In response to this (and to Raven as well) I would agree that prime Ibaka (doogie, you follow?) would be an upgrade over any of our other role players because of his combination of rim-protection and floor spacing. I suppose he’d be a 80% overlap with OG, who is a great defender but not really a shot-blocker, and if I might use a bit of eye-test/memory data, a bit more wooden (not John) in his moves than Serge…but again, not sure if he moves the needle, either on the floor with OG or instead of him…unless he replaces KAT, which would be sort of marginalizing a $60M player.

And to Raven’s point, it’s not just that our guys have flaws…it’s that they even have “micro-flaws” within the stuff that they are good at. OG’s pedestrian rim protection is an example of that, as is Mitch’s very good but no longer DPoY-candidate defense. We saw last year that Mikal is only good but not elite at PoA defense and can be physically bullied when defending up or blown by when defending down. Those microflaws add up and compound the more glaring ones.

And what makes things worse is the colossal flaws once you get past our top 7, especially when you need a defensive wing to hold the fort. Maybe that’s why Diawara is so tantalizing, he at least looks the part of what we sorely need.

Oddly, the roundest “theoretical” peg out there for that defensive hole might be someone like Ben Simmons. I just don’t know how where we can find a long, athletic, rim-protecting wing with what we have to offer.

Hart is now questionable for tonight with soreness on the same ankle he sprained that forced him to miss 8 games.

Pretty sure Hart was saying that the medical staff wasn’t happy with him returning so soon and, if the Knicks hadn’t been mired in a losing streak, he would not have returned yet.

Z-Man, don’t really disagree with you, but if you look at that list of complementary players you wrote out, that’s a fine group of defensive-minded people surrounding our two all-stars who struggle defensively. And while they’re being asked to expand their roles, that’s also part of being a professional athlete (or should be). Deuce has ‘learned’ to shoot and is learning how to drive to the basket successfully or pull up for mid-rangers. Even OG the driver, while agreeing that’s often a mess, he’s clearly recently stopped trying to lay it up every time which was a disaster, and now largely dunks it, which actually works.

So I guess my point is it’s a long, 82-game season, lots of narratives with question marks on them at this point. I think I’m firmly in the camp that these pieces CAN be fit well enough together to take us all the way. WILL they? Time, and Brown, will tell.

And Geo, weirdly I only watch nature specials when I randomly stumble upon them (and not even then, sometimes — some part of me reacts to them the way an accountant might when faced with a show about tax law…). Been to Bhutan, possibly the most beautiful landscape I’ve ever spent time in. Will go look up this Will Smith thing, though — thanks for that.

3 hours of bumping uglies this morning mister clarence…I am back on the partnering up train baby…

obviously we have mitch. and towns and country has always been the dream to raise our defensive ceiling. and in some ways it still is. but it’s looked maybe a bit clunkier and more exploitable than hoped on both ends, plus you have the hack a mitch issue. the ibaka that was regularly near the top of the league in blocks making first team all d would make the sort of difference to our jalen/kat defense that literally no perimeter defender could, and without clogging up the offense. in this sense i think he’d be a lot more valuable to this team’s ceiling than players who are not ostensibly worse than him in vacuum, like josh, mikal and deuce (i think i’m likely one of the bigger josh boosters here when it comes to his utility for our particular team, but i still think it pales in comparison to what a genuine spacing rim protector would bring). and it probably wouldn’t hurt that he’d add a lick of toughness to team podcast.

and thus ends my secret argument to make a crazy deal for jjj and pray the rebounds fall into friendly hands. just kidding, sort of. definitely wouldn’t be bringing those ibaka hands with him.