I seem to recall Jaylen Brown being considerably, and consistently, worse, defensively, over the first couple of months, if not the entire first half, of his rookie year despite getting more minutes than Semi will accumulate this season (I'm guessing), but thanks to receiving consistent playing time, Brown became a much better defender as the season progressed including the postseason, which is why it's important to play your youngsters during the year so they at least have a chance to get their feet wet, out there, otherwise, they really will be deer in the headlights out there. That's not to say that they won't make mistakes, but so do veterans, and that's no reason to not play the young guys, imo, as long as they show that commitment to defense that Semi, well, showed against the Bucks, especially against Giannis. He didn't go for the Greek Freak's fake and stayed on the ground, and while I would have liked a better contest, given the size disparity, I'm not sure that it would have mattered, anyway, and in terms of switching, he showed that he can really slide his feet, which is great to see.
What's ridiculous is blaming a guy who played 12 whole minutes for the loss against the Bucks. Give me a break, and I like how he cuts to the basket when his defender's head is turned - not many guys do that, anymore - but beyond that, my favorite part of this "analysis" has to be blaming Semi for what happened on this play, in particular -
Should he have stayed in the corner or come closer to Irving? Sure, but the real problem is Kyrie's complete lack of vision, imo. He has both Brown and Rozier wide open but instead elects to attempt to shoot over/through a double team in the lane, and the result was, unfortunately, quite predictable. *facepalm*
I'm not saying that Semi is perfect or anything, but really? Losing our home opener was his fault, and his fault, alone
? Oh well, at least we now have the answer regarding this year's whipping - well, for Eddie20, at least
- lol
.