07-05-2021, 01:05 PM
(07-05-2021, 08:25 AM)DanSchwartzgan Wrote: If you are "stuck" with Luka, KP and X as your big three, X has to play some defense. Obviously Y and Z do also. It points to how challenging roster building is going to be if KP isn't having a positive impact on the defensive end. He can't cover the perimeter, so the other big has to. If you don't want Luka covering the point of attack, then the other guard has to do it.
I think this is the biggest source of frustration for me, currently.
For a (short) time during the '19-'20 season, I got pretty excited about building around Luka/KP because I felt that while they both had tons of work to do on the defensive end, they were actually capable of being above average defenders, and in KP's case, I thought at the time he could be GOOD on that end. I thought a lot (and wrote here a little) about how much easier it was going to be building around Luka/KP than it was to build around Nash/Dirk for that reason.
I still think Luka is better on defense than advertised already, personally, and that he is the type to try harder and harder on that end as he learns what effect that has on winning. Maybe I'm wrong about that, idk. But, with KP, we're all just accepting that he's a minus on that end now (it's that obvious) and just dreaming up ways of building around it. YUCK.
If Luka/KP are as hard to build around defensively as Nash/Dirk, then IMO, one of THEM needs to go, and we all know which.