Until they go back to what truly worked when Dwight Howard and Javale McGee were on the team, they aren’t going to succeed come playoff time. It’s far too clear AD cannot be the inside defensive anchor. He needs that energy on defense to help motivate him on offense. That energy comes from roaming and being disruptive, not standing around trying to always guard the biggest guy on the court, getting beaten and bruised. They can use him there but it needs to be limited and against smaller guys he can bully around.
We’ve seen it work before, we can see it work again.
AD doesn’t want to play the 5, he’s not built for it and playing him out of position leads to him breaking mentally and physically. Still that is the game plan, which is dumb. If they allowed him to play the 4 most of the year, he could possibly power thru some of the playoffs at the 5. They pay him, say he’s the leader, then play him out of position with no end in sight and wonder why he performs inconsistently, smh.
The blueprint is flawed, they not winning like this, and their burning out AD and the fan base.