I'm normally a big fan of Pruiti's work but I think he got this one wrong. He's basically saying that because there's one single aspect of defense that Bargnani does at an adequate level, that the notion of Bargnani being a terrible defender is a myth. Huh?
According to him, the defensive "strength" of Bargnani is one on one defense in the post. But he also says that it only happened 205 times all of last season, which roughly averages out to 2.5 possessions per night where Bargnani gets posted up on the block. That means that there's 40-50 other possessions on any given night where Bargnani is on the floor and is being asked to do things that he's extremely poor at (help side defense, rebounding, recovering to his man). What should we be giving more weight to? The 2-3 plays a night where Bargnani does an average job? Or literally EVERY OTHER DEFENSIVE PLAY where he performs well below an acceptable level? I'd say the latter.
Plus it's been mentioned by a few others but there's certain things that can't be measured by stats. The boost in confidence of Bargnani's match up is one. The loss of confidence from Bargnani's teammates is another.
I don't think I've ever seen a defender look as clueless as Bargnani does on a regular basis, which in a nutshell explains why I dont think he'll ever get it, no matter who he's surrounded with or who is coaching him. Bargs has heard 10,000 times since he came to the NBA that defense is important, how he should be focusing on this end, etc. etc. and yet you can still count on him for a dozen plays every night where he's in his own little world out there, staring blankly into space while his man scores or someone zooms past him for a rebound. I seriously think there may be a disconnect in his brain that prevents him from being a competent defender.
According to him, the defensive "strength" of Bargnani is one on one defense in the post. But he also says that it only happened 205 times all of last season, which roughly averages out to 2.5 possessions per night where Bargnani gets posted up on the block. That means that there's 40-50 other possessions on any given night where Bargnani is on the floor and is being asked to do things that he's extremely poor at (help side defense, rebounding, recovering to his man). What should we be giving more weight to? The 2-3 plays a night where Bargnani does an average job? Or literally EVERY OTHER DEFENSIVE PLAY where he performs well below an acceptable level? I'd say the latter.
Plus it's been mentioned by a few others but there's certain things that can't be measured by stats. The boost in confidence of Bargnani's match up is one. The loss of confidence from Bargnani's teammates is another.
I don't think I've ever seen a defender look as clueless as Bargnani does on a regular basis, which in a nutshell explains why I dont think he'll ever get it, no matter who he's surrounded with or who is coaching him. Bargs has heard 10,000 times since he came to the NBA that defense is important, how he should be focusing on this end, etc. etc. and yet you can still count on him for a dozen plays every night where he's in his own little world out there, staring blankly into space while his man scores or someone zooms past him for a rebound. I seriously think there may be a disconnect in his brain that prevents him from being a competent defender.
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