Re: Young Wolves Players About to Take Major Leap Forward
Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2022 5:46 pm
Q-was-here wrote:thedoper wrote:Does Naz know how big he is? Been a wolves theme in the past going back to KG. Naz should be cross training Jiu jitsu and Judo to learn some core strength.
It amazes me to no end how a guy like Kevon Looney becomes this stout, hard-nosed positional defender that helps Golden State win a ring and Naz Reid gets worked like a rag doll on the interior. Naz Reid is like an inch taller and 15-20 lbs. heavier than Looney. So WTF???
Reid definitely has talent, but he has to solve for his interior defensive woes, including rebounding.
This might sound weird, but I think to some degree, Naz has pretty high, relatively narrow hips and a large, wide upper body, which gives him a higher center of gravity. This might partly explain why he doesn't just plant himself like a rock down low. Losing that weight clearly helped his endurance and probably made him a bit quicker, but it probably didn't help him establish position down low. He could still do it obviously if he got into a wider, more squat stance (and I wish they were working on his lower body strength to help him with that a bit), but I wonder how much of it is physical and how much is mental.
He's clearly kind of a finesse player with some foot speed, the ability to put the ball on the deck a bit, and shoot from outside a bit. Maybe he just developed that style of play from a young age, possibly because he had a body that lent itself a bit more to that kind of game. To some degree, it's a similar thing with KAT, who should be able to be a great low-post defender, but hasn't really put it together. The way guys play seems partly to be a function of their bodies (KAT's lower body also seems a bit thin to me), but also partly a function of their mindset. That mindset might be encouraged by their bodies to some degree.
If Naz would just try to be more of a f*cking tree on defense and box dudes out for defensive rebounds, he really would be a more valuable player for sure. But he has the proportions and mentality of a wing, even if he has the height of a center. Maybe that's ultimately the issue. He's not so much a center as he is a tall, huge wing who just isn't as skilled as wings really need to be, though he's pretty offensively skilled for a guy with the height and weight of a center. We've mostly seen him play the 5 on both sides of the ball. Because of that, it might be interesting to see him play with Gobert in more of that stretch 4 style role. He obviously won't be as good as KAT in that role, but it is a role he could conceivably play. But yeah, dude needs to learn plant his butt down low and box the f*ck out when needed.
Also, side note, what's up with Naz wearing a T-shirt under his jersey? I never get why guys do that.