FanPost

A Defense to Marco's Defense

I want to preface this by saying that Marco Belinelli is bad at defense, I mean really bad. I want to use this though as perhaps an understanding of why Pop continues to give Marco minutes at the expense of players like DeMarre Carroll and Lonnie Walker IV. I personally would rather see someone like Carroll or Walker on the floor in lieu of Belinelli, but given how the Spurs have played, especially on offense, there's a part of me that cannot fault Pop for playing Marco the minutes that he has. Sure Carroll is more solid defensively and Walker has a way higher ceiling, but there is a saying that consistency outweighs potential.

I am a volleyball player, not a basketball player, but while I don't understand the intricacies of the basketball game (outside of watching a bunch of Spurs and other NBA games), I believe that there is something universal about sports in general. I would argue that all sports are a confluence of three things: 1) technical skill (or what some pundits like to call talent); 2) knowledge of the game; 3) physical ability (athleticism). Each sport is a different mix of these three aspects. Certain sports like say golf or baseball emphasize the first two (skill and knowledge) over the third (athleticism), while other sports like track and field tend to emphasize athleticism more. Team sports tend to be a greater balance over the three but the mix is different. In certain sports greater technical skill and knowledge of the game is needed (like tennis and indoor volleyball) while in other sports (like basketball and beach volleyball) you can cover for your lack of skill and knowledge with athleticism (which is why Kevin Love could sort of hang in a pro-beach volleyball tournament during the 2011 lockout year).

Now how does this relate to Marco? Previously there was an article about how Marco is so effective at taking and making off-balance shots where Marco sort of infers that this sort of unorthodox play is his way of getting shots off because it is harder to get clean looks, which I would argue in part is related to the increased athleticism in the NBA. Pundits also talk about players playing within their game, and I believe that's what Marco is doing. He knows he's not as athletic or physically gifted, especially now that he is older. While it is painful and frustrating to watch Marco's matador style defense, there's a certain sense that Marco does this because he understands first his own limitations and how the game works. He knows that he is not fast enough to stay in front of his man and that if he'll get a bunch of blocking calls on him if he doesn't get out of the way. He guesses and gambles with the reach around, and like most gambles it doesn't really pay off.

As I said, I play volleyball, and I will be the first to say that I'm not the most athletic or skilled player out there. I don't pass the ball extraordinarily well, I'm kind of inconsistent, I don't jump very high, my timing is often suspect, and I don't move very fast. There are two things that I have to do to be effective in the game is to play using some unorthodox methods (e.g. switching hands on a hit) and anticipation. Anticipation is a lot of guessing and oftentimes players will guess wrong. This is especially true in head-to-head sports where someone has to play defense. Defense in some sense is about guessing what the player on offense will do, and frankly offensive players here have the advantage as they have the time to adjust what they will do to what the defense must do. If the defense anticipates (or guesses) correctly then it looks great for them, but more often than not they will guess wrong and the offense will get the score.

Here's the take. Pop plays Belinelli over the others in spite of Belinelli's bad defense in some sense because he understands that Marco knows that he's bad at defense and thus continues to play within himself. Pop needs the offense and neither Carroll nor Walker (nor, if we're pessimistic anyone else really in the offense) has been consistent. It is a different story since Marco's offense hasn't really been there either, and I'm in whole-hearted agreement that perhaps Marco's minutes could be better used elsewhere. However, Marco is a known quantity, while the ceiling might be higher, I believe Brian Windhorst had said on his podcast that coaches he talked to would rather have a player that consistently goes 2-5 or 3-5 from three each game rather than one that went 1-5 one game then 4-5 the next. I would argue that maybe Marco is the same, at least defensively. Again, I think Marco ought to probably have his minutes limited as his offense isn't quite there either, but at the same time, we have to trust Pop in how he is seeing things in practice and in the game. Not to say Pop is infallible, but certainly this early in the season, I'm going to trust his judgment in why he doesn't think Carroll or Walker will help the situation.

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