Trade & FA 2023-24: Stein-Ingram Trade Inevitable| LAL Want Lebron Back On Any Terms

[mvossman]

It could be…the NBA is also probably not the best place to learn fundamentals and with only 3 years of high school ball and Duke playing zone only, it’s understandable why defense might be his biggest draft question mark.  

With his age and athleticism, you would think there is untapped upside with some special attention and he should be motivated.  Offense made him the #2 pick and defense is going to keep him primarily as an NBA backup.  It feels like he needs to go somewhere where he can develop without the expectations of immediate results, assuming he can swallow his pride.

If I recall, one of the biggest reasons Duke played zone was because Bagley was so bad at defense.  I can't count how many times I have read something like, "just coach him up on defense and with his athleticism he should be good" but it rarely plays out that way.  I can think of a few wings that have turned there career around with defense (Wiggins, DSJ) but I can't think of an offense only big who came into the league and turned his career around with defense.