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http://sports.yahoo.com/news/jahlil-okafor-s-apparent-street-fight-is-more-proof-of-76ers--flawed-rebuilding-plan-232000319.html

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/sixers/20151127_Jahlil_Okafor_caught_on_video_punching_man_in_Boston_street_fight.html

cowens/oldschool wrote:kdp Zeller, really? I'm so sick of seeing him and KO attempt to defend, futility watching those guys play, well I guess Z is the slightly better defender. Amir much better defender than Z, need him on floor.

well, you can always switch Amir and Zeller if you prefer. I think Zeller brings a bit more on the offensive end while Amir does provide better defense inside.

cowens/oldschool wrote:By the way last night was really impressed with size and skill of Okafor, he really has Tim Duncan written all over him and Duncan came out polished after 4 years. This is really Okafors sophmore season and was impressed with the way Sully giving up 4 inches battled him in the paint, leading us with 15 hard earned boards, you could give Z and KO the same minutes as Sully and combined they couldn't come up with 15 rebounds. So sorry Sully isn't at his natural position, I appreciate him fighting his heart out.

I think Sully is playing his natural position. with his weight and lack of quickness he will always have to play the bigger/slower other big man. Sully doesn't have the quickness to play a 4 who has more lateral quickness, IMO.

so against Philly, I doubt Sully would have been a good match up against Noel or Covington. Both would have left him in the dust with their quickness advantage.

Sully will have to spend his entire NBA career playing defense against mostly bigger (and slower) big men, I think.


he does seem to be starting to learn how to use his weight and strength to his advantage on the defensive end, though I doubt he'll ever be as effective as say a Wes Unseld.

and do I need to be the one defending Kelly now?



frankly, I think his defense has improved this year, we can all see it. Though he'll NEVER be an elite defender for sure. Trouble with Kelly is , as his defense has improved, his offense seems to be getting worst.

and I like Zeller...but since my avatar is Greg Kite, that would make sense, right!

kdp59 wrote:

cowens/oldschool wrote:By the way last night was really impressed with size and skill of Okafor, he really has Tim Duncan written all over him and Duncan came out polished after 4 years. This is really Okafors sophmore season and was impressed with the way Sully giving up 4 inches battled him in the paint, leading us with 15 hard earned boards, you could give Z and KO the same minutes as Sully and combined they couldn't come up with 15 rebounds. So sorry Sully isn't at his natural position, I appreciate him fighting his heart out.

I think Sully is playing his natural position. with his weight and lack of quickness he will always have to play the bigger/slower other big man. Sully doesn't have the quickness to play a 4 who has more lateral quickness, IMO.

so against Philly, I doubt Sully would have been a good match up against Noel or Covington. Both would have left him in the dust with their quickness advantage.

Sully will have to spend his entire NBA career playing defense against mostly bigger (and slower) big men, I think.


he does seem to be starting to learn how to use his weight and strength to his advantage on the defensive end, though I doubt he'll ever be as effective as say a Wes Unseld.

and do I need to be the one defending Kelly now?



frankly, I think his defense has improved this year, we can all see it. Though he'll NEVER be an elite defender for sure. Trouble with Kelly is , as his defense has improved, his offense seems to be getting worst.

and I like Zeller...but since my avatar is Greg Kite, that would make sense, right!

cow and kdp,

I think kdp has hit on a good point here.  Sully's strength, if you will, is his strength and weight.  It is not his height, even at 6'9" he's not overly tall for today's 4s, and it certainly is not his footspeed.  He's a bull, he's a party crasher and that's great and we sure need a player like that but you cannot put him against a fleet-of-foot player on defense, they'd eat him alive.  So, who does he play against?  Other bulls.  The extent of the breadth of his game is going against players like LaMarcus Aldridge.  Being assigned to defend Aldridge is quite flattering, and difficult for anybody, but that's about as mobile and flexible a player he can defend against.  

Kelly's game has fallen off the past week or two but then so has the entire team's.  He's a much smarter defender than he has been in the past and I think that is the source of the improvement.  He's not just using his talents now.  He will always have alligator arms, so being that baseline defender that swats shots away and swallows shooters up is just not going to happen.  The difference this year is that he moves his feet a little sooner, and that lets him get to the right spot in time.  He's just starting his 3rd year, the game is slowing down a bit for him and Brad's schemes are burning in a bit more.  He's an odd beast.  He's 7', but he plays defense like a 4 not a 5 and offense more like a 3 than a 4.  Neither fish nor fowl, really.  Some kind of new platypus most people, including me at times, cannot quite figure out.
 
He will never, ever, be this.




As far as whether "we all" can see the improvements in Kelly's defense I think Cowens might reply with something like "what do you mean "we", white man!?".  Kelly is, predominantly, an offense-oriented player.  If he cannot hit his shots his defense will never be good enough to offset that.  The good thing about shooters is, they can shoot.  Kelly's a shooter.  Why he is still rushing his shots is a good question but, eventually, he won't and his natural talent for shooting will stand up.  Right now he is right where he should be, a solid rotation player.  If he ever wants to be a starter, or find himself on the floor against other starters, his shots must start dropping consistently.  The position with the biggest learning curve in the NBA is point guard.  The 2nd longest is center because they are still growing into their bodies and have to get used to the speed, weight and power of NBA centers.  Kelly, because of the things I said above, has multiple learning curves.  He's an offensive facilitator, he's a shooter, he's expected to defend down low against 4s and 5s even as he is still putting on weight and muscle and he has only been in the league for a little over 2 years.


bob


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