(02-09-2024, 11:35 AM)ItsGoTime Wrote: Oh, another point. If Lively is out for 3-4 more games and Gafford shows to work well starting, I’m not all that confident that Lively is still the starter for the rest of the season. He still needs to figure out how to not pick up ticky tack fouls and Gafford has the tenure to have gotten that far. That will be important in the playoffs. Lively can still learn plenty off the bench.
Lively does need to learn how to not pick up ticky tack fouls, but he still stays out of foul trouble more than Gafford by a very slight margin when you look at per 36. From what I've seen a big knock on Gafford is that he is incredibly foul prone, so I'm not sure that's gonna be much of a point in Gafford's favor.
Another thing is the fact that Gafford is much closer in size to Maxi and Powell than he is to Lively. Obviously Gafford has the bulk that Lively doesn't have yet, but Gafford absolutely is still an undersized 5, even though he is a true big stylistically. I think that might come into play matchup wise against some teams. Lively is on a steep learning curve still though that could either continue to incline or taper off, to where we don't even know where he ends up in terms of his playing level by seasons end, where Gafford is a relatively well known entity. Lively has a defensive IQ that's on a different level though IMO (I think Lively could be averaging as many or more blocks than Gafford this season, but doesn't because he already understands the defensive risks of positionally selling out for blocks), so it's really about how much incremental improvement he continues to display.
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