I am not happy hearing you agree with Smith
specially because the example he used of lock defense was without Bynum on the floor
His attacking mas was Dejuan Blair for gods sake as good as he
is hes not Howards nor garnett not even close
I dont know
sometimes commentators kill me
I missed that ... but yeah, I was about to say, just look at the difference in DeJuan Blair's performance. He goes from a 17 point and 15 rebound performance to a 2 point and 1 rebound in 8 minutes guy.
That is the presence of Andrew Bynum versus the Lakers without Andrew Bynum.
I agree Bynum isn't in the class of elite defenders like KG or Dwight Howard. I don't regard him as an All-Defensive type guy ... but he is a very good defensive player.
I think he is under-rated defensively on this blog. He is an intimidating presence ... not because he's tough or mean ... just because of his sheer size and length. He's a tough guy to shoot over in the paint when he rotates over. He dissuades a lot of undersized players (like Blair) and small guards (like Parker) from taking those shots + he alters a good number of shot that are taken in those areas.
It's a crying shame that he won't dedicate himself to becoming an All-Defensive player because I fully believe he has the talent to do it ... but too immature. He wants to score the ball. He sees that as recognition / acceptance of talent. Needs to be a go-to scorer. Too bad.
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Also, this is why DeJuan Blair is overrated. Too vulnerable to teams with length. He posts great numbers during the regular season and he is handful for many teams ... but top defensive teams with size and length on the interior cause him a lot of problems.
