Anon: he still struggles to get over screens, and will generally get abused in one on one situations when the offensive player has room to operate (ie. in the backcourt and in frontcourt iso situations when he's guarding 1s or attacking 2s), but he does such a great job of bodying up on guys and is especially good at denying the ball from his man, to the point where it's definitely a net positive.

Other than a few too many brainfarts on screens, he generally makes few mental errors on that end of the floor. On top of that, his effort level is through the roof, his head is on a swivel, he is great at doing crafty annoying things like drawing offensive fouls out of thin air, and he is a great rebounder for his position.

It's remarkable that this guy who is so slow and unathletic is in the NBA at all at that position (especially when his calling card is defense...it's almost unheard of for an offensively limited guy whose calling card is defense to be slow and unathletic; normally those kinds of guys are athletic freaks with limited basketball skills), let alone being a productive player on one of the best teams in the East.

Will that change as his role increases? Sure. Backcourt guys that slow always start creeping into opponent scouting reports, and over a 7 game series a crafty opposition coach could start to really limit his effectiveness by throwing the spotlight on him as an on ball defender. But you know what he has going for him? Two guard is the weakest position in the league right now, and it doesn't look to be getting any better any time soon. Delly spends most of his time guarding twos, and is thus far pretty damn good at it.

He uses every last bit of his potential every time he steps onto the floor, and to me there isn't a great compliment you can give a guy.

He just really needs to improve his jumper because that form is shocking.

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Anonymous
Years ago

Great post

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Naph
Years ago

I don't see his form changing any time soon.

He's put in the reps with what he's currently using. Gets it off fast enough for how often he's asked to shoot it. Shot .368 from deep last season and is up to .500 (small sample) so far this season.

He'd have to be prioritising his handle and his finishing inside the arc (floaters and what not) ahead of working on his jumpshot.

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Mr bEn
Years ago

BEEEAAASSSSTTTTT MOOOOOOOODE!

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Isaac
Years ago

Mick - good post. Brains and effort take him a good distance.

Cavs were down 20 at one point in the fourth and at one point with him out there, got it back to three!

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Anonymous
Years ago

Did you see delly trying to direct waiters, but waiters wouldn't budge. After about 8 secs of standing on the spot, delly screaming at him to move position, he finally runs to the corner where delly directs him, delly drives around the key offloading the ball to waiters for a three in the corner. fun to watch. Delly having none of waiters poor attitude.

Reply #506408 | Report this post

Hoops

Delly Beast Mode Activated

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