A player who shouldn't have been picked no1.
A should clarify what I said because it's not true and a stupid comment. You can't really generalize to say one continent plays better defense than another, I was motivated by a probably tongue-in-cheek about a 'soft euro'. I do believe that European's play excellent half-court team defense. As a raptors fan you will no doubt disagree having to put up with Bargnani and Calderon, but defense is an underrated part of European basketball, not that I'm knowledgeable on it. Look at Rubio for a Euro who knows how to defend. I think defending is only partially being able to stay in front of your man or being able to jump higher than him, which is the part euros can struggle with. It's about focus, about position and doing your work early, about allowing certain things and not others, about knowledge, and very much about communication (love KG at this part). You can get away with not focusing on a lot of the second part if you have the athletics, and I think Euros adapt by being proficient in the second part. I just think there is so much isolation offense and focus on 1v1 defending in the NBA that it doesn't always lend itself being a smart defender, so I think the softness tag that goes along with not being able to play the tightest of man-defense and make huge blocks is undeserved.
