In Reply to: Just in these pick up games you can contrast posted by ej on August 31, 2026 at 09:14:49
Give me a great basketball player over a great athlete any day. Will NK score and assist on more buckets than he gives up on defense? Most likely. Will someone like Philon prevent more points than he produces? Doubtful. Was Bilodeau a net liability? Of course not.
You are assuming he is slow by comparing him to well above average athletes. How many college frontcourt players are adept at driving to the basket? You can't just assume that anyone he guards will be able to take advantage of his lack of quickness. Positioning is just as important as athleticism. Take myself as an example. Not athletic at all, but I studied the opposition and had a good idea of which way he was going to go and was able to better stay in front of him.
Rico Hines started games for UCLA because he played good defense. But he was a huge liability because he contributed nothing on offense, once going 100 consecutive minutes without scoring.
From what I've seen (every game in the U17 world cup plus the entire pickup games, not just highlights), NK's most important weakness is not his defense, but his 3-point shooting.