When will Reed be placed into the starting lineup?

Ime needs to figure that out how Sengun, Jabari, Reed, and KD be better defenders

people always say defense can be taught and mostly effort and hustle

 

"people always say defense can be taught and mostly effort and hustle"

Actually I've only ever heard this from bad defensive coaches.

Defense takes months and years to improve. There's some instinctual and psychological elements of it you can almost never teach. Sengun and Jalen improved a lot under Udoka defensively but there's no one who believes they can be coached up to be as good as say Tari who was an excellent defender the day he started playing basketball for us. SGA could play MVP level offense but he still has the "it" factor, it's not a function of hustle or need or desperation. On defense, some people just have a certain "it" factor.

What I will say though is: you can say about any team that if you set a pick and get rid of the best defender, you have an dangerous matchup. No one is starting 5 guys who can guard Jamal Murray well, never mind SGA. Hell, no one is starting even 4 guys who can do that. You can always get the switch you want in this NBA.

Finally: replace Jabari with Tari and suddenly it's not such a big problem. I'm happy for Tari to be switched onto Edwards, I'm not happy for Jabari at his size and height to have that task. In this lineup, Durant takes Bari's role of providing some blocks from the weak side and he starts becoming an asset defensively (which is awesome because he's usually hidden on a bad offensive player). Amen, Tari, Durant, Sengun, Sheppard coached by Ime and backed up by Bari, Okogie, Capela definitely has a chance of being a top 10 defense. That's the threshold, you don't need a higher than top 10 to be a title contender. We definitely need better shooting, half court offense and TS% to be a title contender.