'Draymond's the greatest defender in NBA history' - ex-NBA player who played with Bill Russell

[Godless Socialist CEO]

He's not better than Leonard, and it's absolutely offensive to me that someone would even suggest he's better than Pippen

 

[dem bath salts]

Can't stop bron, yet im sipppsed believe he could stop Kareem? Lol ok. Hope that was hyperbolic. Anyways, he is a very good defender, especially for his size.

 

[Jplaya2023]

Green can't guard big back to the basket big men. Green certainly cannot guard iverson

Let's ask green to score 20 every night and guard like he does now

Draymond certainly cannot guard pgs full court basically all game long throughout a series.

 

[ikbm]

I don't see how folk are askng why didn't Draymond guard LeBron. It's the same/similar reason KG/Duncan were never the primary defenders on LeBron. It's the same/similar reason why every big man anchor doesn't defend LeBron. Are we forgetting how many roles Draymond has on the defensive end that puts the Warriors in position of having an elite defense:

Guarding the low/high post - against legit big men
Anchoring the paint/defense (communicating where every player needs to be)
Providing help defense all over the floor
Protecting the rim
Switching onto positions 1-5, ball handlers and covering up defensive miscues
Shutting down the PNR/PNR and all activity around screens/pindowns
Guarding stretch bigs and post bigs
Able to defend every shot in any situation possible
Crashing the glass, boxing out big men

Dudes want Draymond to forego all of those roles and just simply have him guard one player. Imagine just how less effective the Warriors defense would be if all he did was guard one player. It's the equivalent of having a freak and the only sexual activity y'all doing is missionary with your clothes on.

a better analogy would be like asking
an all pro safety....ed reed, polamalu for example....to stop flying all over the field and making plays no matter where they happen to be ...and force him to cover 1 reciever the entire game.
that limits his ball hawking skill, his ability to cause havoc in the back field with an occasional blitz...helping actual corners over the top...just making plays overall...because you want them stuck in one area.
it's severely limiting his defensive skillset.
he's the spine of that defense.

 

[Ironman]

LMAO draymond blocking kareem skyhook....


Yooooo... U read that and still posted this a truth?


When the agendas goes wrong..

Soooonn he said PRIME KAJ! Blocking the Skyhook REGULARLY

 

[Kings County]

nikka we have fukking eyes

 

[GoddamnyamanProf]

Yes you did quite cleary make up shyt that I wasn't guilty of.

I said 99% of players'/coaches' opinions, because there's bias surrounding their views as well. Every past player/coach has some degree of bias influencing their beliefs. This man has played WITH Bill Russell, and he's been covering the league for 3-4 decades, and yet you choose to single out that he's biased towards a player of today? Did you ever think that he could be biased towards players of his generaton, or the 80s, 90s or 00s? Or that he's simply believes through decades of watching and playing the game that Draymond is one of the best defenders he's seen?

Draymond's the best defender hes ever seen

Steph's the best point guard hes ever seen

Livingston's the best backup he's ever seen

Kerr's the best coach he's ever seen

You get the idea. He and the other one are the biggest homers in a league full of homer announce teams.

 

[GoddamnyamanProf]

The point was that Duncan has many roles to fulfill on defense, that no other player on the team could. Just like Draymond. If you wanna focus on that "guarding 1-5" point, than it's the same reason KG was never the primary defender on LeBron.

But if that's gonna be your excuse for every time Draymond doesnt guard the other team's best player, then that claim doesnt actually mean much (if it were true, which it isnt.)

 

[Illeye buckmatic]

Call me crazy but I think Ron arrest was just as good as dray

 

[RoGethoes]

The best defender in an era were nobody plays defense

 

[Hammer]

Cousins destroyed him a few weeks ago

 

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

Nah, never said that, but these conversations are always a trap because team defensive schemes and personnel and their impact on an individual player's ability to "guard" someone are pretty much ignored.

How is this even relevant to our discussion?

Like when you brought up Draymond guarding Westbrook, you left out important context. Namely GS was content to meet him in the paint with multiple defenders because he plays with a bunch of bricklayers.

Can you not do that breh. Don't accuse me of leaving out important context. I'm talking specifically about Draymond guarding ballhandlers 1v1, on an island. And I'm not even talking about this season (re: Westbrook). You do realize they've played 20 games against each other in total right? You do realize Draymond has had to switch on him thoughout the game(s) right? You do realize that Draymond switches out on ballhandlers more than any other big man right? You do realize that he guards more ISO posessions (in the post/perimeter combined) than any other player right?

Imagine Draymond played on the Thunder and Westbrook was rolling with Steph, Klay and Durant. Think Draymond would have similar success guarding Westbrook or any quick guard on the perimeter?

You want me to imagine Draymond on Thunder, and think over him having success guarding Westbrook or any quick guard on the perimeter? You do realize that OKC has arguably better defensive players right?

Roberson
Adams
Grant
Sabonis
Oladipo

Roberson locking down the best perimeter threat, Adams anchoring the paint/protecting the rim, Oladipo being a pest in the passing lanes, Grant providing help defense and then adding Drayond to that.

Spacing would be better, defense would have to worry about great shooters everywhere, multiple people to put the ball on the floor and create etc.

What the hell ara you even talking about?

Just like if we drop Draymond in the 90s he's not going to be able to play center against any of the great centers because the rules/style of play are going to limit his effectiveness defensively.

That's not true at all. And what exactly do you mean by the rules/style of play would limit his effectiveness defensively? He wouldn't have the freedom he now does to freelance, but he still would be able to handle his own against the great centers of the 90s. He's just as strong as Rodman/always uses his LCOG to his advantage in any post situation, he has an uncanny ability of picking pockets in the post, he has a 7ft+ wingspan and his defensive awareness is second to none - he held all opponents to 33% shooting in the post last season - a better strike rate than every other big man in the league. And he wasn't just guarding 4s, he was defending the likes of Drummond, Whiteside, M.Gasol (he's held him to under 40% on post ups over the last two seasons - in their last matchup Green was his primary defender and Gasol ended up shooting 4/14), Cousins, Val, Howard. He can handle himself against 5s just fine.

 

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

Cousins destroyed him a few weeks ago

Draymond was locking up Boogie in the 4th quarter. You obviously didn't pay attention to that game, at all. Just an example -



Boogie shot 13/30 and had seven turnovers in that game. When Draymond was primarily guarding him down the stretch - he shot 1 out of 8 (and even that shot was a simple offensive putback), turned the ball over once and had his shot blocked multiple times. These are just some of the posts centered around Draymond's defense in that game:

Draymond's defense on Boogie has been ridiculous.

Draymond

I want to see Draymond guard Embiid so bad. Not saying I expect Embiid to destroy him or anything like that but it would be so fun to watch.

 

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

He's not better than Leonard, and it's absolutely offensive to me that someone would even suggest he's better than Pippen

He's better than Leonard, have you not been reading all the evidence in this thread? And why is it offensive to say he's better than Pippen?

 

[Hammer]

Draymond was locking up Boogie in the 4th quarter. You obviously didn't pay attention to that game, at all. Just an example -



Boogie shot 13/30 and had seven turnovers in that game. When Draymond was primarily guarding him down the stretch - he shot 1 out of 8 (and even that shot was a simple offensive putback), turned the ball over once and had his shot blocked multiple times. These are just some of the posts centered around Draymond's defense in that game:

Kings won the game.... nuff said