[EricaLubarsky]

The problem
I think other than coaching our biggest problem is guard defense.

Right now? Our starting back-court is:

SF: THJ: 6'6"
SG: Spence 6'6"
PG: Luka 6'7"

You have to love Luka's height, but is it any wonder that we are getting toasted by guys 6'4" and shorter like Killian Hayes? We just matchup horribly.

Guards 6'0"-6'5" who have torched us
Killian Hayes 22pts (averages 8)
Grayson Allen 25pts (averages 11)
Bones Hyland 29pts/17pts (averages 15)
John Wall 17pts (averages 13)
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope 18pts (averages 11)

so what?
The bad news is that we are a trainwreck defensively for smaller, quicker guards and those defensive problems are leading to bigs getting out of position, which is leading to layups and open threes as our defense struggles to adjust. A defense is like a house and we're trying to adapt without one entire wall.

The good news is that with 6'7" Luka playing point, we can get a really quality small SG (tweener) who would normally be called too small to play SG and not skilled enough to play PG and they'd be successful next to Luka. In fact, that is exactly what we need. We were lucky with Brunson because he could play both, but you can't swing a stick without hitting a combo-guard who is too small to be SG, and not mature enough to play quarterback.

Which, by the way, is why Hardy should play some damn @#$%ing minutes. 6'3" scorer who doesn't have the highest BBIQ and isn't a natural running point? That was a negative on Hardy in the draft, but for us? That's perfect! We literally need someone 6'0"-6'4" who can defend jitterbugs at an even passable level and who can score off the pass and occasionally slash.

If he doesn't play, hopefully Walker will turn out and maybe we can trade a pick for DSJ, or a handful of other small PG/SG tweeners. Until that happens, we are going to get wrecked by PGs and that is going to leave our defense 1-5 scrambling and frustrated. It isn't going to change without a roster/lineup change, but there is some hope.