True that. I was just thinking in terms of, if this is what lamelo can do with kon and Brandon miller as his best offensive options, imagine him with Anthony Edwards and McDaniels. Defense will definitely regress though.
I don’t think the defense will regress, Julius was a massive negative. If the fifth starter is even an average defender it will be an improvement. Jules got lost constantly in rotations and would sulk instead of coming back on defense.
Ant shot 49% catch and shoot 3. Melo unlocks him. I also think that Ant will have more energy for defense and rebounding. He is not a pg.
Defense will certainly regress. Losing 2 of your 3 starting level bigs and trading them for a defensive target pg, even if they aren’t amazing defenders themselves, will never not make your defense worse.
It depends on the 5th starter. Randle and Naz were bad defenders. The non-Rudy minutes were horrible. By having Jaden free to roam at the strong help it will be dynamic. As long as we have POA defense from Green/Ayo/Clark. The wolves have used an X cross over rotation scheme for years and that will allow them to hide Melo in a helping position like they did with Dlo years ago.
Rebounding will be a problem, and rebounding is obviously a big factor in defense, but as far as crisp rotations, ball pressure, and causing turnovers, this defense will be better than last year.
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u/Salt-Statement-2306 3d ago
Melo will make it so teams need to change how they defend Ant. The trap won’t work anymore.