KD, Sengun, and Amen are an extremely talented and productive trio. Team identity is as important as talent and we've lost that completely. The injury battered Suns have a better defense than we do. Considering they were 28th last season and we were 4th, that's quite the drop off. I think losing FVV and Brooks has an outsized effect on our defense. They aren't the most talented players, but they play good D and get their teammates to do so as well. The 20-21 Lakers won a championship and were #1 on defense. They jettisoned Caruso, KCP, and Dwight and their defense the next season was 21st. Roster turnover and injuries have affected our depth. We had 8 rotation worthy players last season and this year with Tari and DFS missing so much time it's like we only really have 6. Amen and Tari used to come off the bench last season and wreck havoc. Now they both start and we have almost no bench.
This. Old guys are a step slow on both sides of the ball. The sooner this team leans more into the young guys with KD as a support piece the sooner theyll start winning. Trying to force feed a 37 year old that cant dribble, can barely drive and cant defend is a recipe for....well....
