PRESEASON GAME 1: DAL @ OKC | 98-96 win

[mvossman]

I'm in lockstep with you on all of the logic as applied to what they're doing. The difference is that you seem to like it and see it as a step in the right direction while I see it as a willful turning of the back on what made their defense as good as it was last season. To me, one of the main reasons for the post-season success last season was the interchangeable nature of basically all the defenders in the playoff rotation. All of a sudden we're back to thinking about "specialists" which, imo, is not where a good team wants to be. 

So I understand that you and Dirkfan are very pro switchable defense, but I am not sure this statement above is accurate.  Some numbers:

Pre all-star break this team had DEFRTG of 107.2 (5th)

Post all-star break this team had DEFRTG 113.9 (14th)

In playoffs this team had DEFRTG 113.3 (9th)

I don't do a lot of on/off research, but my understanding is that the team DEFRTG was better with KP on the court than off.

The numbers really suggest that rim protection and defensive rebounding may be more important than switchability, at least as this team is currently constructed.  

Add to this that Wood has historically been a much better defender at the 4 than at the 5.  The reality is this team is probably going to be at its best defensively with either McGee or Maxi on the court at center.

I get the desire to be as switchable a team as possible, but that requires unique talents to make it work and beggars can't be choosers with the limited assets we had.  We got Wood for almost nothing.  You could make the argument that his lack of lateral agility in being able to guard the point of attack is a tradeoff with Brunson's lack of size in being able to guard bigger players.