It just occurred to me that this might also benefit Nurkic; I don't think he has ever gone against a guy in practice who is a big as him.
Just checked out the Blazers website and they have Zman listed at 250lbs, Nurk is listed at 290lbs & Hassan 285lbs.
He has always been fairly ineffective defensively... his entire pro career. That being said, the past several years that he has been an absolute liability on D he has been much heavier than the Melo we're seeing in that practice video. So the pounds falling away most definitely could look like years of slowing down falling away from his game on both ends of the floor. With Melo however, in order to be a net positive on defense, he would have to make an extreme change to his approach to it. In international play his intensity on D has always gone up but he's still been bad because his BBIQ is all offense and pretty low defensively. I just think he could be in good enough shape to defend by getting up into his assignment on the perimeter so he doesn't give up any easy threes, trying to recover after being blown by (which will happen often) so he can more effectively funnel his man toward our shot blockers and playing decent against any 3 that wants to try and post him up.
You'er right it isn't even close... Wait are you saying at acting or just scaring the shit out of me because um... uh?
This year, opponents are shooting just 33.3% (12-of-36) when they try to run iso on Carmelo Anthony. 0.77 points per possession. He’s been elite over the last few years.
Nowadays, positions don't really matter and 3 years ago, the dude was an All Star. So there's that. Melo is also an elite defender if you want to talk stats: This year, opponents are shooting just 33.3% (12-of-36) when they try to run iso on Carmelo Anthony. 0.77 points per possession. He’s been elite over the last few years.
Positions dont matter in terms of putting certain players in a box,but other things like who you guard does. And the types of players Melo is going to be guarding are more well suited to exploit his defensive weaknesses. We also dont have a single good perimeter defender with our presumed starting lineup, which is a problem. Also, find that defensive stats for the previous few seasons. Preferably from the last time he played SF. 36 possessions isnt much of a sample size to base any solid opinions off of.
Chris Haynes says Blazers will be dangerous: https://www.blazersedge.com/2020/7/15/21325739/haynes-trail-blazers-most-dangerous-team-nba-playoffs Podcast with Haynes and Bill Simmons:
