The NBA "Archetype" That Keeps Failing

Andy Hoops

The "defense only" archetype of NBA players has slowly been phased out of the league. In this video, let's dissect some of the most prominent defenders who fell into this category and what went wrong. Enjoy! contact@tablerock.com  I make all kinds of long-form NBA content which include player stories, analysis, breakdowns, and historical topics. Make sure to leave a like and subscribe if you enjoyed this video! ► X: https://www.x.com/@andyhoopsyt ► TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@andyhoopsyt ► Music:  Black Vortex by Kevin MacLeod Movement Proposition by Kevin MacLeod Lightless Dawn by Kevin MacLeod Sardana by Kevin MacLeod Rising by Kevin MacLeod Basic Implosion by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 (incompetech.com) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ► Sources: Stats and box-scores from Basketball-Reference.com, NBA.com, Statmuse.com, PBPstats.com #nba

Transcript

00:00For every Paul George or Kawhi Leonard or Jimmy Butler, you know, guys who came in as

00:05defensive specialists who massively developed their offensive games.

00:13For every one of those guys, there's a hundred players of their archetype who get drafted

00:16solely based on their defensive potential, yet when you hear the phrase,

00:20don't worry, his offense will get better over time, that might be the biggest red flag you

00:25can hear from a scout. Because most oftenly, they don't get better.

00:30Reddish shot blocked by Draymond Green, Reddish gets it back, can't get the duck to go.

00:34Over the years, so many players made a name for themselves among the NBA's most elite defenders,

00:39yet their struggle to expand their offense turned them into a liability.

00:43You even see the most promising prospects fall out of the league prematurely.

00:48So in this video, let's take a look at this archetype. The highly praised defense-only

00:53players who entered the NBA with a splash, but the results were insanely underwhelming,

00:58and their offense left much to be desired.

01:02Kidd Gilchrist fumbled it and turned it over. Got to work on that three ball.

01:07Michael Kidd Gilchrist.

01:09Imagine having the worst season in history and your reward was Michael Kidd Gilchrist.

01:14The 2012 NBA draft featured a consensus number one overall pick, Anthony Davis.

01:19They had the best chance to draft a generational talent, and because every player after Davis was a risky pick,

01:25there was no guarantee you'd get a good player if you missed out on him.

01:29Unfortunately, that's what happened. The moment Kidd Gilchrist stepped foot on the NBA court,

01:34oh, you could tell his offense was not the reason he got drafted.

01:38Dude's jump shot was completely broken, and his entire draft stock was based on his sheer hustle and energy.

01:45Defensively, this was where his potential was.

01:47Kidd Gilchrist, at 19 years old, measured in at 6'7", 230 pounds.

01:52Strong, athletic, very quick hands that projected him to be a fantastic NBA-level defender,

01:57with scouts comparing him to the likes of Gerald Wallace or Andre Iguodala.

02:05However, even outside of his broken jump shot, his offense was even more limited.

02:10There were concerns that he could only score in transition,

02:12and severely struggled to find his place in a half-court offense.

02:16These concerns proved to be correct,

02:19and it got exemplified when he got drafted to literally the worst team in basketball.

02:23This is what was said by Mark Price, former NBA sharpshooter,

02:27who eventually got hired by Charlotte with the sole intention to fix his broken jumper.

02:31According to Price, he claimed,

02:41This is reconstructive.

02:43But I think he's been physically superior at every other level,

02:46and he's gotten away with it somehow.

02:49That's the issue.

02:50Kidd Gilchrist managed to get away with having such a horrible jump shot for most of his life.

02:54He had developed this form when he was a kid,

02:56but because his body grew so quickly,

02:58and became such a physically imposing player through high school,

03:02he never had to fix it.

03:04Because why would he need to when he's already dominating everyone?

03:07And there's plenty of NBA players who enter the league without a jumper and get away with it,

03:12like Tony Allen, for example.

03:13But this was no longer the case in the landscape that Kidd Gilchrist got drafted into.

03:18By the mid-2010s, every team started to emphasize the importance of pace and space.

03:23So to have a complete liability at the wings who can't shoot nor dribble,

03:27his career crashed.

03:29He found himself out of the NBA by the age of 26.

03:34Stanley Johnson

03:35Much like Gilchrist,

03:37Stanley Johnson was an absolute beast of a player at a massive 6'6", 240 pounds.

03:42He weighed that much as a rookie.

03:44The dude was built like a tungsten cube.

03:46Incredibly compact and strong.

03:49You can throw him in the post and have him defend centers,

03:51and he could not be moved by even the strongest of players.

03:55Johnson was drafted in 2015 with the 8th pick,

03:58and during this time,

03:59there was a heavy desire around the league to find the next two-way superstar.

04:03Kawhi makes a move on Johnson.

04:05Johnson stays with him.

04:07Steps.

04:08And too many.

04:09Again, give credit to Stanley Johnson.

04:11Everyone saw the success of Kawhi, Butler, and George,

04:14and the hope was somebody who's as offensively challenged as Stanley Johnson

04:18could also follow those footsteps.

04:20It turns out there's a huge difference between having a smaller role on offense

04:23and growing into a bigger role like those guys

04:26and a player with zero offensive talent whatsoever.

04:29Johnson was in the latter category.

04:33His most apparent weakness was his first step being quite slow,

04:37so he couldn't even get by the initial defender.

04:39This could have been a result of him being too big and too burly.

04:43It looked like he was walking on molasses.

04:45Johnson trying to go to the rim.

04:47That's swatted away by Turner.

04:49However, the bigger dilemma came with his role on this team.

04:52Coach Stan Van Gunny once said,

04:54What he's battling more than anything else is buying in

04:57to the best way for him to play with where he is in his career right now.

05:01Van Gunny wanted to develop him into the team's glue guy,

05:04thus there was no plan for him to increase his role offensively.

05:08But it was a decision that didn't work that well because Johnson was still so young

05:12and had little understanding of the game.

05:15Where to be, how to fit in to the offense,

05:17how to even get off a good look if your team doesn't intend to run any plays for you.

05:21He was frankly lost.

05:24This was made worse when he was designated to be a stretch four as his career progressed.

05:28So his teams preferred him to just stand at the three-point line

05:31because he was so bad at doing anything else.

05:34They didn't want him to dribble at all.

05:37Johnson had a better looking shot than Kid Gilchrist for sure,

05:40but that's a very low bar.

05:44Andre Roberson

05:46Can we really call Roberson's career a failure?

05:49I mean, he was the mere 26th overall pick

05:52and actually had a major impact for OKC in several playoff runs.

05:56However, it was his non-existent offense

05:58that hindered his team more than they would admit.

06:06He's one of the few players in the league

06:08whose defense was actually good enough to help him stay on the court

06:11because offensively, he had some quirks that made him useful

06:14like his knack for cutting to the basket

06:16or being in the right position to grab offensive rebounds.

06:19Despite that, there were so many times in the playoffs

06:21where he'd get ignored and OKC had to play four on five.

06:25There was this long-running joke, or maybe not a joke,

06:28but the idea was if Roberson and Anthony Maro

06:31combined into a single player,

06:33the Thunder would have had the perfect role player

06:35next to Westbrook and Durant.

06:37With Maro's shooting touch and Roberson's elite defense,

06:40this is the type of guy they needed at this time

06:42if their skills were combined.

06:45Instead, Roberson got significant minutes,

06:47but his place in the offense was abysmal.

06:49Wherever he was standing,

06:51he would not attract a single defender,

06:53so it was very easy for opponents to exploit this.

06:56It looked like he was kind of getting better,

06:59but unfortunately, he didn't have time to fix it,

07:01as he suffered a devastating knee injury at the age of 26.

07:05This injury was a full rupture of the patellar tendon,

07:09the worst knee injury you could get,

07:10and he never recovered.

07:14Cam Reddish

07:15The perfect example of a player

07:17whose value was almost solely tied to his defensive potential

07:20even before he arrived to the NBA.

07:22Because offensively,

07:24it was obvious in college that Cam Reddish

07:26had a horrendous offensive bag,

07:28even though he was once considered a top 5 prospect in the country.

07:31When you see a guy like him

07:32who struggles so much to dribble

07:34and prefers to settle for long shots he rarely hits,

07:37the fact that he still got drafted 10th overall

07:39should tell you that he wasn't drafted for his scoring skills at all.

07:43Reddish had the potential

07:44to be the best defender of this entire class.

07:46Dude was a massive, long, lengthy wing player

07:49taken by the Atlanta Hawks

07:50because they needed some actual defenders on the roster.

07:53The Trey Young-led Hawks

07:55had always been a strong offensive team,

07:57a top 10 offense for multiple years,

07:59but always a consistently bad defense

08:01that hopefully somebody like Reddish could fix.

08:04Yet somehow,

08:05Reddish still managed to actively sabotage their team

08:08whenever he was on the court.

08:09In his two and a half years in Atlanta,

08:11the team had a negative 6.5 net rating with him playing,

08:15and plus one without him

08:16with a near 10,000-minute sample size.

08:19From New York.

08:21Reddish can't finish.

08:22The Hawks crunched the numbers

08:24and realized he wasn't worth the trouble to develop.

08:27Sure, Reddish was still a decent defender,

08:28but it wasn't good enough to offset

08:30how useless he was offensively.

08:32He registered among the worst efficiency

08:34of anyone who took 10 shots a game,

08:36and his shooting splits never improved as he got older.

08:39He just took fewer attempts instead

08:41because his confidence was broken.

08:43Reddish barely shot the ball anymore.

08:45In six years,

08:46he bounced around a few teams

08:48and still never found a home.

08:49By the time he got to the Lakers,

08:51he was even publicly called out

08:52by his former coach, Darvin Hamm,

08:54who said,

08:55Cam's gotta step up shooting with confidence

08:57or eat up that space on the drive.

08:59The ball hits him,

09:00you just can't hold it and be confused.

09:02Like the story of many defensive studs,

09:05when you lose that confidence

09:06in your offensive ability over time,

09:08it never comes back.

09:10Matisse Teibel.

09:12Some have labeled Teibel

09:14as the modern version of Andre Robertson.

09:16I mean, they're similar.

09:17They're both long and lanky.

09:19For Teibel,

09:20he got such high praise early on in Philly,

09:22on a team that needed somebody like him

09:23to do the dirty work

09:24and play with 100% energy.

09:27Teibel was a hopeful young prospect

09:28for a team that was going through,

09:30you know,

09:30the whole Ben Simmons saga.

09:32He even made back-to-back

09:33all-defensive second team.

09:35However, like Robertson,

09:36Taibel's flaws got exploited

09:38very heavily in the playoffs.

09:41His minutes dropped significantly,

09:43not because the Sixers wanted to,

09:44but because they had to.

09:46When you look at how they defend him like this,

09:49the Sixers already struggled with spacing

09:50and now the floor is even more congested.

09:53I wouldn't say Teibel failed

09:55in the same way that Stanley Johnson did

09:56because he was able to get

09:58a more consistent three-point shot

09:59that kept him in the league for longer.

10:02When he got traded to Portland,

10:03this was the main thing he worked on.

10:06Perhaps it's not enough

10:07as there's little trust in him

10:09to become a consistent player.

10:11He's the best representative

10:13of an all-defensive shooting guard

10:14who's getting phased out

10:15simply because he cannot contribute

10:17in other ways.

10:18You need more out of your shooting guards

10:20these days.

10:23Isaac Okoro

10:24Formerly a player

10:25who wasn't even on anyone's radar,

10:27Okoro was ranked in the top

10:2835-40 prospects in the country

10:30after high school.

10:31Yet a single season in college

10:33catapulted his draft stock.

10:38And he eventually found himself

10:40getting drafted with the fifth pick.

10:42This was primarily due to flourishing

10:44on a very good Auburn team

10:45that saw him fit perfectly

10:46within the scheme of their offense.

10:48But also,

10:49his defense was exceptional

10:50as he made the SEC all-defensive team.

10:53The thing is,

10:54Okoro doesn't have the same weaknesses

10:56as other defense first players.

10:58He does, in fact,

10:59finish at the rim very well.

11:0140% of all his shot attempts

11:03are within the restricted area,

11:04which is actually insane

11:06for a shooting guard.

11:07Heck,

11:08even his three-point shot

11:09was never that terrible.

11:10But much of his limitations

11:11come from his passiveness.

11:14Okoro is not an initiator.

11:16His dribbling and handles

11:18are miserable.

11:18And it's strange

11:19for a player who's 6'4

11:21to look so uncomfortable

11:22handling the ball.

11:23A lot of times

11:24when he plays significant minutes,

11:25he just doesn't do anything

11:26and defers to somebody else

11:28so you forget he's even playing.

11:30I mean,

11:31if you're a 7' center

11:32and rely on getting set up

11:33to score,

11:34that's fine

11:35because you have

11:35a big presence in the paint.

11:37But for Okoro,

11:38it's harder to set him up

11:39when he's not directly

11:40below the rim.

11:41He has no mid-range game

11:43whatsoever,

11:43so something as simple

11:45as a dribble handoff

11:46is not even in his bag.

11:47A pull-up game

11:48would be a huge bonus,

11:49or if he can be a threat

11:51anywhere outside the paint,

11:52that would help.

11:54For the fifth pick

11:55of the draft,

11:55he might be the most passive,

11:57nonchalant shooting guard

11:58I've ever seen.

11:59And it's hard to say

12:00how long he could maintain

12:01his spot in the NBA

12:02if he doesn't improve.

12:05Nerlin's Noel.

12:07In most cases,

12:08you can get away

12:09with being a defense-only center

12:10because your value

12:11as a rim protector

12:12is generally higher

12:13than the defense of a guard.

12:15For Nerlin's Noel,

12:16that's why he was

12:17such a coveted draft pick

12:18all those years ago.

12:19Dude was perceived

12:20to be a generational

12:21off-ball defender,

12:22who was both agile

12:23and lengthy

12:24to switch onto faster guys.

12:26He could have been

12:27the best pick-and-roll

12:28defender in history.

12:29In his freshman year

12:30at Kentucky,

12:31he was widely considered

12:32as the most dominant defender

12:33in the entire NCAA,

12:35both statistically

12:36and from the eye test.

12:38And now out of control

12:39and out of bounds.

12:40However,

12:41his run was cut short

12:42when he tore his ACL

12:43in February of 2013.

12:46Considering the draft

12:47was right around the corner,

12:48this hurt his value

12:49knowing he'd be out

12:50for his entire rookie season.

12:52He was once projected

12:53as the first pick of the class,

12:54but he fell down

12:55the board a bit.

12:56There was a bright side, though.

12:58You can't teach

12:59this kind of length

13:00and mobility.

13:01So the Sixers felt confident

13:02he'd changed the game

13:03the moment he returned

13:04to the court.

13:05They found themselves

13:06in the strange dilemma

13:08of having too many centers.

13:09The team drafted

13:11three centers in a row

13:12knowing that

13:12they couldn't play together,

13:14but they hoped

13:14one of them could develop

13:15into a star.

13:17That one turned out

13:18to be Joel Embiid,

13:19who took even longer

13:20before making his NBA debut.

13:22When he did

13:23and showed he had

13:24superstar potential

13:24right away,

13:26Nerland's Noel

13:26was traded shortly after.

13:28At first,

13:29the thought was,

13:30oh,

13:30he just doesn't fit

13:31alongside Embiid,

13:32but the reality was

13:33he was incredibly light

13:34for a center.

13:35At 6'10", 220,

13:37he struggled to defend

13:38traditional bigs,

13:39even if his off-ball defense

13:41was quite good.

13:42Most importantly,

13:43his offense never expanded

13:45beyond the typical

13:46lob threat.

13:47With no touch

13:48around the rim,

13:49no post-up game,

13:50no footwork or hook shot,

13:51Noel was essentially

13:52a much weaker,

13:53much more injury-prone

13:55DeAndre Jordan.

13:56But he joined the NBA

13:57at a different time,

13:59when centers need to produce

14:00more to stay on the court.

14:02Noel couldn't get by

14:03with just catching lobs.

14:05He needed to add

14:05something else

14:06to his scoring bag,

14:07which he never could.

14:08By the age of 28,

14:10he was gone.

14:12And finally,

14:13at number 1,

14:14Jarrett Culver.

14:16Culver has the notorious

14:18distinction of being

14:19the biggest bust

14:20in this video.

14:21Initially thought of

14:22as the best two-way prospect

14:23of the 2019 draft,

14:24it turns out

14:25he was more of a

14:26one-way prospect

14:27who didn't do

14:27that one thing well either.

14:29Initially viewed

14:30as a mere three-star prospect

14:32and ranked all the way down

14:33as the 308th best player

14:35in the nation.

14:36It's unfathomable

14:37to think he improved

14:38so much to become

14:39the sixth pick,

14:40because that should

14:41be impossible.

14:42Well,

14:43the reason for this is

14:44Culver had quite the

14:45impressive sophomore year

14:46in college.

14:47While his all-around

14:48offensive game flourished,

14:50it was his lateral

14:51quickness on the perimeter

14:52that got noticed.

14:54Dude was locking up

14:55and staying in front

14:56of almost every player

14:57he defended,

14:58so this created

14:59the perception

14:59he was arguably

15:00the most well-rounded

15:01shooting guard

15:01of the class.

15:03Yet there was

15:04something off.

15:05Having such a balanced

15:07game made him

15:07much more of a

15:08jack-of-all-trades player,

15:09and in the NBA,

15:11that turned into

15:12the jack-of-no-trades.

15:14His jump shot

15:15was painfully slow,

15:16and he knew it was slow,

15:18so he avoided shooting

15:19even when wide open.

15:20He was a modest

15:21athlete in college,

15:23but in the NBA,

15:24he looked super unathletic.

15:26Kovar lasted only

15:27four seasons

15:27and 144 total games

15:29played,

15:30but if it wasn't

15:31for his defensive prowess,

15:32he would have been

15:33gone in half that time.

15:35Perhaps he was a victim

15:36of his own hype.

15:37His draft evaluation

15:39was completely off

15:40to begin with.

15:41There's a reason

15:41he wasn't even a

15:42top 300 player

15:43in high school.

15:44A guy like him

15:45being drafted at 6

15:46is insane.

15:48It was a huge reach

15:49that turned into

15:50the biggest wasted pick,

15:51because the Suns

15:52originally drafted him,

15:53but traded him to Minnesota

15:54for the 11th pick

15:55of that same class,

15:57Cameron Johnson.

15:58While Johnson turned

15:59into a valuable role player

16:01for so many years,

16:02Jarrett Culver

16:03was dead on arrival.

16:06What other players

16:07currently can fit

16:07the criteria of this video?

16:09Do you foresee

16:10any other defense-only players

16:11falling out of the league

16:12in the next few years?

16:14Let me know your thoughts

16:15in the comment section,

16:16and what do you think

16:17of this archetype?

16:18Thank you all

16:19so much for watching,

16:20I hope you all

16:20enjoyed the video,

16:21and of course,

16:22as always,

16:23I'll see you next time.

16:24Peace.

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