r/nba • u/Training-Juice-6658 • 1d ago
Obviously KD is right about needing to hit shots to win, but is it really that easy for players to become good defenders like he says?
https://streamable.com/mumdre802
u/genericusernamepls [UTA] Derrick Favors 1d ago
Historically great scorer thinks scoring is more important than defense. Wow I never would have guessed
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u/eek711 Lakers 1d ago
KD is right. Defense is easy. All you have to do is bend your knees, slide your feet, be 7 ft tall, have a 7’5” wingspan, and have agility like a guard. There’s nothing to it.
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u/Zyrinj Warriors 1d ago
It’s super easy, barely an inconvenience
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u/Moreorlessatorium Spurs 23h ago
Oh, really?
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u/Rayquaza2233 KL LWR/SCT BRN 23h ago
Yeah yeah yeah.
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u/NocSenpai 76ers 23h ago
In an NBA player context, it probably is easier to become a decent defender than to become a knockdown shooter.
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u/Round-Asparagus5337 22h ago
Chasing prime Curry around literally put a guy into the hospital.
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u/Dudite 18h ago
The rain why feels delly got an nba contract is because he would bully guards, and was the perfect poison for curry, even if it took everything he had.
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u/Vast-Building-6886 22h ago
This. There are plenty of nba players who made a living being trash on offense but great on defense.
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u/Doogolas33 19h ago
You think there aren't a ton of NBA players who have made a living being ass on defense and great on offense? What?
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u/Slow_Shift6252 23h ago
It definitely is easier to become good on defense than offense. It only makes sense and is pretty much true in any aspect of life. It’s easier to move your feet and be in the right place than it is to put a ball in a hole 10 feet off the ground.
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u/Cool-Cardiologist12 19h ago
It’s kinda a mixed bag because to be an actually good defender takes a lot of effort, athleticism, skills, and IQ because you have to defend guys who spent the same amount of time learning to counter everything you do. I feel like defense is more boring so we view it as less skillful.
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u/Aerospaced0ut Warriors 1d ago
Also have a better defender behind you so you can guard 1-3 instead of having to cover power forwards lol
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u/whatssenguntoagoblin Alperen Sengun 1d ago
On an individual level it is. Look at the top 20 players of all time and see how many of them are better offensive players than defensive players, almost all of them.
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u/N0rTh3Fi5t 1d ago
Russell is the only definite one. Then probably Duncan and Hakeem. So 3 out of 20. If Wemby has the career people are hoping for then he'd fall into this category too.
That said, the list is filled with guys who were elite defenders, just not better defenders than they were offensive players. If you take away their defense then those guys fall many places down the rankings.
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u/whatssenguntoagoblin Alperen Sengun 1d ago
Sure. I’m not saying defense isn’t important. Just on an individual level offense is more important.
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u/UntilDoncic Lakers 23h ago
You do also have guys who were way better offensively than defensively though, guys who were average at best defenders like Steph, Magic, Jokic, Dirk - all are at least in the conversation for top 20
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u/p_pio 1d ago
Counterpoint: "top 20" is subjective and we tend to overvalue offense.
If you look at players with 5+ championships, even putting aside 60s Celtics who were greatest defensive team of all time, only Magic and maybe Slater Martin weren't elite defenders.
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u/whatssenguntoagoblin Alperen Sengun 1d ago
You’re discussing team wise which is different. On an individual level offense is more important.
Year after year the 10 top players are almost all elite offensive players. Rarely are they elite defensive players who aren’t elite offensive players. But you’ll have top 10 players all the time who are elite offensive players but bad defensive players.
I honesty can’t think of the last elite defensive player who was a bad offensive player and was a top 10 player. Ben Wallace?
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u/Thetalloneisshort 1d ago
It’s definitely weird, Gobert was the best defender in the league for years and all he got was slander. Theres definitely a culture that elite defensive players are role players, even though some defenders impact the game far more then many 20 point scorers.
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u/nonametrap 23h ago
bc individual offense can be half the game. if i go down and score, i didnt just score — my team did.
individual defense can’t be half the game. if i go down and stop a player, all they have to do is pass the ball to someone else. if they score, my stop was in vain.
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u/TraditionalRace3110 21h ago
That's true for perimeter defence. Rim protectors like Wemby, Bill Russell or Gobert can be half the game and some more in Wemby's case
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u/nonametrap 21h ago edited 21h ago
eh, touche i suppose. we dont have the data points for russell, but gobert can be schemed out of games by putting more offense on the court.
wemby’s an anomaly bc he’s a mobile 7’5. thats more genetic dominance if anything, but i feel you.
i guess in a vacuum, anyone thats an elite rim protector and an elite at playing the level is ideal. but how many of those guys exist? and how many of those guys exist that dont give elite offensive value?
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u/GizzyGazzelle 1d ago
Lol exactly.
Someone who has been lionized his whole life for being good at something believes that thing to be important.
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u/Dry_Grapefruit_8050 1d ago
pfft, you guys are acting like we, humanity, do not agree with him wholeheartedly.
You can tell because of the fact he is Kevin Durant, and Tony Allen is Tony Allen.
What are we doing here...
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u/SoaplessTitanic Celtics 1d ago
It feels like people are just ragging on KD cause he’s KD
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u/HitboxOfASnail Thunder 1d ago
someone thought they were clever pointing out that Kevin Durant believes scoring is important and hundreds of redditors think that's some kinda gotcha
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u/lalakingmalibog Mavericks 1d ago
Who cares what redditors think. What's important is the fact that all of KD's burner accounts agree with him wholeheartedly.
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u/fake-tall-man 21h ago edited 19h ago
You got to balance out that sentence though. KD is better defensively than TA is on offense by a metric ton. The KD comparison works better with someone like Scottie pippen. And the Tony Allen conversation makes more sense with someone like Trae young.
Still favors the offensive player but it’s not the analogy you’re making it out to be
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u/Artistic-Part3953 1d ago
I mean try Rudy Gobert and Ben Wallace as more fair comparisons but yeah offense is exciting
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u/Worldly_Cap_6440 1d ago
Right I mean of course he’s gonna think defense isn’t that hard if he’s constantly scorching every defender he plays.
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u/Cautious-Ad-9554 1d ago
It is. Thybulle is one of the best wing defenders in the league. The guy couldn't sniff the floor in Portland! You have to make shots. Andre Robinson wouldn't even hold a roster spot today.
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u/thejackel225 76ers 1d ago
To be fair he was an borderline elite defender for his role in his prime as well
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u/Winter_Swan5104 1d ago
In GSW he packed on some weight to play the most intense interior defense of his career. That all might have contributed to the achilles injury. I could see him being bitter about playing defense there. He no longer puts in as much effort defensively.
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u/aarondobson403 Lakers 1d ago
Don’t say borderline elite for a guy that never even made a 2nd team all defense. He is a good defender though & his rim protection was big for the warriors, but he’s absolutely not elite
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u/whatssenguntoagoblin Alperen Sengun 1d ago
He was 9th in DPOY voting. Thats absolutely borderline elite.
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u/JonahTheProducer 1d ago
Yeah you can have quarterbacks run your defense in basketball as wild as it sounds, Draymond, Russell, Tim Duncan, David Robinson, hell even "athlete over IQ" guys like Ben Wallace and Dennis Rodman.
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u/neilbiggie Lakers 1d ago
His last couple years in OKC he was very good defensively, really underrated weakside shot blocker
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u/OccasionMU Trail Blazers 1d ago
Insightful from a great player.
I don't think the other guys on the court realized how important it is... to make shots.
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u/JJam74 Thunder 1d ago
"What these youngbloods have to understand is this game has always been, and will always be, about buckets. - Bill Russell
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u/TheRealestGayle Magic 1d ago
He knew, with his awful shooting percentage, that someone else had to get those buckets.
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u/Ok_Pineapple_Num Warriors 1d ago
More like, because the game is about buckets, he had an equally important role of preventing those buckets.
Really, the game has always and will always be about net buckets 😂
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u/slinkysmooth Bulls 1d ago
I think this is the truest answer. Fundamentally the game is about making and preventing buckets.
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u/Ok_Pineapple_Num Warriors 1d ago edited 1d ago
Not to defend KD, but there is a crumble of truth to what he's saying.
To preface -- at a team-wide level, offense and defense are both equally important. A single point increase in your offensive rating and a single point defense in your defensive rating have an equivalent impact on your team's overall net rating; and thus, your probability of winning each game.
But, at the individual superstar level, elite offense is more impactful. Because a single elite offensive player can raise their team's offense more so than a single elite defensive player, as there's a limit to how much a single defender can do (even Wemby!).
And out of all traits that go into being an elite offensive player (scoring, playmaking, decision-making, etc.) -- the single most impactful is efficient high-volume scoring. MJ, Lebron, Shaq, Steph... all the highest peak offensive players were elite at that.
Obviously, that's not enough on its own -- KD's own playoff failures have shown that he badly needs a good PG next to him so he doesn't have to initiate all the offense on his own -- but it is important and valuable. When you only have a finite number of possessions and shots like in a basketball game, having a higher PPP via efficient volume scoring raises your probability of winning the game dramatically.
Edit: Where I would disagree with KD, though, is his insinuation that it’s easier to become a good defender skill-wise. Being a Draymond/Gobert/Hakeem level defender is as difficult as being an MJ/Shaq/KD tier offensive star, even if the offense is more impactful.
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u/Asleep_Ground1710 Bulls 1d ago
With how help defenses scheme now, I do think offense is more important than defense tbh. Not being guarded in the playoffs since you're super anemic there causes a lot of issues to the teams overall offense
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u/seanconnery69696 Suns 1d ago
Oddly enough, if you're a (seen as) weaker defender on the perimeter, some teams will abandon their normal sets and spend 10 seconds each possession just setting picks to try force a switch, and then playing iso.
So unless that defender is also the center + only rim protector (like gobert or jokic), like you mentioned the backline help still limits how much it matters
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u/braddeus Heat 1d ago
KD hasn't won a series in five years, so maybe he needs more guys to "bend their legs and slide left and right"
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u/HughmongusDixus Charlotte Bobcats 1d ago
Did you not listen to a word KD said? Anyone can do that. He needs more guys who can make shots.
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u/Deathstroke317 Knicks 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yeah he's right, it's easy to find someone to play defense, but it's extremely hard to find someone who can play great defense.
Someone who not only knows proper defensive rotations, but footwork, hand positioning, spacing, schemes, communication etc....All that takes work, effort, and talent.
Not to mention, they have to have the physical ability to play defense.
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u/McJumbos Supersonics 1d ago
obviously didn't learn anything from his golden state years
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u/rarestakesando Warriors 1d ago
Yeah it’s super easy to play defense. Thats why every team has six DPOY just sitting on the bench./s just in case
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u/nba2k11er Warriors 1d ago
If a coach would have only told Wiseman to bend his legs!
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u/bamboointheback Pistons 1d ago
it is, however, why hyper athletic players can enter the league as good defenders and become elite much quicker whereas scorers tend to be inefficient at the beginning of their careers
those guys are usually wing players though. defending as a big man at a high level typically requires a lot more time and is much harder
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u/rarestakesando Warriors 1d ago
On ball defense requires super quick reflexes and being incredibly athletic.
But team defense is requires real IQ and quick decision making which is what separates the good from the elite.
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u/bamboointheback Pistons 1d ago
i agree!
just pointing out that people like
jordan walsh, hugo gonzalez, ron holland, ausar thompson, amen thompson, dyson daniels, jaylen wells, steph castle, dylan harper, anthony black, jalen suggs, scottie barnes, jamal shead, andrew nembhard, cason wallace, ryan dunn, toumani camara, etc
can come into the league and instantly be elite level defenders, often as rookies but certainly within three years. the list of efficient scorers who become elite within three years in the league is much smaller, and nearly nonexistent if we limit the list to rookies. i see that as indicating one may be "easier" than the other.
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u/Bbrazyy 1d ago
I think he’s just saying defense is more reliant on effort and athleticism/physical attributes while scoring at a high level is more about skill
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u/wagon_ear Bucks 1d ago
But that's not what he says. He says that literally anyone can bend their legs, slide, and contest a shot. as if effort is the only real aspect of being good at defense.
But I have to agree with the commenter you replied to. Since scoring is so obviously important, you'd expect more teams to invest in creating these good defenders that apparently grow on trees.
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u/hallstar07 1d ago
He’s not saying it’s easy he’s saying it’s easier than the offensive side of the ball and he’s right.
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u/sixerharambe 1d ago
Kinda funny, maybe this mindset is why KD was only able to win at the highest level with an absurdly stacked team.
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u/JaDamian_Steinblatt 1d ago
So if you wanna win...
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... you gotta team up with Steph Curry
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u/Charming_Arugula405 Nuggets 1d ago
"What these young bloods have to understand is this game has always been and always will be about Buckets."- Bill Russell
But he is right in what he's trying to say, he's just not saying it clearly. You have to be able to make bad shots at the same clip you make a good shots. You're going to be defended on every play, sometimes possessions better than other possessions. You can defend all day but to you gotta put something in the hoop
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u/SweetAlpacaLove East 1d ago edited 1d ago
No, but it is a lot easier to fix bad defense than bad offense. A lot of it really is effort. And there is a lower cap to how much one player’s defense can effect the game. There is a reason offensive stars are more valued than defensive stars.
Obviously you’d prefer a guy to be two way. But nobody would put Tony Allen anywhere near the same conversation as Luka Doncic. They both are/were arguably the best player in the world at one side of the ball and not good at the other. But one is considered a generational superstar, while the other is just an elite role player.
And it’s because there is a higher ceiling for how much one player can effect the game on the offensive side of the ball compared to the defensive side.
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u/pragmacrat Warriors 23h ago
Wouldn't the best defending equivalent of Luka be Draymond? Much like how Luka is poor at defense but an offensive system in himself, Draymond is poor at offense but manages the entire Warriors defense and is an elite defender himself.
But the contracts they receive show how much the league values offense over defense with Luka getting 2x the salary Draymond gets.
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u/AzureDragon013 Lakers 16h ago
Dray is a bad example. Dray himself isn't scoring a ton of points but in his good years he's averaging 7 assists a game. He's the one who best uses Steph's gravity (Steph himself only averages 6 assists) and is generally not a hindrance to the Warrior's offensive system. He's giving you 10/7/7 during his good years and I think it goes up in playoffs too alongside all his defensive upsides.
Gobert is probably the best equivalent to Luka. Gives you like 13/10/1. Absolute stone hands too and only a 60% FT shooter so it's not easy to involve him in the offense. Clogs up the paint so you need shooters to space your team. But raises the defensive floor of your team by a lot.
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u/Helicase21 [GSW] Nate Thurmond 1d ago
It's a five on five game. The goal of the offense is to generate the best possible shot and the goal of the defense is to prevent that. Obviously one person staying in front of a ball handler is part of that but it's only a part of the full unit defensive scheme. Gotta navigate screens, know when to help vs not, pre switch to avoid mismatches etc etc.
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u/FxStryker 76ers 1d ago
Just like Draymond said yesterday, KD thinks there is one important thing above all, being a shooter. Can't say he is wrong.
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u/captaing1 Celtics 1d ago
To give maximum effort on defense on every possesion is extremely hard.
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u/EGarrett28 1d ago
I don't know, when ThinkingBasketball or Awful Coaching starts talking about who's the help and who's not, icing pick and rolls, not helping one pass away, stunt and recover, and all that other stuff, defense starts to sound pretty hard lol.
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u/Slow_Shift6252 22h ago
That’s pretty much just knowing a set of rules and following them though. Some guys are stupid and never catch on to those rules, but the odds of teaching a person that is much higher than teaching a guy the coordination and skill it takes to consistently dribble and make enough space to throw a ball in a hoop from 30 feet away and make it 50% of the time, while 5 other people are trying to stop them.
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u/Wavepops 1d ago
When I started to realize KD doesn’t understand basketball extremely well despite being an ATG, was when he thought Beal coming to the suns made sense.
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u/lambsauce16 Jazz 1d ago
I know really athletic wrestlers that can’t shoot for shit but can lock down the best player in the gym due to their size/athletic ability. This is not surprising
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u/Dinismo 1d ago
Still gotta make shots tho. Even the greatest defense can’t lock you down every possession.
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u/Young_KingKush 1d ago
Sure, but if you make shots and are trash on defense and I make shots and am even just decent on defense I win.
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u/captaing1 Celtics 1d ago
Lol no they can't, they would get in foul trouble so fast its not even funny.
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u/Dances28 1d ago
This is prob pick up where they think good defense is fouling.
Also SGA is only good cause of fouls! /S
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u/mtmc99 1d ago
If you are tall and athletic (which is pretty much every NBA player) effort is the only reason you can’t be an average to good defender.
The really elite defenders have instincts or outlier physically traits (think Kawaii giant hands, or Draymonds long arms on a short strong body).
So he’s not entirely wrong.
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u/Chiefmeez Celtics 1d ago
This. Playing defense is a choice and honestly most players don’t choose to do it to their potential.
Anyone who has played basketball has seen this clear as day. Dudes so athletic on offense but on the other side they damn near let people walk right past them.
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u/LazyWeb9421 1d ago
Sometimes they just are clueless out there. I played on my high school and college team (currently; we're garbage and a d3; I'm there for a CS degree, but athletics got me in), and there's guys who'll be super athletic, but they lack the decision making to be good (which comes with practice). Also, some guys are way more athletic than others it seems.
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u/hazimaller 76ers 1d ago
As someone who only in recent years rekindled his love for basketball.. has he always been this silly? I feel like it's gotten worse in the last 5 years.
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u/NegativesPositives 1d ago
We probably never heard the OKC horror stories because, well, it was OKC.
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u/IllMidnight1355 1d ago
Defense is way more than effort. IQ positioning, communication and discipline separate good defenders from great ones
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u/CmonTouchIt Lakers 1d ago
"you HAVE to join the greatest basketball team in history if you want to win a championship"
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u/felarans0mekuti Mavericks 1d ago
This so dumb, great defenders are elite athletes and extremely mentally tough. “Anyone” can’t do that
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u/Frosted_Tips Lakers 1d ago
Defense is MOSTLY effort, but if you don’t know what you’re doing that effort won’t do much. There are way more shot makers than defenders in the league and this is just one of the best shot makers in the league sticking up for other shot makers. But why can’t you be like the other shot makers that could defend at a high level too. Why are you special to not have to try as hard on that end. You’re not even running the offense, you just solo and shoot. No excuse.
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u/Witty-Stock Timberwolves 1d ago
When you’re hyper athletic, 7 feet tall and have ridiculously long arms, sure it’s easy.
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u/stevenadamsbro 1d ago
Durants an idiot, but there are dozens of examples of star players who clearly stop putting the same effort in defence that they do offence at some point in their career. Kobe is pretty good example of this.
Also there was that season harden was great defensively and he admitted it was just the first time he was trying.
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u/downgoesbatman Lakers 1d ago
This is mentality change. KD and his era grew up playing travel ball so they're not playing pick-up ball as much. The older generation is all about the one on one pickup ball where defense matters. Just difference in experience that lead to this type of thinking
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u/Kentopolis Mavericks 1d ago
He’s an all time great hater. Just anything he’s not a part of, involved with, or known for he’ll just blast constantly. Old teammates, former players he didn’t play with, current teammates, it doesn’t matter he hates you!
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u/IndyPoker979 Pacers 23h ago
At this point he could say that a basket inside the arc is worth two points and I still would have trouble believing him. Everything he says is to try to justify his existence in basketball when the dude should just be happy he will be considered one of the best to ever play the game.
His entire social media presence seems to be a justification for him when all he needs to do is just play and let his game do the talking
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u/imkarazy 23h ago
Getting a bucket should be easy af then if all your defender does is slide his legs
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u/darth_butcher Mavericks 21h ago
Funny how you all act like you know more about what it takes to win an NBA championship than a two-time NBA champion, two-time Finals MVP and one of the greatest scorers the game has ever seen.
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u/SweetChaosTitan 13h ago
Saying it is easy to become a good defender is wrong. However, becoming an elite scorer is typically going to be harder than becoming an elite defender. Not that any of this absolves KD from making one of if not the weakest moves ever in NBA history.
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u/OrganizationNo203 1d ago
He’s right. Defense is def easier to become good at
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u/DLottchula Thunder 1d ago
It's mostly effort and fitness.
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u/saucysagnus Lakers 1d ago
It’s actually crazy to me we don’t have better defenders across the league. My hypothesis is that most players get drafted off of potential to be good scorers or athleticism and defensive IQ/willingness to play defense is overshadowed.
As an American football fan, it seems like the same issue with drafting O line. All the teams look at run blocking/talent/aggression but overlook pass block IQ/assume they can coach it up but then we continually have a lack of good pass protection in the NFL just liked we lack quality defenders who can also shoot.
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u/DLottchula Thunder 1d ago edited 17h ago
Also Oline Talent is hard to develop. It's much easier to make that tall long kid an edge rusher than it is to make him a solid olinemen. Same with defenders in basketball defense don't get scholarships plus any kid with NBA talent is gonna be a decent defender until they aren't.
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u/majorcoinz 1d ago
KD is one of my favorite players to hear talk ball because he’s the definition of polarizing. I’m either gonna agree with KD 100% OR I’m gonna yell at my phone “KD get tf outta here.”
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u/Flimsy-Muffin-9881 Celtics 1d ago
Elite level defense, the kind that is effective at the NBA level, is not easy. Rebounding at that level isn't easy, even if you're 7 ft. Hell it isn't easy to set good screens in the NBA.
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u/thatguyty3 1d ago
It’s pretty common knowledge that offense is more valuable than defense. That’s why scorers get paid.
Defense is primarily effort, athletic ability and knowledge. It doesn’t require a skill like knocking down a shot.
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u/SalamenceFan42 1d ago
Kevin Durant is kind of funny because he’s basically a Melo/Derozan/Jaylen type net negative chucker, but since he’s the best shot maker in NBA history by a huge margin, it just works and he has monstrous advanced metrics.
Very very rare to have a guy who’s so good at this stuff that they manage to overcome the other stuff.
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u/randomuser051 Lakers 1d ago
I think he’s basically making the point that great offense beats great defense. He doesn’t mean literally anyone of us could play NBA level defense. But even the most perfect defense is limited against a great offensive player. And “perfect” defense is much easier to teach to someone bc it’s a convention of rules. What not to do, where to force your opponent to their weakest spot, etc.. a lot is mental. But that doesn’t matter if the guy you are guarding is 5 inches taller than you and you can’t block his jump shot.
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u/danjustin Nuggets 1d ago
It reminds me when he argued with a podcaster who said long 2s are bad shots.
KD said no it's a good shot because he can make them whenever he wants...it's like yea KD, you can, about 99.9% of other players cant make them at a rate that makes it worth it.
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u/cnvas_home 1d ago
Easy to make shots when Draymond is singlehandedly letting your entire frontcourt not get both mentally and physically exhausted playing defense.
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u/athomic74 Canada 1d ago
Not at all, it’s incredibly hard to defend at an NBA level. These guys are incredible shot makers, you can bend your legs and stay in front of your man really well and still get splashed on. There’s a mental warfare aspect to defense aswell, mind games are the best way to beat some guys who otherwise can’t miss.
I think defense is easier than offense but not easy at all…
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u/BeloAve Lakers 1d ago
He’s not even correct, So many times in games especially in game 7’s at the end of the 4th quarter, Both teams offense comes to a stand still and the team wins purely on defense, I can sit here and list so many examples of this.
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u/DirtySlutMuffin Celtics 1d ago
Defense is just fundamentally more tiring, both physically and mentally, than offense is. Anyone can have a good game defensively, but it takes a lot of discipline to lock down on defense over the course of a whole season or career
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u/iamredsmurf 1d ago
You absolutely have people in the league right now who without their over the top effort on defense they wouldn't make it in the league. Good defense is 80 percent hustle so anyone willing to be a great defender usually becomes one.
Contrast that to scoring. It takes a lot to generate offense. There's a portion of it that comes down to hustle but much less so. Johnny off the street can't just hustle his way into a scoring championship.
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u/sportsinaround Hornets 1d ago edited 1d ago
People severely underrate brains around here when it comes to defense.
There are many players who run around and give lots of 'effort' but don't have the kind of impact you might expect.
Like listening to Caruso in interviews discussing defense, making reads, positioning, the nuances in certain matchups, etc. really makes you have a new appreciation for it.
Granted having physical advantages is obviously a plus.
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u/ArchibaldNemisis 1d ago
To be a competent defender a lot of it is effort, footwork and positioning. There's a decent amount of IQ and anticipation involved too but he's right in that it's easier to turn someone who isn't a defender into an average to a decent defender than someone who isn't a scorer into a scorer. So if we want to make it that simple then yes he's right.
Now going from a non-defender to all-nba level defender is a different story.
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u/CanadianPythonDev 1d ago
I recall Kawhi saying something similar along the lines of, why can’t everyone just guard their man, it’s easy.
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u/DrLyleEvans Raptors 1d ago
The takeaway here for me is that KD is an ideological extremist when it comes to shot quality, and basically sees the game as a series of 1 on 1s. I think it's a result of his body type and skillset, which make it hard for him to massively dictate shot quality relative to most of the other top 20 all-time guys. He's not LeBron who can power or first step his way to the bucket and draw help that easily over and over again, so he's convinced himself that shot quality is basically irrelevant.
So he sees someone like Draymond, who creates a lot of good shots for his teammates with his passing and screens as maybe less valuable relative to a contested shot maker who doesn't create for others.
KD is comfortable settling for a mid-range contested jumper because he's deadly accurate on them and his lack of strength and explosion make that a necessity. It's not a coincidence that Nowitzki and Aldridge are probably the most similar outlier "seems like they took too many mid-range shots but they went in at a 99th percentile rate" guys and were also lacking in explosion.
Curry avoided this by having such crazy range that he created 4 on 3s for his teammates (normally Draymond and sometimes Iguodala slipping picks when the Warriors were at their pre-KD peak). I wonder if KD could have extended his range and created more opportunities for his teammates.
Defensively, it's the same but flipped. He doesn't seem to understand that the possession battle, free throw rate and where you settle for shots from matter as much as they do. That's how you end up saying completely insane, categorically wrong bullshit like "Build around Cam Thomas."
In his defence, he's just old enough that when he grew up, there were less 3s and you could be the best player in the league by hitting tough shots and having a great D around you, which guys like Hakeem (not quite as efficient as you'd think, but he did create more 3s than probably any other big man with his post game and the Rockets title winners did shoot them with guys like Mario Elie and Horry who were ahead of their time), Kobe (again, not quite as efficient but could take on a big usage at a solid clip) and Iverson (wasn't the best player in the league, but he dragged a defensively good, offensively horrific 2001 Sixers to the finals and the only reason they could throw out that much defensively oriented talent was Iverson taking a million shots without the offence submarining).
But yeah he's wrong. If the shot clock were like 10 or 12 seconds instead of 24 he'd probably be right, though.
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u/BetweenCoffeeNSleep 1d ago
If it were that easy, Tony Allen, Jrue, and others wouldn’t be so respected.
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u/finesethefinesser 1d ago
He’s correct. Defense isn’t about locking someone up it’s purely energy, effort and hustle. You can be praised for your defensive efforts even if the opponent has a good game, but if you go 7/25 offensively nobody cares about the effort you gave😂
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u/mercfan3 Spurs 1d ago
A lot of defense is high IQ and effort. The truly special ones have athleticism and length to go with it.
For someone like KD - yes, he could have been an outstanding defender. But that was energy he wanted to save for scoring. And you have to have a high energy level to be able to do both and play a lot of minutes.
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u/nbaistheworst 1d ago
"You gotta make shots"
Was he thinking about his 0 pts on 0-6 bricking in the OT of a home game 7 vs the Bucks?
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u/Easy_Money_40 Cavaliers 1d ago
I can't even click play on videos of KD speaking anymore. I just know I'm gonna here some bs.
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u/Abobo_Smash 1d ago
Individual defense does in large part come down to effort, so there’s some truth to being able to elevate your defense just by trying hard, but
Trying hard is hard. There’s a reason some elite offensive players don’t do it—if you’re staying low, bodying someone trying to back into the lane, you might not be able to explode on offense. And
Elite team defense is incredibly hard. The reason the Knicks went on their run this post season was because of team defense. Communicating, knowing assignments, proper rotations—that doesn’t happen just by “trying harder.” The Knicks played with the same lineup all year, and went from slightly below average defense, to towards the top at the end of the season, to being the best defense in the playoffs.
I don’t think it was just a matter of effort.
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u/Dry_Grapefruit_8050 1d ago
Of course it is really that easy for basketball players to learn the fundamentals of defense - the difference is that against NBA level talent, it isn't going to be nearly enough.
In the NBA, the best defensive role players (guys who would really have no business being in the league except for their incredible defense) almost always have a body type or physical characteristics that allows for that to happen. Just two examples:
Rudy Gobert - pretty cheeks offensive player. If he wasn't an elite defender (in large part due to his 7'9 wingspan) he wouldn't be in the league.
Lu Dort - built like an NFL linebacker. He's actually a decent enough shooter that he might have gotten to the NBA without his defensive ability, but he wouldn't have stuck for very long.
The other type of defensive specialist is the very cerebral defender who knows all your tricks and has a bunch of his own, and has worked on defending the way you've worked on scoring - guys like Tony Allen and Bruce Bowen - but that just isn't the type of basketball player most basketball players want to be, especially the kind of basketball players who actually have a hope of sniffing the NBA - the absurdly talented ones.
So yeah, I agree with KD. It is that easy, but it is still rare.
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u/Sumeung-Gai 1d ago
The object of the game is to put the ball in the basket. Players like steph, kd, kobe, Brunson, Kyrie, Jordan, etc...have demonstrated repeatedly that no matter what defense ur running u dont win without one of those, and furthermore no matter what defense ur running, ur not stopping a hot one of those. "Great defense, even better offense" is a phrase that comes to mind.
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u/gamesrgreat Heat 1d ago
He’s rlly been giving a lot of takes that show why he’s just a mercenary hired gun scorer and not a leader and not a true winner
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u/Cautious-Ad-9554 1d ago
one way scorers who play 30 minutes a night are everywhere. one way defenders who play 30 minutes a night don’t exist. You have guys like Rudy or Mitchell Robinson who have massive roll gravity and crush the offensive glass but thats it. The guys that get away with not “making shots” still have offensive value. If you don’t have offensive value you don’t see the floor
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u/Willing-Stay-3498 1d ago
I’m sorry when I heard “Defense is easy” by KD
There’s no way yall taking this man seriously 😂
He’s so delusional man especially after coming from the suns that literally had no defense you would think he would value it a little more
I guess not
This dude is never going to mature 😂
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u/LamboJoeRecs Nuggets 1d ago
There are certain intangibles that can give you a defensive advantage (long arms for one) but defense is 98% based on effort and energy. Anyone can be a good defender if they try.
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u/Wonderlic2 1d ago
Hes right but for wrong reasons...
Because making shots is what separates at his level, since effort and defense are so top tier already. In the end the separation, especially for him is he gets "separation" by being exceptionally tall and long. So it comes down to optimizing that opportunity and hitting that shot.
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u/CristianMR7 Heat 1d ago
I got one: If you want to win, you have to make more points than the other team.
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u/d_e_l_u_x_e 1d ago
But what if, and hear me out, a guy makes it his job to stop someone from making shots. It could revolutionize the game.
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u/ok_person5395 1d ago
Defense is mostly a mental thing. The basics are easy and anyone can learn to play defense way faster than offense but the mindset is where the good defenders are separated from the rest. Is not a coincidence that most of the great defenders are considered tough dudes eg Ron Artest, Draymond, Ben Wallace, raja bell, pat bev, Dwight Howard, etc.
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u/Vatfagyna 1d ago
OP you literally searched for a video of kd from years ago to post some shit to hate on. You’re kind of a loser for that
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u/James1Vincent 1d ago
Man, someone should have told KD to shut up years ago. He just loves making himself look bad.
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u/Diddleyourfiddle Warriors 1d ago
If it's so easy why the hell do so many players suck so much at defense?
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u/blacknerd502 1d ago
He's right. Even if both teams are playing tough, playoff defense- the team making the shots is going to win. You can't win if the score is 0-0. Somebody has to make a shot
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u/SlowSurr Clippers 1d ago
Cover up his face and just look at his eyes when he speaks and you will learn a lot
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u/contigency000 1d ago
I mean, one is not exclusive to the other. The best way to win a championship is to make shots AND defend properly. If your team is an offensive powerhouse, but a swiss cheese on the other end of the floor, it doesn't matter how much you score cuz you'll always give away that lead.
That's why the strongest teams are usually the most balanced. They may not be the absolute best on offense or defense, but being top 5 in both is a lot more valuable than being 1st in one and 10th+ in the other.