Cody is a much better defender than Hendricks when it comes to staying in front. He has better weakside rim protection than Hendricks too cuz he has some anticipation that Hendricks has negative of.
The Jazz kind of really need Cody to figure it out. He's one of the few players with defensive talent on the roster.
The Jazz kind of really need Cody to figure it out. He's one of the few players with defensive talent on the roster.
I remember Tony Jones posting on here that he’d take Cody top four. I asked why, Tony said he was the one long athletic wing that could shoot dribble and pass. He had a lot of people fooled. And it was @The Midnight that proclaimed him the next Paul George after one of his summer league games. How he shot 40% from 3 in college I’ll never know. Hell maybe he is good but he can’t handle the pressure due to his bro being as good as he is and he was expected to be good because of big bro.The funniest thing about Cody (when reading this thread) isnt that some people liked him pre-draft, it's that people compared him to Paul George and Grant Hill after his first Summer League.
I remember Tony Jones posting on here that he’d take Cody top four. I asked why, Tony said he was the one long athletic wing that could shoot dribble and pass. He had a lot of people fooled. And it was @The Midnight that proclaimed him the next Paul George after one of his summer league games. How he shot 40% from 3 in college I’ll never know. Hell maybe he is good but he can’t handle the pressure due to his bro being as good as he is and he was expected to be good because of big bro.
To rephrase this a little: I think there is like a 5% chance that Cody is an NBA level player by the end of his rookie contract, but if he figures it out, I think he will be the type of player we could really use on this team, more so than some of the much better rookie contract players on our team.I've said similar things before and this is the reason that I'm higher on Cody than I should be. I know that Brice and Flip are much much better players than Cody, but Cody is our only rookie contract player besides Kessler that I have much hope in becoming a plus defender.
To rephrase this a little: I think there is like a 5% chance that Cody is an NBA level player by the end of his rookie contract, but if he figures it out, I think he will be the type of player we could really use on this team, more so than some of the much better rookie contract players on our team.
Cody's on ball defense is OK, but the lack of defensive playmaking + rebounding makes it difficult to be a positive defender. I'm fairly biased against on ball defense though. It's hard to evaluate and not as important as people make it out to be in the first place. I'm much more drawn to a defender like Hendricks.
I don’t completely agree with your first point. On a bad defensive team, his overall impact is very limited because he isn’t a defensive playmaker. That said, he does have good defensive instincts (at least relative to the rest of the team), he doesn’t overhelp, has quick feet, and doesn’t die on screens. We’d look a lot better defensively if we could surround Key and Lauri with players who aren’t liabilities in those areas.
I’m not sure either, but I don’t think everyone has to be a defensive playmaker. Elite defenders like Draymond dictate offenses and create chaos, but they need teammates who can adjust and keep the defense intact. For example, prime Klay Thompson wasn’t a disruptive player, but he was still a really solid defender.Does defensive playmaking scale with surrounding talent in some way? I’m not sure it does. Perhaps you have a compounding effect with more playmakers, but I don’t think Cody is being held back by his teammates. Very inactive defender and rebounder in college as well.
And I’d also say the lack of defensive playmaking reflects poorly on his on ball ability as well. “Staying in front” is what he’s decent at, but good defenders don’t just stay in front. They disrupt.
The possession game has become a huge talking point these days and for good reason. I just think that with Cody you’re going to be down possessions and it’s really hard to overcome that just with decent on ball defense.