Why should we find excuses for him? He's far from a good defender, much closer to being clueless, sorry LA but that's the truth. He stays with his man all the time but that's the least effective way to play defense. Most of the time he doesn't even know where the ball is on the court. Lopez often defends for the entire team, LaMarcus is the exact opposite, he plays less intelligent help defense or team defense (however you wanna call it) then u and me. I'm not joking about him not knowing where the ball is, he was taught to stay with his man and he does it religiously but look at him play defense: he knows where his man is, he doesn't know where the ball is! I yell at the screen, defend the fucking ball, Lamarcus. So yes, he's a solid defender if someone tries to take him one-on-one, but he sucks at everything else. Defense is played as a team. What we did against Houston is we put him on Dwight and were able to use his inability to our advantage, but against a team like the Spurs who has a little more options and a little more brain we had no chance. Lamarcus needs to learn to be aware of the ball moreso than of his man, until he is able to do that we aren't real contenders, not with him playing so many minutes.
Oh shit, so you say it's a team defense but the Spurs series loss rests on Aldridge's shoulders? Hahaha Next thing we will read is we will suck if we don't extend T. Rob because he's our answer for success! Oh wait you did!!!
If you know how to find statistics, check the opponent Points per possession with Lopez and Aldridge and with just Lopez. I guarantee you we have a significantly better defense when Lopez plays with another big or even as the only big.
I am a Leonard naysayer. CJ is moot since he's not the same position. If I had my choice, I would have rather had T.Rob than Leonard
I will look and reply to you. But I suspect Lopez's resurgence has more to do with Aldridge than any other player. He had career numbers last season. The season before he was playing alongside Anthony. Lopez is having yet another monster year this season. Ironically, because he plays along side Aldridge. It's teamwork like you said. You give Aldridge very little credit
I love LaMarcus, it's just the truth that he has a long way to go defensively and that his improvement in that aspect would determine the team's improvement as a whole. He plays 35+ mpg and it's hard to argue with that based on his offensive talent but basketball is played on two sides of the floor and if LaMarcus is a liability on defense we have to mask this liability for the many minutes he's on the floor. There's a reason why the Warriors play their best basketball when David Lee is injured and while I wouldn't go as far as to compare LaMarcus to Lee, there are similarities. I do see improvement and I think a big part of the team's better defense is Lamarcus' personal effort to improve. The idea is simple: guard the ball, not any one player. When he makes it his instinct we'd be a much stronger team. To clarify: I'm not saying man-on-man defense is completely worthless. You have to either know who you're guarding or, in zone defense, where you're guarding. But as the defensive stand progresses knowing where the ball is and reacting to it is even a higher priority than knowing where your player is and responding to him. Defense is a combination of both but Lamarcus defense lacks that balance. His Only focus is staying with his man and unless his man his Dwight or Cousins or very few other alpha dog bigs, it makes his defense mostly ineffective.
