Post's Development Might Be Key to This Season

There was a point in last night's game where it looked like things might be similar to the Portland situation. Meaning, we were scoring, but our opponents were scoring quite a bit as well, and going to work in the midrange paint for a lot of easy buckets. We were barely up, but we couldn't get stops.

The turning point in this game was when the defense started to lock in – and the person who led the turnaround on that end was actually Quentin Post.

From watching Post last season, he would often just kinda not be part of team defense.. He would play his man if they got the ball, and otherwise he'd stand there and kinda watch and hold his ground. But last night, midway through the game, suddenly he came alive, and was patrolling the paint, helping out on drives, and protecting the rim. It totally threw the Grizz for a loop on multiple possessions, and at that point things changed.

By the time he helped isolate Ja on a sideline trap, I knew he was completely locked in. And honestly, this is one of the big things we've needed as a team. Mobile bigs and slashing guards that crash the paint hard have posed issues for the Dubs when interior defense is lacking (Dray can only do so much). Horford's experience will definitely help with that, but he can't be on the floor all the time. So if Post is able to make people think twice about waltzing into the lane, that's a huge, huge help for one of our achilles heels.

Obviously Post won't magically an elite 1on1 defender or Wemby in the blink of an eye, but him starting to use his size to alter shots in the team defense could be critically important down the stretch this season. If he gets his shot going, that's a double bonus. Super curious to see how this develops.