Yeah we never had Banchero, and we never had Cunningham But Mathurin, Mobley, and Barnes? They were available.
No excuse necessary. A mock is not a real draft. Why should we worry about a player we didn't have a chance to pick? Make that make sense.
Yeah. We'll see how that plays out in years to come but right now it's looking like we'd have done better to draft Mobley and Mathurin. But hindsight is always 20/20. And there is still plenty of time for Jalen and Jabari to prove to be the better players. We will see.
How so? Those are the opponents FG% when guarded by these players. Banchero even being mentioned with these guys breaks one of the biggest stereotypes about his game at Duke and showed just how ready he was to contribute at a high level on both sides of the floor.
Mathurin I can see some buyers remorse maybe, but poor Mobley is now an afterthought defensive role player with the direction that team has taken and now they now embrace the Guard Attack style that most of the NBA uses. Garland and Mitchell compliment each other great and its almost sad to see Mobley being used like Clint Capela. I really thought he had more to offer with his game. Scottie is awesome, but no way anyone can convince me he would have looked better than Jalen or Jabari HERE on this team. He is nicely insulated on the Raptors team.
The first way you can tell that this is cherry picked is the fact that when you pull this stat up on NBA.com, it's actually "differential" that is the primary stat ((what I think is expected, but it doesn't say) FG%) vs. defensive FG%) not lowest FG% https://www.nba.com/stats/players/d...yerExperience=Rookie&dir=A&sort=PCT_PLUSMINUS If you don't choose differential - you get weird situations where Reggie Jackson (43% in 21-22) looks like a better shot-stopper than Joel Embiid (46.9% in 21-22). And that's just the beginning of the weirdness. Second, when you do pull it up - the best defender rookies with a decent amount of minutes are Jake LaRavia and Walker Kessler (who don't show up on that list, curiously) with -11 and -10 (and 33 and 37) % respectively. Where are they on the tweet of the list of defensive FG%? They're just omitted. Also some of the numbers are just wrong - Christian Koloko is now 44% not 55% - that's a tremendous improvment in the 2 days since the tweet was issued. The data is very noisy here especially this early in the season. The other thing is that I'm pretty sure this measures just "who is standing close to the guy and trying to contest a shot" - not who is really doing what on defense, or who gets the tough assignment or switching etc. If Russ lets a guy waltz into the lane by gambling for a steal here, he's not going to be penalized by this stat at all, instead it will be Anthony davis or whoever contests the shot. A player that screws up the rotation or doesn't close out on a shooter would be similarly spared. Even if we had good valid sample sizes - it's really quite the stretch to say "THE BAD DEFENDER QUESTION HAS BEEN REFUTED" simply by virture of a moderate ranking here. Not saying that Paolo is good or bad at all that stuff, just that it's not captured here at all.
Hmmm almost as if using stats as a tell all this early is a bad idea huh? I think the eye test would also confirm that Paolo Banchero is not a "bad" defender.
I don't know if he's good or bad, regardless he's obviously the best rookie without looking at a single stat so it's silly to use this to pwn all the haters.
I think most subjective NBA fans would agree that Banchero is NOT a defensive liability and that was like the biggest red flag of his during the draft cycle. Not sure who's trying to own the haters, if anything the guys who had been watching him at Duke and even during high school feel a little vindication especially when some guys were so dug in they actually tried to argue that Ivey/Murray/Sharpe would be better players. Not only is Paolo the most dynamic offensive rookie, but he's showing to be more than capable on defense. You'll get a chance to see it first hand tonight.
green just went 34 pts, 12-18 fg, 5-11 3 pt, 3 rebound, 3 assist, 2 steal, 1 block. i do not know why folks are still pining for mobley and barnes
