I’ve kinda given up on the idea that he could be a league ave defender at his position. I have shifted to: “just be a bit better than you currently are.” With the large coaching staff and enough time to put in the work, I’ll never understand why some can never learn how to be at least League average. If I was just average at a major part of my career, it wouldn’t have lasted very long. I think he’s going to need a few games playing alongside Luka, Austin or LeBron so he can benefit from a lot of open looks. This is the only way he’s going to get his mojo back. Playing with a bunch of other bench players isn’t going to cut it.
I’ve never really understood it myself. So much of defense is just effort and hustle… those things are free. I get really good defenders are highly intelligent or have intangibles or instincts. But we’re talking about just being average.
It's also stuff like making sure you get into a proper defensive stance. I'm not saying it's hard or anything but you can do things to make your ability to react better. He's a good athlete by almost every measure but this is why I've gotten frustrated with him despite my early exuberance about his talent. Supposedly he scored really poorly on the NBA version of Wonderlic and I'm frankly not surprised. He doesn't seem very smart in terms of how he approaches his game or development.
Effort and hustle are great attributes but so much about defense is bball IQ. The opposing coach can use that crazy hustle against you if you are constantly out of position or missing rotations.
Of course, totally agree. But FOJ and I were talking about average defense. Not good or great… just don’t be a big negative. I know in today’s modern NBA so much of defense is based on rotating correctly and helping the helper… but you’re telling me that a great athlete like Knecht can’t rotate. You have to be missing more than a few IQ points for your hustle and energy not to bridge that gap to at least become average. If I was him, I’d be putting up hours of 3’s, working on cuts and then an equal amount of time working on help defense and getting into the right defensive stance, shuffling an attacker left or right and putting a hand up to contest with out fouling. It’s really not too much to ask for.
Yeah this is the issue with him, and it's not just on the defensive end. JJ blew up at him a few times last year when they were running plays specifically to get him a look, but he didn't know what play they were running or executed it wrong. He's just not a very savvy player and that's a big problem when you're already an older rookie.
He'll have his moments, good and bad. He needs to develop some mental toughness if he wants to stay in the league.
I wish I could believe in this kid, I just cannot. Mental toughness is an issue, but his apparent inability to grasp the most basic sets and concepts is an even bigger concern. I hope I'm wrong, but I just don't see a future for him on this team.
