Most attention is given to looking at who will do the scoring and how, with little talk about defense. It looks like we have 4 good to really good defenders in Eli, Livers, Wagner and Brown. Smith is considered to be a weak link due to size and track record. The latter could be misleading because he played for a poor team where he carried a lot of the scoring load.
Two keys are interior defense and meshing as a unit. Davis is an average defender in the paint. Can hold his position on the block but not a rim protector. Fortunately, teams don't post up that much these days. We need Davis to play physical without fouling and cleaning up the glass. Dickinson is an unknown at this point. Like Teske, he's not athletic and needs to use good positioning to use his length to bother and block shots. Teske had pretty quick feet, while Dickinson does not, at least from the video on him that I've seen. OTOH, Teske struggled at times last season defending the post. Dickinson has a high basketball IQ, which will help.
How we mesh is unknown. It's a matter of plugging in the new faces. X was a consummate defender, so there's bound to be a drop off there from X to Smith. X also lead the D on the floor. Ball pressure on the perimeter at the PG spot is a concern, as is stopping dribble drives. We should be a stronger defense when Eli slides over to PG. I'm comfortable with our defense on the wings and the 4. Johns can defend the 4 well when he's on the floor; that might get him more minutes.
We can be pretty good defensively, but the lack of pre-season prep time will delay development. It's something to watch closely early in the season.
Two keys are interior defense and meshing as a unit. Davis is an average defender in the paint. Can hold his position on the block but not a rim protector. Fortunately, teams don't post up that much these days. We need Davis to play physical without fouling and cleaning up the glass. Dickinson is an unknown at this point. Like Teske, he's not athletic and needs to use good positioning to use his length to bother and block shots. Teske had pretty quick feet, while Dickinson does not, at least from the video on him that I've seen. OTOH, Teske struggled at times last season defending the post. Dickinson has a high basketball IQ, which will help.
How we mesh is unknown. It's a matter of plugging in the new faces. X was a consummate defender, so there's bound to be a drop off there from X to Smith. X also lead the D on the floor. Ball pressure on the perimeter at the PG spot is a concern, as is stopping dribble drives. We should be a stronger defense when Eli slides over to PG. I'm comfortable with our defense on the wings and the 4. Johns can defend the 4 well when he's on the floor; that might get him more minutes.
We can be pretty good defensively, but the lack of pre-season prep time will delay development. It's something to watch closely early in the season.
