Indefensible Decisions By Brad Stevens

[MarcusSmartFanClub]

The narrative has swung on RW pretty quickly. He was always a good shot blocker, but was criticized for his defense before last year. Now it appears that he’s a major cog on this team.

Isn’t he?

I thought he was. It seems like people don’t trust that he will be available for the playoffs . I think it is smart that they are taking time to make sure he’s ready to go. This team is much better with him.

[MarcusSmartFanClub]

Relying on TL to fix the woes on defense is not a gamble I want to take. I'm not sold his knees will hold up over the season.

Clearly Brad feels comfortable with him. Otherwise he would have done those things that Roy and other posters are asking him to do.

Maybe Brad has more confidence in his player than you do?

[angryguy77]

Relying on TL to fix the woes on defense is not a gamble I want to take. I'm not sold his knees will hold up over the season.

Clearly Brad feels comfortable with him. Otherwise he would have done those things that Roy and other posters are asking him to do.

Maybe Brad has more confidence in his player than you do?

Hopefully I'm wrong, but Brad isn't a fortune teller and he can't tell if another injury will bite Rob.

[droopdog7]

Wood is a solid offensive player.  Just how bad is his defense?

Not any worse than the combination of Vonleh / Kornet / Griffin.

Kornet actually looks like a plus defender.  Thought that last year watching him and he's showing again.

[slamtheking]

Wood is a solid offensive player.  Just how bad is his defense?

Not any worse than the combination of Vonleh / Kornet / Griffin.

Kornet actually looks like a plus defender.  Thought that last year watching him and he's showing again.

you may be ready for a new pair of glasses if that's what you're seeing

[jambr380]

Wood is a solid offensive player.  Just how bad is his defense?

Not any worse than the combination of Vonleh / Kornet / Griffin.

Kornet actually looks like a plus defender.  Thought that last year watching him and he's showing again.

Thought this was funny from The Garden Report regarding Luke Kornet -

Bobby Manning: I think at this point he's your back-up Center
John Zannis: When you're dying of thirst, you'll drink your own urine

I get it, Luke is fine as your 14th or 15th guy, but if we aren't going to play Vonleh and if Blake Griffin truly is washed, then we really do need to do something.

[gouki88]

The narrative has swung on RW pretty quickly. He was always a good shot blocker, but was criticized for his defense before last year. Now it appears that he’s a major cog on this team.

That criticism was mainly due to him being raw. His defensive impact has always been very strong

[Atzar]

Wood is a solid offensive player.  Just how bad is his defense?

Not any worse than the combination of Vonleh / Kornet / Griffin.

Kornet actually looks like a plus defender.  Thought that last year watching him and he's showing again.

you may be ready for a new pair of glasses if that's what you're seeing

I don’t think he’s wrong tbh.  I might stop short of plus but I think he’s fine as a defender.  He’s 7’2” and active with solid court awareness. 

His big weakness as a player is that his hands suck.  Makes him a poor rebounder and really restricts what we can do with him on offense.  For those reasons I’d rather not have him in the regular rotation but as a stopgap he’s passable imho.

[Roy H.]

Wood is a solid offensive player.  Just how bad is his defense?

Not any worse than the combination of Vonleh / Kornet / Griffin.

Kornet actually looks like a plus defender.  Thought that last year watching him and he's showing again.

you may be ready for a new pair of glasses if that's what you're seeing

I don’t think he’s wrong tbh.  I might stop short of plus but I think he’s fine as a defender.  He’s 7’2” and active with solid court awareness. 

His big weakness as a player is that his hands suck.  Makes him a poor rebounder and really restricts what we can do with him on offense.  For those reasons I’d rather not have him in the regular rotation but as a stopgap he’s passable imho.

I'd say he's in the top 50 percentile among defenders who are both slow-footed and soft.

[Sophomore]

Wood is a solid offensive player.  Just how bad is his defense?

Not any worse than the combination of Vonleh / Kornet / Griffin.

Kornet actually looks like a plus defender.  Thought that last year watching him and he's showing again.

Thought this was funny from The Garden Report regarding Luke Kornet -

Bobby Manning: I think at this point he's your back-up Center
John Zannis: When you're dying of thirst, you'll drink your own urine

I get it, Luke is fine as your 14th or 15th guy, but if we aren't going to play Vonleh and if Blake Griffin truly is washed, then we really do need to do something.

I’d say Kornet has been a lot better than on his first night, and also better than Vonleh. Unfortunately those are both very low bars to clear. If he doesn’t show a lot more by the deadline they have to find someone else.

[LilRip]

The rebounding has been terrible and is something to watch out for all season and into the post season. I hope we don’t get game 7 2010 flashbacks where we lost the game on the boards.

Tatum doesn’t fight for tough rebounds. Brown leaks out according to the gameplan. Marcus Smart is one of the more willing rebounders but I mean, he’s got a point guard’s body. And so we need to rely on guys like the undersized Grant, Vonleh, Horford, Kornet (or Blake) to get boards. I actually think Blake is the best rebounder from that group but his slow feet hurt the team defense. I don’t know if there’s a big out there who’s actually attainable who can help solve our rebounding woes. TL is sorely missed.

[BudweiserCeltic]

I don't like Kornet at all, I'd play Vonleh and Griffin more.

[Kernewek]

The narrative has swung on RW pretty quickly. He was always a good shot blocker, but was criticized for his defense before last year. Now it appears that he’s a major cog on this team.

Well there's some more context to how the narrative swung, because we started using him differently last year.

I've posted this before but I think it's worth a rewatch now (it's from the end of February) that the new season is upon us and we can see how the C's are operating without Williams on a regular basis:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwTuvEJbKcw

[jambr380]

The rebounding has been terrible and is something to watch out for all season and into the post season. I hope we don’t get game 7 2010 flashbacks where we lost the game on the boards.

Tatum doesn’t fight for tough rebounds. Brown leaks out according to the gameplan. Marcus Smart is one of the more willing rebounders but I mean, he’s got a point guard’s body. And so we need to rely on guys like the undersized Grant, Vonleh, Horford, Kornet (or Blake) to get boards. I actually think Blake is the best rebounder from that group but his slow feet hurt the team defense. I don’t know if there’s a big out there who’s actually attainable who can help solve our rebounding woes. TL is sorely missed.

Not likely, but I'm hoping the reason Blake isn't playing more is because he is vigorously working on his conditioning so that he can get back out there and make a real impact. Sure, he'll never be Jaylen Brown out there, but he should be looking at Al as an example of how a strong, skilled big can grow older and still be a force on the court.

I get it, injuries have taken a toll on his body, but the dude is 33. You can still be in really good shape at 33.

[nebist]

With the recent loss of Primo, the Spurs could use another point guard sized dude that can shoot to develop with their young guys (see: Payton Pritchard). Their previously reported asking price Poeltl was 2 1sts, which is steep for an expiring player. But perhaps they would do Pritchard, 1 1st, and salary (Gallo would work? Kornet and Justin Jackson gets you pretty close I think).