Multipaul wrote:
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And I don't see your point about apples and oranges or BMWs or Audis. Both Bargnani and DeRozan are basketball players and both are supposed to play defense. Neither one plays it well, but DeRozan does appear to put more effort into it and has only played in the NBA for two years. Besides, perimeter players will get beat. The NBA is designed to allow that. That's why they took out the handchecking rule. The main problem, though, is with team defense. Bargnani, as a front court player, is the last line of defense, and when he's a very poor team defender, it's a killer. Like it or not, a poor defensive perimeter player is far easier to hide than a poor defensive frontcourt player. Is it unfair? Sure, but that's the way basketball is. That's why you need your front court players to be, at least, decent defenders. Of course, if DeRozan is still a poor defender in a couple of years, I'll want him traded.
You may think I'm picking on Bargnani. I'm not. I'm picking on anyone who I feel is a major weak link that will prevent this team from achieving what I hope it does. Like it or not, Bargnani's inability to rebound or defend makes him a major weak link, no matter what he does on offense. That's basketball. You can complain all you want about Amir's fouling or so-called turnovers, but when he's on the floor, he consistently has a positive effect on the team. The reason is because he does more than one thing well. He's a good defender and rebounder, who is active, hustles and scores extremely efficiently. Bargnani is a very good scorer, but if he's not scoring, there is really nothing he does well that makes him valuable to the team. The fact that Bargnani has scored less than 20 ppg in a quarter of the games, tells me there are far too many games when Bargnani isn't scoring enough, and since he doesn't bring anything else to the table, he's simply a liability.
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