Lu Friggin Dort!

[Roy T]

How are you 6 9 and not just catching the ball high and shooting right over this guy?

the other guy put pressure on your lower body and you can't get a good position

Hol up…

Let’s see what he does next round. I hope they will play Dallas.

[SweaterBae]

We need more Dort license plates!

My son is also named Dort.

[BuddyBuckets]

Props to Dort, bit don't throw too much shade at Ingram, not like he didn't show up last year without Zion. Willie just doesn't have the flexibility as a coach to do what it takes to win. Pels needed a vastly different approach to beat the Thunder in a series. But they kinda stuck to the usual.

[cupcakesnake]

dort plays good on-ball defense but usually doesn't impact the game defensively in other ways like some other wings do (like derrick white). he's more of an avery bradley type than a total game wrecker. that's why he doesn't get as much juice at the other guys.

Can you break this down to me? Are you saying he isn't as good a team defensive player? I want o use Caruso as the archetype because he gets so much attention. Please let me know what Caruso does better than this guy. Keep in mind, I'm no analyzer of either, but what I saw tonight was DPOY type of performance. Maybe it's an anomaly, but if this is how this guy plays defense all the time he deserves All 1st team type attention.

First off we're talking about 2 elite defensive guards. Both of them are good.

So I'd say Dort's main advantage over Caruso is strength. While both have great feet to stay in front of their man, Dort's insane bulk allows him not to be bumped. It's just a rough ride with Dort because you can't put him on your hip and get into space. Dort is short but he's too strong to post, and he takes away so much airspace that it's not easy to just shoot over him all the time.

Caruso's advantage is how ridiculously disruptive he is. When Caruso is on the floor, he makes it hard for the other team to pass and he's a devil at help defense (and even rim protection). He averages 4.7 deflections in the game (more than double Dort's 2.1), and no one causes more live ball turnovers than Caruso. Opponents shoot -5.7% at the rim when Caruso is the closest defender. His block and steal rates are almost twice that of Dort's.

Dort is a marvel, but he's still sort of a specialist at man-to-man defense. Caruso is an excellent man-to-man defender as well, but does a bunch of other really valuable things on defense.

[MagicMatic]

dort plays good on-ball defense but usually doesn't impact the game defensively in other ways like some other wings do (like derrick white). he's more of an avery bradley type than a total game wrecker. that's why he doesn't get as much juice at the other guys.

Can you break this down to me? Are you saying he isn't as good a team defensive player? I want o use Caruso as the archetype because he gets so much attention. Please let me know what Caruso does better than this guy. Keep in mind, I'm no analyzer of either, but what I saw tonight was DPOY type of performance. Maybe it's an anomaly, but if this is how this guy plays defense all the time he deserves All 1st team type attention.

Caruso's elite as well, but I watched Brunson give him 48 in Chicago. Dort completely will take a guy out of the game and make them not want the ball and unlike Caruso, he's durable.

How would you rank Suggs, Caruso, and Dort?

[MoneyTalks41890]

Yeah Dort's value is on ball. The overall team defensive scheme though and how good the team is on rotations coming off of ball screens is why he can be so relentless on the ball.

[MoneyTalks41890]

dort plays good on-ball defense but usually doesn't impact the game defensively in other ways like some other wings do (like derrick white). he's more of an avery bradley type than a total game wrecker. that's why he doesn't get as much juice at the other guys.

Can you break this down to me? Are you saying he isn't as good a team defensive player? I want o use Caruso as the archetype because he gets so much attention. Please let me know what Caruso does better than this guy. Keep in mind, I'm no analyzer of either, but what I saw tonight was DPOY type of performance. Maybe it's an anomaly, but if this is how this guy plays defense all the time he deserves All 1st team type attention.

First off we're talking about 2 elite defensive guards. Both of them are good.

So I'd say Dort's main advantage over Caruso is strength. While both have great feet to stay in front of their man, Dort's insane bulk allows him not to be bumped. It's just a rough ride with Dort because you can't put him on your hip and get into space. Dort is short but he's too strong to post, and he takes away so much airspace that it's not easy to just shoot over him all the time.

Caruso's advantage is how ridiculously disruptive he is. When Caruso is on the floor, he makes it hard for the other team to pass and he's a devil at help defense (and even rim protection). He averages 4.7 deflections in the game (more than double Dort's 2.1), and no one causes more live ball turnovers than Caruso. Opponents shoot -5.7% at the rim when Caruso is the closest defender. His block and steal rates are almost twice that of Dort's.

Dort is a marvel, but he's still sort of a specialist at man-to-man defense. Caruso is an excellent man-to-man defender as well, but does a bunch of other really valuable things on defense.

Dort's coming out party against Harden was really due to his lower body strength. I mean he's built like a running back. So the old man strength guys can't handle him like they do a lot of guys. And he has the lateral quickness to stay with a lot of players, but usually with a tiny little bit of hand-checking maybe...

[Chuck Everett]

Can you break this down to me? Are you saying he isn't as good a team defensive player? I want o use Caruso as the archetype because he gets so much attention. Please let me know what Caruso does better than this guy. Keep in mind, I'm no analyzer of either, but what I saw tonight was DPOY type of performance. Maybe it's an anomaly, but if this is how this guy plays defense all the time he deserves All 1st team type attention.

Caruso's elite as well, but I watched Brunson give him 48 in Chicago. Dort completely will take a guy out of the game and make them not want the ball and unlike Caruso, he's durable.

How would you rank Suggs, Caruso, and Dort?

This is a tough one. Suggs is totally dominating Mitchell and Garland on the defensive end with intense physicality in the playoffs. I saw him do the same against the Pelicans twice this season.

Of the three, I believe Caruso is last because I don't feel you can just sic him on an elite scorer and ask him to hound a guy into shooting 6-23. Now some of this might be wholly unfair to Alex, because the Bulls lack the personnel to be elite defensively with no PF and Vooch/Drummond behind him. So, his ability to be an elite defender without a rim protector or other passable defenders around him (Dosunmu is decent) makes the case that he's even better than the stats success. How good would Caruso be if he had Isaac, Paolo, Wendell and Franz behind him? All that size? And then with Dort, he has a rim protector in Chet behind him, a charge drawing machine in Jaylin Williams and other two-way guards/forwards in Shai, J-Dub, Wallace and Wiggins.

So I can understand why CupcakeSnake beats the drum for Caruso so much. So after consideration, I will say, you really can't go wrong with any of the three. I just think ultimately that Dort's ball denial and ability to wall up without any help makes him the best of the three. He's a nightmare to go against for any elite offensive player.

Full disclosure, my eight best perimeter defenders that I saw this season are:

#1: OG Anunoby, New York (except against Maxey as he's simply too fast with the ball)

And then mix 'em up in a blender and pick who you prefer, but you can't go wrong with any of them.
Lu Dort, Oklahoma City
Alex Caruso, Chicago
Herb Jones, New Orleans (he really made Shai work for everything with his length, timing and lateral quickness)
Jaden McDaniels, Minnesota
Jalen Suggs, Orlando
Jrue Holiday, Boston (I think he's the worst of these names, but he's still really good at POA)
Derrick White, Boston

KCP is in that next tier with Quentin Grimes and Keegan Murray.

[ThunderBolt]

Dude a Linebacker playing basketball not impressed.

This post makes no sense.

[Ambrose]

Been saying it all year. He's going to have Luka or PG in hell next round (unless the officials call it tight). He's an all-league defender and arguably the best perimeter defender in the league, IMO. This series is also an example of Brandon Ingram being overrated. His Olympic experience was a catastrophe, but he would have been better off not coming back at all if he was going to perform like this. He looked really bad.

I can see how guarding Ingram well would translate to PG. But Luka isn't a long, lean, athletic wing. He's a far superior ballhandler, much stronger, and much more deliberate. Not saying Dort would do poorly, but guarding Ingram well doesn't necessarily translate over to do well on Luka.

[Ballings7]

Dort's a high-level defender, no doubt and played well

But Ingram was coming off injury, being out for awhile and clearly not 100%. Also with Zion out made it easier on OKC's defense, with more forced attention on Ingram.

2023 playoff Ingram is what Ingram is capable of normally, and just wasn't there close to 100%.

I think should pump the brakes a tad on it being such a great performance, at least for now.

[TerryTate]

We need more Dort license plates!

Auto +1

[Clav]

When you demoralize the player you are defending you are doing a lot right. Ingram looked a bit banged up coming back from injury but couldn't find ways to consistently beat the on ball pressure. Dort also had good help from other solid defenders like Kenrich, Wiggins, and Jalen Williams, it was a team effort but props to Lu! He's hard to screen and fights for his position relentlessly. I do think some of the contact was foul-worthy, but the held whistle allows him to play harder. We'll see how that goes against more skilled offensive players in Harden/Luka/Kyrie whichever he faces

[hugepatsfan]

Why is this guy not really talked about as a DPOY type guy? I don't think I've ever paid more attention to what a defensive player was doing than I did tonight. That was just a masterclass on how to get into someone's head. Is he not talked about because he's in OKC or do the stats just not support him being one of the top 5 defenders in the league? I hear about Holiday, Smart, OG, Caruso, Suggs, Jones, but I don't hear much at all about Dort. Is Caruso really better than what I just saw tonight?

It's really, really, really hard to get that kind of attention as a perimeter defender because you don't have the gaudy stats like big men do.

Holiday got his recognition ramped up when he went to MIL and helped them win a title. Smart played for BOS teams that were consistently in the conf finals. Caruso was on a Lakers team that won the title. They were on a consistent stage where league-wide fans really got watch them every night for 2-3 months and appreciate them.

You mentioned Suggs/Jones/OG and while they get love, I think you're reaching to act like they get more than Dort. I don't think any of them get any more respect than him. And all of them are comparatively under-respected against the first group until they get that playoff recognition.

[Marksmen]

We need more Dort license plates!

My son is also named Dort.

We also have your older, balder, fatter son.

[Curmudgeon]

Marcus Smart 2.0. That's a compliment, BTW.