PDXFonz
I’m listening
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Let's start this off by looking at some outstanding defense by last episodes star - Noah Vonleh.
Vonleh found himself in the starting unit after Meyers injured his left shoulder Vs the San Antonio Spurs on November 11th. Here we are a few months later and a new year, yet Vonleh still hears his name being called in the starting lineup. He has held on to this almost entirely due to his outstanding defense. While still rough on the offensive end (Scoring, screening) he is quite the opposite on defense. You see players who have a knack for knowing where to be on the court while defending, and Vonleh is this kind of player. This is exemplified in this gif, which showcases his fantastic pick and roll defense on Ibaka and Durant.
Again we see another example of Vonlehs excellent court awareness and footwork on the defensive end as he slides to cut off Westbrooks driving lane, and then quickly closes out on Ibaka, forcing the steal with his long arms.
It's been great to see how far Vonleh has come since his first game as a Starter, and encouraging to see that he still has room for development. This lets us know that he has yet to scratch the surface of his potential, and I expect him to continue to improve as the season goes on, before making a big leap after he works on things like strength and balance in the offseason. In this clip you see him bullied by Roberson on his screen for CJ. It is to be expected that a guy in Vonlehs situation (Still very young) needs to work on these things. In fact Anthony Davis is a great example of this. You look at Davis in College and Davis today and you can really see how much he has worked on his strength and conditioning since entering the league. I think that might have been the biggest improvement Davis made after his rookie season when he went from good player (Who lets not forget didn't even get a vote over Dame for Rookie of the year) to legitimate MVP candidate. Now I'm not saying we should expect such a drastic leap from Noah, because Davis is the kind of player you see once in a decade. But I do believe that we will see Vonleh improve in these categories.
Now we switch our attention to another player who has shown elite defensive capability. Unlike our other elite defender (Vonleh) Crabbe has a sweet touch, and has shown he can score in bunches. But what really stands out is his activity on the defensive end. This was showcased during the Utah game in which Crabbe tallied 3 steals and 2 blocks, and a whole lot more defensive pressure which was not reflected on the stat sheet.
Here is an example of such an occasion, where Crabbe gets into the passing lanes and causes a deflection before eventually forcing the turnover.
Again we see Crabbe with the defensive awareness which allows him to get into the passing lane and force the turnover. His vision allows and BBIQ allow him to read the offense, and intercept passing lanes. Something that can be more instinctual than habit.
Finally of course I had to throw this in. I'm guilty, I've been talking about how badly we could use a post scorer, and here we have currently one of the NBA's best post players on the bench in Kaman. If you need post scoring in a Playoff series you could throw Kaman in there for 3 minutes and abuse a team who is not at all ready to deal with that.
And you've got to love that the crowd makes some noise for him. It must have been corporate night in the arena because a lot of players didn't get the applause they should have. As a matter of fact I think it's time for the masses to realize what we've got in this team. Rip City went through a state of Shock when we lost all of our players last year, but now its time for the masses to snap out of it and realize that we've got a real thing going cooking.
Vonleh found himself in the starting unit after Meyers injured his left shoulder Vs the San Antonio Spurs on November 11th. Here we are a few months later and a new year, yet Vonleh still hears his name being called in the starting lineup. He has held on to this almost entirely due to his outstanding defense. While still rough on the offensive end (Scoring, screening) he is quite the opposite on defense. You see players who have a knack for knowing where to be on the court while defending, and Vonleh is this kind of player. This is exemplified in this gif, which showcases his fantastic pick and roll defense on Ibaka and Durant.
Again we see another example of Vonlehs excellent court awareness and footwork on the defensive end as he slides to cut off Westbrooks driving lane, and then quickly closes out on Ibaka, forcing the steal with his long arms.
It's been great to see how far Vonleh has come since his first game as a Starter, and encouraging to see that he still has room for development. This lets us know that he has yet to scratch the surface of his potential, and I expect him to continue to improve as the season goes on, before making a big leap after he works on things like strength and balance in the offseason. In this clip you see him bullied by Roberson on his screen for CJ. It is to be expected that a guy in Vonlehs situation (Still very young) needs to work on these things. In fact Anthony Davis is a great example of this. You look at Davis in College and Davis today and you can really see how much he has worked on his strength and conditioning since entering the league. I think that might have been the biggest improvement Davis made after his rookie season when he went from good player (Who lets not forget didn't even get a vote over Dame for Rookie of the year) to legitimate MVP candidate. Now I'm not saying we should expect such a drastic leap from Noah, because Davis is the kind of player you see once in a decade. But I do believe that we will see Vonleh improve in these categories.
Now we switch our attention to another player who has shown elite defensive capability. Unlike our other elite defender (Vonleh) Crabbe has a sweet touch, and has shown he can score in bunches. But what really stands out is his activity on the defensive end. This was showcased during the Utah game in which Crabbe tallied 3 steals and 2 blocks, and a whole lot more defensive pressure which was not reflected on the stat sheet.
Here is an example of such an occasion, where Crabbe gets into the passing lanes and causes a deflection before eventually forcing the turnover.
Again we see Crabbe with the defensive awareness which allows him to get into the passing lane and force the turnover. His vision allows and BBIQ allow him to read the offense, and intercept passing lanes. Something that can be more instinctual than habit.
Finally of course I had to throw this in. I'm guilty, I've been talking about how badly we could use a post scorer, and here we have currently one of the NBA's best post players on the bench in Kaman. If you need post scoring in a Playoff series you could throw Kaman in there for 3 minutes and abuse a team who is not at all ready to deal with that.
And you've got to love that the crowd makes some noise for him. It must have been corporate night in the arena because a lot of players didn't get the applause they should have. As a matter of fact I think it's time for the masses to realize what we've got in this team. Rip City went through a state of Shock when we lost all of our players last year, but now its time for the masses to snap out of it and realize that we've got a real thing going cooking.
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Nice Thread Fonz.
