The history of the NBA is littered with "all the physical tools" bad defenders. Hell, some of the leagues worst ever defenders hand all the physical tools. But its effort, defensive instincts, understanding positioning and assignments, understanding how the opposing offenses work, understanding the scouting report etc.
this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2023
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He is an offensive minded player. focuses all his energy on offense, and laxes on defense, just the basic contest, swipe, or rebound when the ball goes his way.
With his athleticism, he can block, rebound, or be an offball defender, he just lazy on defense that way and conserves his energy for bursts on scoring.
Because the Internet severely overrates physical tools and "effort" as factors in defensive ability, and severely underrates BBIQ, positioning and concentration.
Also severely underrates the difficulty of playing both good offense and defense lol. Even notable two-way stars like Giannis, Embiid, and Tatum are rarely elite on both ends simultaneously, because it’s really fucking tiring to exert yourself to that extent. We’ve also seen offensive stars like Blake Griffin have late career defensive resurgences as role players, because as it turns out it’s easier to play defense when you don’t have to carry your team on the other end.
Embiid’s scoring drops in the playoffs because he has the most defensive responsibility of any superstar along with AD and he makes the right call every year to focus on defense in the playoffs, which gasses him out too much to maintain his regular season production. All that being said I think guys like Lavine, Mitchell all have more defensive ability than they get to show if scoring weren’t such a huge priority for them.
Lavine may have the physical tools, but defense is not just about physicality. It also requires good instincts, positioning, and effort. These are areas where Lavine has been inconsistent, leading to his average or below average defensive performance.