I recognize that this probably falls under the "too many honorable mentions" category, but I've thought about Pascal Siakam's case. With him on the floor, they have a very good defensive team, and when he's off the floor (partially because of his replacement in Obi), they are worse than the worst. Cleaning the Glass has it that they go f…
I recognize that this probably falls under the "too many honorable mentions" category, but I've thought about Pascal Siakam's case. With him on the floor, they have a very good defensive team, and when he's off the floor (partially because of his replacement in Obi), they are worse than the worst. Cleaning the Glass has it that they go from an 86th percentile defensive rating to a 4th percentile defensive rating.
He and Nembhard are doing some magic there by making that group around them into an average defense this season, especially when they started so poorly (26th ranked defense before December 5, 9th since then).
It's crazy you bring up Siakam specifically. He was literally last on my honorable mentions to be cut. Truthfully, while I thought about him, I didn't find his case super convincing. mostly because I think he's been pretty not great on the ball this year.
That said, he's still a very good team defender (although, as you astutely note, the on/off stuff is muddied by Toppin, who I think might be the worst non-guard defender in the NBA ha). He's one of several Pacers doing good defensive work: Nembhard, Turner, Nesmith, my guy Sheppard, etc, so it's more of a committee thing in my eyes.
I recognize that this probably falls under the "too many honorable mentions" category, but I've thought about Pascal Siakam's case. With him on the floor, they have a very good defensive team, and when he's off the floor (partially because of his replacement in Obi), they are worse than the worst. Cleaning the Glass has it that they go from an 86th percentile defensive rating to a 4th percentile defensive rating.
He and Nembhard are doing some magic there by making that group around them into an average defense this season, especially when they started so poorly (26th ranked defense before December 5, 9th since then).
It's crazy you bring up Siakam specifically. He was literally last on my honorable mentions to be cut. Truthfully, while I thought about him, I didn't find his case super convincing. mostly because I think he's been pretty not great on the ball this year.
That said, he's still a very good team defender (although, as you astutely note, the on/off stuff is muddied by Toppin, who I think might be the worst non-guard defender in the NBA ha). He's one of several Pacers doing good defensive work: Nembhard, Turner, Nesmith, my guy Sheppard, etc, so it's more of a committee thing in my eyes.