A Few Thoughts: On Zach LaVine

[bleedspeed]

Something to kill 5 minutes.

http://www.canishoopus.com/2016/3/25/11303206/a-few-thoughts-on-zach-lavine

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Zach's not all the way there yet, but I feel like the writer didn't talk about his growth as a defender like he should have. To me, he's gotten so much better on that end of the floor this year.

[Monster]

Zach's not all the way there yet, but I feel like the writer didn't talk about his growth as a defender like he should have. To me, he's gotten so much better on that end of the floor this year.

Yeah I thought he could have gotten more credit on that end (people don't want to seem to go overboard with praise for him) and personally I think his team defense has improved the most actually on that end.

[bleedspeed]

The numbers play next to Rubio are interesting. It would have been interesting to see his number next to Miller and Jones to give a better idea of how much better he is playing off the ball.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Zach's not all the way there yet, but I feel like the writer didn't talk about his growth as a defender like he should have. To me, he's gotten so much better on that end of the floor this year.

Yeah I thought he could have gotten more credit on that end (people don't want to seem to go overboard with praise for him) and personally I think his team defense has improved the most actually on that end.

That's a tough one though. Consider...

- Rubio is considered an above average to good or even very good defender.
- Wiggins is considered to be about average? He's been called above average more often than not around these parts.
- Dieng's defense has been praised at times. Ripped at other times.
- Same with Towns.
- How much credit does LaVine deserve? Who's the team's worst starting defender? Because as a group... they are among the very worst in the league. They can't all be close to average... and yet be that far down the rankings.

Make sense?

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Zach's not all the way there yet, but I feel like the writer didn't talk about his growth as a defender like he should have. To me, he's gotten so much better on that end of the floor this year.

Yeah I thought he could have gotten more credit on that end (people don't want to seem to go overboard with praise for him) and personally I think his team defense has improved the most actually on that end.

That's a tough one though. Consider...

- Rubio is considered an above average to good or even very good defender.
- Wiggins is considered to be about average? He's been called above average more often than not around these parts.
- Dieng's defense has been praised at times. Ripped at other times.
- Same with Towns.
- How much credit does LaVine deserve? Who's the team's worst starting defender? Because as a group... they are among the very worst in the league. They can't all be close to average... and yet be that far down the rankings.

Make sense?

It differs nightly. Sometimes it's LaVine. Sometimes it's Wiggins. Sometimes it's Dieng. I'd argue that LaVine's not quite an average defender just yet, but he was pretty awful last year and earlier this season. He's improved, but not to the point where we want him to be yet, and I say yet because I think he'll get there.

[Monster]

Zach's not all the way there yet, but I feel like the writer didn't talk about his growth as a defender like he should have. To me, he's gotten so much better on that end of the floor this year.

Yeah I thought he could have gotten more credit on that end (people don't want to seem to go overboard with praise for him) and personally I think his team defense has improved the most actually on that end.

That's a tough one though. Consider...

- Rubio is considered an above average to good or even very good defender.
- Wiggins is considered to be about average? He's been called above average more often than not around these parts.
- Dieng's defense has been praised at times. Ripped at other times.
- Same with Towns.
- How much credit does LaVine deserve? Who's the team's worst starting defender? Because as a group... they are among the very worst in the league. They can't all be close to average... and yet be that far down the rankings.

Make sense?

It differs nightly. Sometimes it's LaVine. Sometimes it's Wiggins. Sometimes it's Dieng. I'd argue that LaVine's not quite an average defender just yet, but he was pretty awful last year and earlier this season. He's improved, but not to the point where we want him to be yet, and I say yet because I think he'll get there.

My point Abe is that I think you can talk about improvement without saying the guy has arrived. It's extremely tricky and probably why the author skipped that part like I said and quite frankly I don't blame him for all the reasons you stated. Of course when you are talking about improvement from a guy that a lot of the time was as bad as Lavine was last year AND his teammates how much do you want to praise him? I personally think his team defense has gone from absolutely clueless last year to...well he actually has some positive moments and there are very few of those times were he ends up just casually watching the play after his guy gets beat. I wrote too much already...Lol

Lets just leave it as I like what I have seen the growth is good from a guy that young and all that. I think Wiggins D isn't really solving any of the issues a lot of nights. There is a reason players waltz into the lane and get easy baskets and it can't all be on Towns and Dieng although they have their share of the blame too. It's a young/inexperienced unit with only 1 proven defender in Rubio among them.

[AbeVigodaLive]

monster...

Gotcha. I think my take has been pretty consistent. As long as guys are improving... and not regressing or hitting a plateau, I'm cool with it.

LaVine is ahead of where I thought he'd be. I didn't think he'd have this good of a chance at making it as a legit player.

[Monster]

monster...

Gotcha. I think my take has been pretty consistent. As long as guys are improving... and not regressing or hitting a plateau, I'm cool with it.

LaVine is ahead of where I thought he'd be. I didn't think he'd have this good of a chance at making it as a legit player.

Yeah your position has been pretty fair. I felt like there was enough to believe in Lavine's potential from before his first career regular season game. Taking a step back to be honest he is way ahead of where anyone back then would have expected him to be finishing up this 2nd season. It's pretty nice.

[Coolbreeze44]

Just my opinion, but when Andrew is engaged (and we know that's not often enough), he is a terrific on ball defender. I mean better than good. When he digs in and tries to deny a move or even a shot attempt, he succeeds at a very high rate. He's not a good team defender and that's half the battle, but at least that part of the game can be taught and improved upon. I have to admit, I don't think this board generally respects his defense enough.