KJ, that is not a hedge. Not even close, no matter how you try to justify it as soft or not. Next time I see you I'll try to show you why.
And your post ignores the main two points of my whole post. I'll say them again in hopes that you actually read it this time.
1) Blazers have played this same defense almost exclusively for the last 8 seasons now under Stotts. Multiple different lineups, personnel, and with players more suited for different styles. Plumlee is one of the better hedge bigs in the league and he was mostly forced to drop and not pressure the ball handler in the pick and roll. So when you say Hassan can't do it you are ignoring the previous 7 years.
2) Soft hedges don't always work. Hard hedges don't always work. Traps don't always work. Dropping the big doesn't always work. There is a reason why teams run a lot of pick and roll because it's hard to defend. If I'm the ball handler and I know exactly what the defense is going to do when I call for a screen it makes it easier to attack. If I get a screen and I have no idea if the other team is going to trap me, or soft hedge, or drop coverage, or go under the screen, or go over the screen, or whatever then I have to take a moment to react and think about what I'm going to do next. That split second of having to think versus not having to can be the difference of a turnover or missed shot here or there and could effect a close game if just one possession is altered. I believe the best strategy is to mix it up throughout the game. Just one game prior they did this brilliantly on Harden but the very next game against a player like Luka we don't really attempt to try to take him out of the game? That doesn't make sense to me why we'd just go back to dropping the big. If they would've done that against Houston we would've lost that game.
