In the playoffs, Don is the only reason we have had a chance due to his offensive output. Our worst playoffs in his time here was the series he struggled. His defense needs to be better, but it's okay if he's our worst defender because his playoff offense has been amazing.
Brogdon is absolutely a better defender than Conley, not to mention 5 inches taller. He's averaging more assists and rebounds than Conley as well. He's a much better perimeter disruptor and he can body up bigger guards. He's being asked to do a lot on that pacers team so he's not like a defensive specialist or anything but if he came here he'd pretty much instantly be our best perimeter defender. He's also younger than Conley. We'd be wins ahead, and better in the playoffs, if we could magically swap Conley for brogdon.
Royce is a good defender, but in my opinion much better against Forwards than guards. The reason he is consistently looking bad is because he guards who Donovan should be guarding.
I’m not sure this is really true of Brogdon’s defense… at least anymore. He gets blown by a lot… the pacers fans kinda hate him. I think he’s good but I think Mike is pretty clearly better. He doesn’t have the volume of Malcolm at this point but that’s by design.
I think part of it is also the guards snake around screens and he can’t get as narrow as some dudes so he struggles. He’s also strong which can work against someone… putting a hand on a forward doesn’t move them like it does a guard. Get called for more fouls the more handsy you get on smaller guys.
I think you might be getting a little hung up on size. In theory Brogdon could be a better defender, but in the last couple of years he hasn't been. I'm pretty confident Brogdon would not make our team any better defensively, and most likely makes our team worse offensively.
Royce just doesn't have the foot-speed to hang with the more athletic guards in the league. He's a PF in a guard body. Makes him an in between defender for anyone he's defending: not fast enough for guards, not tall enough for forwards. Look at what Porzingas did against O'Neal, just shot right over him again and again. He makes up for that physical size issue with grit and hustle but it isn't enough in the playoffs against bigger faster players.
You haven't watched him much have you? He was widely regarded as the 2nd best defender on the team behind Turner. You underestimate size. In fact you ignore the blatant evidence of size being a major issue with Mike, DM, and Oneal being our primary defenders of perimeter players. It's one of the reasons we continually get burned. DM and Mike both have the speed to stay in front of guys, they just can't do anything to bother bigger players.
Brogdan would probably be an upgrade size wise, but I can confirm Pacer fans are pretty fed up with him and he's not nearly as good as he was been, especially on D. They think he's a ball hog too, so I'm not sure he'd be a great fit with DM anymore. He was someone I wish they'd targeted before Conley too.
