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Originally Posted by l2owen
the big issue here is the type of defense being played. Larry Bird for instance was never a good man to man defender. going one on one he was not a defensive stopped. much like adam . however what larry bird was really really good at was playing TEAM defense, and ANTICIPATION of what the defender was going to do . he could see offensive sets play out before the other team already started them and would assert himself and his whole team to match that.
the similarity between bird and adam is this. neither of them were or ever will be ( in case of adam) one to one defensive stoppers ala AI2 or the old Rodman. but what the two do share is an incredibly high basketball IQ , incredible game instincts and the ability to see plays happen before they do . adam will have no problem playing team defense. hes got the smarts, hes got the wingspan to play off of players, and hes got some nice shotblocking to rely on from charlie v ( who i think has the potential to be a fantastic blocking machine if he trains himself right ) and of course chris bosh who is extremely atheletic and will get you a good ammount of blocks . in the nba team defense is the most important , not individual defense. especially with the new zones that allow teams to cover up a players weakness.
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having a high bball iq at one end of the court doesnt neccesarily translate to the other end...steve nash has a high bball iq on the offense end but does that mean he has a high one on the def. end too? obviously not...similarly, b. wallace has an extremely high bball iq on the def. end, but does that mean he has a high off. bball iq as well? nope...
team d is overblown on the t.o board...i dont think its disputable that the majority of the time (at least 70+% imo) teams are running a man d in the nba, so how does team d become more important then how an ind. d's up a guy one-on-one when thats the majority of defense the guy will be playing?
also, to play effective team d, yes you must have a coach that can implement and make you believe in that system, but you must also have the players that have the sufficient defensive bball acumen (i.e being at the right place at the right time, when to switch, etc, etc...) and sufficient skills to make said system work...the raptors simply put, dont have those players...who on the raps do you think has a high bball iq on the defensive end and/or are good def. players?? i personally cant count too many....