good call glynch. I'm a believer in grooming Kenny for an atypical SF role down the road, too. I agree with everything except the thing about Eddie playing great D on Duncan and Garnett. Man, I LOOOOVE Eddie. He is the key to our improvement to title hopes. But I have to pull off my homey glasses when he is playing defense as a rail thin 19 yr old. He cannot stand his grand. From my seats, he is getting pushed to the basket...giving up ground so far. He definitely got posterized by Duncan and was helpless about 3 trips in a row in one preseason. Of course, this is an easy thing for him to fix. I can't wait.!
I believe when EG was guarding Duncan directly was when he was getting overpowered, but when Cato was on Duncan and EG was free to come over and play help defense, he did a fairly decent job at giving Duncan fits. Also EG did play great D on Garnett compared to how KT got destroyed by him in the 1st quarter of that game. I think what some people have said about KT is right... He can handle PF's that are around his height, but when he's facing a Rasheed/Duncan/SAR/KG/Webber type, he'll get abused. It's nice to see KT step up against the Coleman's of the world, but unfortunately, those guys hardly exist in the starting lineups of the Western Conference elite...
How is that a "type?" Didn't you just name off the only superstars? Superstars abuse everyone, that is why they have to be double teamed. You said yourself, that Cato had to D Duncan and Griffin and to double team him. Actually, I thought Cato did his best D in that game. And Kenny did not get abused by SAR. You can take him out of your list. SAR had to shoot longrange all night, and when the time came to go to the basket in the 4th...Kenny stripped him of the ball twice. btw: SAR absolutely schooled Griffin in the second quarter. I am not trying to knock Griffin, but that one is true. Griffin is having trouble with strong moves to the basket. He is quality on help so far, but someone has to body up. Kenny is doing that better, in my very strong opinion. Griffin's time will come. But right now at 19 and thin, he is getting exposed by power moves. Go figure.
Well I did leave off Dirk, Malone, Jamison, Walker, and Brand. Basically KT can handle PF's that just shoot jumpers all day or aren't 6'10. Maybe my memory is dying at my ripe old age, but I could have sworn SAR was most effective when he just posted up KT. It was when he was settling for outside shots that he struggled early, I will give KT credit for picking SAR's pocket in the 4th quarter multiple times, but that still doesn't excuse his slow start. I think we're better off starting EG and Cato when we face teams with the PF/C combo players that can fill in at both spots. KT's fine against the guys that don't try to post up, but when we face the Duncans and KG's, we need height on the court to at least contest shots.
Color me crazy, but it sure did look like garnett was having trouble getting his shot off of Griff. I know he had one or two good moves on him, but for the most part he was neutralized. This is a very encouraging sign.
Im going to disagree with you here. In the first half, SAR was able to consistently get that little hook shot of his off on Kenny Thomas, and if Atlanta hadn't had some strange predilection towards getting the ball to Theo Ratliff, we might have found ourselves in a hole we could not have gotten out of. I will say, that to his credit, he did adjust well, and played good defense on SAR in the 4th quarter. Oh, and STOP TAKING JUMPERS KENNY! You aren't Maurice Taylor, you can't hit that.
I'm not as certain as you about those. Nowitzki, maybe... but I think KT could perform well against the others.
I was commenting on HP saying that I listed all of the superstar PF's in the league, so I replied with "superstar" PF's that I thought KT could handle...
This is where I wish I had tape of that game. SAR schooled Griffin for a good chunk of the 2nd Q. Kenny was not in the game. I recall KT getting shot over in the 1st; SAR on fire. I recall SAR switching up when Griffin came into the game and taking him to the block. SAR muscled Griffin a couple of times. That is what I saw. Let's look at all we have to go by unless someone can give us minute breakdowns. <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/gamelog?gameId=211030010">Check game log here</a> You will see that SAR scored 8 points on KT in the 1st, and Griffin subbed with 1:04 remaining. SAR then scored 9 points on Griffin in a 6 minute run in the 2nd, until Kenny came back in at around 6:00, and he got no more points. I'm telling you, Griffin got schooled from inside in the 2nd and everyone remembers it as being Kenny.
