Gobert's offense is brutal to watch, he can't catch the ball and he can't finish. I think Caruso has been the “best” defensive player in the nba for the last few seasons, yet the Bulls defense was crap. If you have rudy, it doesn’t matter who else you have, your defense will be excellent. Utah was playing guys like conley, mitchell, ingles and would put up top of the league defense. I just don’t think a wing can do that, or even come close. The best shots haven’t changed, it’s still layups and free throws. Preventing those will give your defense a really high floor. I can see where you’re coming from but i think it’s more of a late in the playoffs idea vs 82 game season.
There's a difference between hiding a weakness and maximizing a strength. You definitely want to hide Sengun's weakness in defending the perimeter because his offense is so valuable. (His interior defense isn't bad either.) With Hakeem, you want to maximize his strength as the rim protector. But he wouldn't be too bad defending in the perimeter, just not as good as patrolling the paint. Team building is not an exact science. There are lots of give and take. You can't get everything you want. Covering your weaknesses is often more important. Minny doesn't have the Terror Twins and they have to rely on Gobert even though switching to fast guards isn't his strength.
Again, defense is largely a team thing. It's not like the Wolves were a bad defensive team before they had Gobert. They had a notoriously bad defensive big man in KAT. I am not sure if you swapped Gobert and Caruso, the Bulls would magically become a good defensive team.
Haven't read the thread so it might have been brought up, but isn't Dyson Daniels having an historic season on the defensive side?
Ya that’s where we disagree. Rudy played on AWFUL Utah defenses and made them top 5 by himself. Rudy plus 4 bad defenders will give you a top 10 defense.
1 block and 3 steals per game, yes, not bad at all. (His shooting isn't great but the defense will earn him minutes, and maybe he'll continue to improve as a shooter like our boy Amen.)
Listen, I still think Wenbanyama is and will be a better defender. His tools are just freakish beyond belief. That said, Amen sure has softened the blow on losing out on Wenbanyama. I'm such a huge Amen fan.
That's the thing. Wembenyama gets 4+ blocks in like 70-80% of his games and he barely has to work for it. The net impact of that is so incredible. That's why he's obviously going to win DPOY this season. Very hard to overcome that level of impact even as a historically elite wing defender. Doesn't change the fact that Amen bends games with his defense and speed too.
Other nominees... West: Toumani Camara (POR), Anthony Davis (LAL), Lu Dort (OKC), Kris Dunn and Ivica Zubac (LAC), Tari Eason and Amen Thompson (HOU), Draymond Green (GSW) and Jaren Jackson Jr. (MEM) East: Bam Adebayo (MIA), Giannis Antetokounmpo and Brook Lopez (MIL), OG Anunoby (NYK), Evan Mobley (CLE) and Jalen Suggs (ORL)
A more apt question is will voters allow a 6th man to be on an all defensive team? Amen is certainly making the case
Wemby can't even guard his own position. Everyone literally trash him playing 1v1. He's only a good defender based on stats, overall he pretty trash.
Agree with most of this but I'll stump for Amen and Tari as some of the better shot blocking wings of recent memory. I agree that because paint shots are the highest efficiency shots, bigs tend to be more impactful to team defense in that context because they are often protecting the rim as part of the scheme but Amen and Tari are particularly good as wings go at rotating into the paint and making stops at the rim in ways other wings are unable. One of the luxuries of having so many A+ wing defenders is even if the on ball guy is guarding the ballhandler(often Amen), another A+ wing guy(often Tari or Brooks) AND Sengun are all converging at the rim to shut down the paint. Needless to say, it's been effective in ways we rarely see.
They have in the past. I'm guessing they'll look more at minutes played in a game and number of games played which is what the criteria is for allowing players to be considered.
This is just not true. Wemby may get trucked by bigger players from time to time because of his light frame, but he is still the best defender in the league even despite that and is the odds on favorite to win the DPOY. The Spurs are the 12th best defense in the league, their defensive rating tanks when Wemby goes to the bench, Sochan has barely played this year, their next best defender next to Wemby is rookie Steph Castle, and defensive liabilities like current versions of Chris Paul, Harrison Barnes, and Keldon Johnson get a lot of minutes on this team. ...plus you just have to watch his games to see how much he impacts the game - people drive and look to pass out before he has a chance to block them - it's wild....and not just a stats thing - I've watched it on TV and watched it in person this year. Dude is legit.
Ya it's an insane thing to say, considering our best player is a center and he shot 40% in 3 games against wemby with a whopping 5 free throws in 3 games.
