Quote:
Originally Posted by spreedom
What I will say is that Wes looked great on defense against Harden, at least from the eye test. I don't even know offhand whether Harden had a good night by volume but I do know that Wes made him work for everything he got.
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He is still an excellent defender because he is smart, and playing defense - at the perimeter - is mostly about knowing where to be, and lateral speed. Wes is still excellent at both. The problem is his verticality, which he got robbed of. The achilles works like a spring, and in addition to the quads and the bottocks, it basically determines how quickly you can get off the ground vertically. He doesn't have the same lift anymore, and in my opinion, that is why his shots are all over the place, and you often see him taking jumpshots while barely leaving the floor. I hope I'm wrong, because that would mean he is basically done as a true impact player, but this does not feel like a slump anymore.