Both Jabari and Tari have been decent defensively, The only thing holding Smith back is that he's the worst offensive player on the team. It really doesn't take that long for legitimately good players to provide positive impacts to their team....just look at Sengun. He was the youngest player on the team last season and he already was a positive player...they just didn't let him play much. Also, as I pointed out, it would be adding one of the best defenders in the league while removing the worst defender in the league....so it's the combination of the 2 moves that would move the needle quite a bit IMO.
Here's the graphs for every team this season https://sportsmathnetwork.com/nba-math/tpa-hub/2022-23-tpa-by-nba-team/ TPA isn't the best metric, and you should never base everything on just one, but it ends up being pretty accurate from what I've seen over the years.
I think people overlook how important playing in Europe is to Sengun's game. He was taught better fundamentals and the team game. I'm not saying he isn't athletically gifted, but he is nowhere close to Green and Jabari. He just has a better BB IQ because of his experience in Europe. The kids have someone trying to be their friend (Silas) when what they need is a Dad with some coaching and tough love.
We have alot of reactionary twits in this forum that are frontrunners and don't know how a rebuild works. But we have some consistent opinions in here though that are gaining momentum that drown out the silly "trade so-and-so" rhetoric •Sengun should start •Run the offense through Sengun •KJ should start •KJ plays best with Sengun •KPJ should come off the bench •Josh Christopher deserves minutes •Garuba is a defensive specialist not an every game rotation player •Eric Gordon is in the way All the other opinions keep changing based on whatever current streak we're on and honestly by people who aren't really watching most of the games. Trading players we've had less than 18 months and putting all our faith in a guy we got for a Walmart gift card should be ignored
Of course they have been decent as youngsters on the next level but were labeled elite at NCAA level, so to expect one of them to turn around a defense on their own is poppycock thinking as you assume and hope a 19/20 yr old Mobley would have done for the worst team def. Of course Sengun ate up the other teams bench players since he won MVP in a decent league he came out of, similar to how Luka was way more seasoned than the avg. rookie playing in that pro league over there for years A prime Mobley and Eason/Smith are going to have way more defense impact than they are now, which is the trajectory for JG4 on the off. side should have And moving the needle would be going from worst to 25th, improvement indeed but nothing to take home and brag about, its still the 3 stooges analogy I don't want the worst slot, but give me the 25th worst(dummy)
