Drakey wrote:tribecalledquest wrote:Drakey wrote:Just an FYI. Devries is 5th in the Valley in steals.
Steals mean very little to me when it comes to how good of a defensive player you are. Guys who cherry pick and cheat all the time get steals (not suggesting Tucker does this).
I'm not sure what he basis is for claiming Devries is not a good defender. I just know that when I am screaming about blown defensive assignments by Drake, i don't seem to be ever screaming about him. He must be pretty competent.
Theres so many ways to look at how good a player is defensively. How many blocks and steals they get is important, but a little lazy. You have to watch the players for this more than any other awards. Are they in the right spots? Are they where they are supposed to be on rotations (guys like Malevy), how good are they at not getting beat off the dribble (Hickman), how much of a pain are they when guarding you and making your life difficult (Julian Larry). Then theres guys like Clay who can do a little bit of everything and are versatile enough they can guard 1-5, which allows for creativity with rotations making everything easier for the team. Stuff like just can't be dismissed easily, thats why its so hard for someone like Julian Larry to win DPOY. There's just more things that someone like Malevy or Clay (or even someone like Okani) can do on the defensive end, even if Larry might be the best actual defensive player.
Tucker is an interesting case. I'm sure I haven't watched Drake as much as Drakey has but I feel like Tucker does more than enough defensively, but doesn't "move the needle" so to speak as far as defensive awards go. He's big and long, has a high IQ which puts him in the right spot often, but when I think of Drake playing a team like Southern Illinois, the thought of "Let's put Tucker on Xavier Johnson" doesn't really cross my mind. Maybe I'm off base here though, I haven't seen as much of Drake this year as I'd like to have.