So Im just reading on r/nba and listening to Will Lou’s reaction pod and Im seeing and hearing ppl are confused about this. And yet, I don’t know if you guys remember but, in the past, the Raptors have literally been the standard when it comes to guarding Giannis in the league. So much so, that other teams would look at film of the Raptors guarding Giannis as the prototype for how to do it.
Adrian, being a former Raptor assistant, is probably even aware of this. So could it be that, for the sake of not giving the rest of the league the “template” for how to guard the Dame-Giannis PnR so early in the season, Adrian and co decided to sandbag versus the Raptors? Sacrifice one game out of 82 for thr sake of the other 70+ games left of the season?
No, because the one that created the defensive scheme was nick nurse. He was the on that created that template, it would make sense if adrian had done that with the 76ers.