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you forgot to mention Castle as part as the good defensive base. his defense tailed off last year but he clearly has the ability
Out of free agency and players rumored to be on trade block, who would be best to add from defensive perspective?
With Wemby, Sochan, Kornet, and Bryant you have a good base to build up your defense.
Spurs just hired Sweeney so they are definitely investing on that side of the court.
you forgot to mention Castle as part as the good defensive base. his defense tailed off last year but he clearly has the ability
They need a Lu Dort who will just foul the out of everybody.
Wemby, Sochan, Castle, Bryant (if it translates, which I'm banking it will), Champ is a good defensive core.
biggest difference is going to come from coaching. we have enough guys who have competent defensive ability. but if we're going to coach these guys to defend like its 2005 we're going to be in trouble anyway.
There is actually a reasonable chance that Sochan's whistle may develop into something like this as he continues building his defensive reputation
Spurs Basketball begins with defense. With Castle, Fox, and Harper we have also the potential for the return of The Beautiful Game, but that’s for another thread.
The Spurs HAVE to hope that Vassell becomes a good defender. He doesn't have to be good at the PoA. He's shown off-ball defensive play-making ability. It's possible with better guys around him and a coach that teaches team defense that he'll show those skills again. I actually think Harper can end up being a good defender if developed correctly. I'm not holding his Rutgers tenure against him given how poorly run that team was.
As SR21 was saying, Castle should also have a fair bit of potential there. But just like with shooting and rebounding, there's no core that can be developed around the main players. The main players have to BE that core. Even Tony Parker contributed to the Spurs' defense despite being the worst defender in the starting lineup. Behind a lot of Danny Green chase-down blocks was a Tony who got back and forced the opponent to pick the dribble up and expose the ball to Green. Behind every successful cross-match Danny or Kawhi pulled off was a Parker who stayed with his man and usually put up a fight. Fox can be that kind of guy, with the added benefit of being pretty good at steals. But the bigger guys like Castle, Harper and Vassell absolutely need to lock it down. Bryant will hopefully be a strong pick, but those three are going to play around 80-90 of the 240 total minutes on most nights. They have to be part of the solution there.
But yes, a good defensive center and two good defensive forwards is a nice evolution given where the team was just a couple of years ago.
I think the pieces are on the roster now. Even Fox can be good on that side of the ball too.
My hope is that we aren’t 24-25 Orlando with solid D but offense bc our our lack of spacing.
The answer is Keith Bogans, the original centerpiece.
Bend over I'll show you a defensive hog
Harper/Castle/Bryant/Sochan/Wemby could be an absolute monstrous starting lineup defensively in a couple of years. You’re potentially looking at one above average defender in Harper + three all-defense level guys in Castle/Bryant/Sochan + GOAT-tier defender in Wemby.
Obviously things need to fall in place (both in terms of those guys developing enough offensively to make the lineup usable as well as tapping into their defensive potential) but to even have that potential is pretty exciting.
The Green Hornet is going to strike fear for any Spurs opponents.
Can we get Dort from OKC? After next season I think OKC will be capped and have to make some cuts to their roster. Trading Dort instead of losing him for nothing would be on the table. Perfect Spur tbh.
They're rolling out 4 guys 6'5-6'9 around a high level paint protector to give maximum perimeter switchability while not sacrificing paint presence. It'll be a huge strength of having 2 jumbo creators like Castle and Harper.
This lineup is susceptible to double bigs like what Houston will run next year, which is where I think Kornet's ability to play with Wemby in spot minutes may be key. His +/- with Porzinigis in limited minutes over the last 2 seasons was insane, so there's hope that it can work.
The other potential weakness of this type of lineup is the waterbug scoring guard - Ja Morant/Rob Dillingham types that are just too fast and have superior shotmaking talent. Right now the Spurs have Fox for this kind of matchup, but as he slows down we may be looking at a minor acquisition for a role playing 3 and D 4th guard to defend against this type of player - something like a Davion Mitc /Keon Ellis/Deuce McBride type of player. Luckily, this is one of the cheapest archetypes to acquire so it shouldn't be a major issue.
The funny thing is that if you go back and look at Vassel's draft profile it mentions the ability to be an elite defender....gosh!! They were off on that!
Doubtful. Other teams know he's a game-changing Defender. Someone will overpay for him both in a trade and in a contract
Or David West
Defense wins championships.......
it starts with Wemby >>>>
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I believe Devin would have been a much better defender if he came in when we had guys like Danny Green, Kawhi (around 2012 or so) as Pop simply wasn't preaching defense when Devin was drafted. Pop didn't develop him well enough as a defender.
Hopefully Sweeney will up everybody’s defense both individually and collectively. He should be the biggest defensive cog.
A middle linebacker tbh
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