Quote:
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
When there was talk of him going to Minnesota I said that if Thibs could get him on board defensively, he'd be a top 5 player in the NBA - the kid is an absolutely outstanding offensive player. And the same skills that make him great defensively could easily make him a plus defender. I believe SNR was firmly in the 'no' camp on that one.
And now Stevens appears to have him interested in guarding people so of course he's become a good defender as well.
I'd have loved to have gotten Kyrie in LA but the Lakers are after LeBron so that was never going to happen. The Cavs did well to get what they did after he made clear his intentions, but the Celtics still got an elite young player at a discount rate.
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Well, right now Thibs has his hands full just trying to get Wiggins and KAT to be plus defenders. Those are guys who possess the physical ability to be not just plus, but actually elite defenders in the NBA. I don't think he needs yet another situation where he has to re-teach defense to a star player.
I was never firmly in the "no" camp, just skeptical of what the possible compensation could be. And I also said it was irrelevant, because we'd almost certainly have to send a starting PG back to Cleveland as a starting point for compensation, and the only one on the roster at the time was Teague, who couldn't be traded until December.