There's been a lot of discourse around the mantra you can't hide two. I think our core issue is that we can't hide three. What I mean by this is Kevin Durant is no longer a plus defender. Our defense won't be elite if if Shepherd, Sengun and Durant are all on the floor at the same time. I don't know what the solution is but I can definitely see where the problem is. We can beat an average team like the Raptors. But elite teams like the Pistons, OKC and the Spurs will break our defense when it counts. I want our team to win and I support them but, I'm not going to get bent out of shape when we lose games that we realistically have no chance of winning because of the composition of our line ups. Needed to get this off my chest lol.
Those teams have by far the best player when we match up. If you don’t have the best player, you need more depth. We don’t have 2 of our main guys, thus no depth advantage. It’s not rocket science.
Durant is a pretty good defender when motivated, because of his length. However, he is too slow footed to guard the perimeter which has forced our better defenders in Amen and Jabari to guard the faster perimeter players, which has degraded our team defense. Sengun’s regression on defense is also a huge concern. We cold live with Reed’s poor defense if we had rim protector. I can’t stand FVV, because of his offense, but we definitely miss his defense, although I bet it continues to deteriorate as he ages.
Every lineup iteration with Sengun on that list has bad defense by the Rockets' standards. KD and Sheppard's minutes look nice. Basically every KD iteration except the one with all three looks decent to nice. Sheppard and Sengun have not looked great on the court together when their PnR should be good. Defense is just tough. I don't think KD needs to be hidden, but he can't help hide a player either. It just hard to preswitch when there are only 2 guys a team wants in actions defensively.
Absolutely correct, I think the main issue is we don’t have a lineup this year with Sengun in it that can be effective on defense. Last year when Alp was in. We didn’t really have a defensive weakness. Him and Jalen were mediocre defenders and we had plus defenders like Dillon. This year we can’t figure out how to be a good defensive team with Sengun on the floor.
Amen was always going to guard the best opponent. KD is not forcing Amen to guard a better offensive player than is on the court. On JSJ, he is a low man just like Durant. Durant being in the game forces JSJ onto the SF often which is more than JSJ can handle. Durant and JSj are forcing Tari often on the SG which is more than he can handle. I think having FVV would keep Tari off the SG. JSJ still probably is not good enough defensively to take the best of the SF or PF from a POA standpoint for Rockets standards (i.e., he's fine for short-term switches, but not ideal). Durant and JSJ both being in the game have degraded the defense because they both do the same thing and have the same weakness (can't guard SFs or down that well). The Durant lineups without JSJ are great defensively, but that typically involves Amen, Tari, DFS, and/or Okogie manning the SG and SF spots and often a different center.
Durant’s length saves him when smaller guys go to the rim and he does a decent job staying in front of his guy. Some problems i see with him is he has some issues laterally and doesn’t recover quickly. The defense overall this year isn’t the same. Throw Sheppard in the mix and lackadaisical Sengun, the D is really porous. It doesn’t have the punch first mentality it had last couple years.
Durant has done way better defensively on the perimeter than I expected. Even when he's switched onto quick perimeter players he's not a liability. We're starting three very versatile and long defenders in Amen, Tari, and Jabari so the defense shouldn't be as degraded as it has. Amen and Tari were once called the terror twins, but their pairing isn't as impactful on the defensive end as it used to be. I agree we're missing FVV's defense. I don't know how he does it with his lack of height and foot speed, but he managed to keep point guards out of the paint without needing a shot blocker behind him.
Durant is also going against the Cason Wallaces and the Stephon Castles of this world, or Carter Bryants who are all 19-23s..... Lol a 37 vs 21 year olds.....Good bye. I might well put my imaginary son into a geezer home and let him take over.
Udoka is the culture/defensive guru that is suppose to make the pieces work. If he can't make Sengun, KD, and Reed Sheppard work, then he isn't good enough to be this team's head coach. Especially since he lobbied for KD to be on this team. Unless Udoka made that decision with the idea that he was just going to keep Reed on the bench and ride it out with FVV for 40 minutes a night, in which case he should be fired for another reasons, he should've known the potential issues and solved them during the offseason.
Kevin Durant had literally one of the higher defensive FG% last Jan but he is no longer a plus defender? lol Even the data you posted shows KD is a plus defender when by himself and with Reed or Sengun. How do you look at that and say KD is no longer a plus defender? And you needed to get it off your chest? lol wtf
KD back at the 3 is fine for offense. But I always had concern of him on defensive side guarding quicker players. For all the KD annoying baggage, it's really a good feat that at 37 he's playing huge minutes as the primary scorer, and holding down his end on D.
