's making an impact in every minute on both ends of the court, not many players can say that.
That's fair - comparing him to other teenage G-leaguers makes sense. My understanding from scouting reports(and to be clear - I haven't watched full G-league games to know first hand - just clips) is he seemed to pick up on the speed of the game defensively as the season progressed. I don't think anyone is confusing him with an elite defender, but what I'm hearing is he showed signs of being a capable defender when needed. Still, for a rebuilding team, napping an elite offensive player is the first priority to jump start our new direction. Defense is a nice to have, but a team's title ceiling is only as high as their best scorer's abilities....just ask Utah who took a leap with Mitchell's scoring or the 76ers who flamed out without a reliable wing/guard scorer.
Are you actually making the argument that defense doesn't matter? If so, we have reached peak insanity levels in this discussion.
Damn you nailed me. You’re a smart cookie. not a fan of creating new threads based off one game on topics that have been/are being discussed in multiple other threads. you’re not as revolutionary in your thinking as you might consider yourself. There are actually quite a few people that prefer Mobley or Suggs at the 2 spot over green, shocking. personally, I prefer green but I’d be happy with Mobley or to a lesser extent Suggs as well. It doesn’t make you some contrarian savant to rather have Mobley or Suggs. I don’t understand why people feel the need to **** on one just because they prefer the other they all have strengths and weaknesses and there are no absolutes.
