Sir'Dom Pointer
Hall-of-Famer
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- Oct 8, 2016
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Should be but he isn’t. Arizona’s defense is horrible and he’s suppose to be the anchor of it. Hes got all the measurables in the world but so have hundreds of draft busts.
Ayton is not the reason Zona's defense sucks. Sure, Bamba or Jackson would have made them better, but he isn't the the reason it sucks.
The reason it sucks is because of Ristic. He is one of the worst defensive big man in College, and the worst PnR defender in college out of 525players qualified.
Their pairing together is a joke. Ayton shouldn't play the PF position, especially not with a big who can't do every one thing on an average on the defensive end. I don't know who's fault it is, I do know that Ayton views himself as a PF and that's a red flag in itself, but bottom line is that a lot of things are going against him on that end.
Ristic can't step out on the perimeter, can't defend in isolation, can't defend anything really, so the only defensive play styles that he is part of are either post ups, Spot ups and PnR(he sucks in all of them)...so that makes Ayton have to compensate for the lack of versatility and taka huge chunk of defensive assignments that he has no business being a part of. He has to defend most of the time on the perimeter, and he has to make a tons of defensive rotations that other center do not have to do deal with... He also hard Hedges every PnR he is involved with and when he is involved with Trier, it's a disaster. A very similar defensive scheme to Kevin Love with Kyrie.
I'm certainly not absolving him of blame, as he has his fair share of problem especially in post ups situations where he doesn't put a body or shows no defensive instincts and timing on his contests, but Sean Miller has done a pretty bad job with Ayton so far this season.
On the offensive end, I wished he put the ball more on the floor and attacked harder at times and showed a bit more consistent shot from range, but watching this Arizona spacing tough... it almost looks like they are playing hand, so you really have to take everything with a grain of salt and be ready for the possibility that he isn't showing everything in his arsenal.
Most issues I have with him are mental and are related to his character. Defensive issues are there, but I put a lot of blame on Sean Miller and Arizona... especially the you compare him to Bamba where he just has to stand inside the key and block shots. Ayton has to defend similar to the NBA while being out of position.