And, uh, who takes RJB's load?
Reg and RJ formed a strong defensive wing tandem, with Bullocks on ball and RJB flying around closing out. You put RJB on the best wing offender and you're left with Fournier, an often unalert off-ball defender having to make reads and closeouts. He'd likely be better than Burks who played that role on the 2nd unit and perpetually drifted too far off his man or was surprised by interior picks. [most defensive breakdowns last year were either Randle or Burks].
Fournier is a decent on ball defender. Mostly solid positioning and sufficient effort, mediocre lateral speed. You task RJB with on ball defense and he might find himself often in foul trouble, as he's not a great on-ball defender yet; while I don't trust Fournier's focus or footspeed on closeouts or help.
I'd rather keep RJB in the role he excelled at, defensive perimeter help defense, making reads and closeouts utilizing his speed, hustle and vision. Obviously both players will have to do some of each, but I'd play to their strengths. So Fournier in Bullox's role on D with RJB reprising his switching, closeout, help role. We'll see if Thibs agrees.
A starting lineup of Kemba - RJB & Fournier - Randle - Noel or Mitch puts a good deal of pressure on RJB and our C's to clean up messes. A big part of last year's strong defense was the ability to keep teams to a low 3Pt % while guarding the rim. Some of that seemed teams just missed open shots. Can that 3Pt defense be replicated?
Then the bench looks like an outscore'em unit, with Burks, Quix, Rose and Obit not much on D. Actually Rose was fairly effective on D, slowly going over screens but staying in the play and forcing PG's to make decisions under pressure. Credit for Thibs for having simple clear rules of engagement, so players know where to be and what to do.
I'm interested in seeing how Fournier does on PnR's. And we'll see if teams hunt out Kemba for switches, though for some reason that's a common playoff strategy, but teams don't hunt out the weakest or smallest defender much regular season.
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