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 at the 5 works but he can’t do it all game especially if the opposing 5 is a major offensive threat of which there are only a few (& Joker is the extreme example). What worked great in 2020 was AD closing games at the 5 and having to bang & defend inside for the 1st 3 quarters & he was a God tier help defender coming from the weakside… would love to see them have more of this type of balance.