Laker Scouting Reports

Strengths: Game-changing defensive presence/excellent defensive playmaker, Elite rebounder (particularly defensive boards), Elite around the basket (top notch foul drawer/dunker/finisher), Top notch physical force (strength+height+mobility+athleticism), Very good durability (excellent for his size), Good offensive game within 10 feet, Positive demeanor/good work ethic/still improving/loves the game
Weaknesses: Horrible foul shooter exacerbated by number of attempts, Doesn't see the floor well off double teams, petulant immature behavior as a result of over-coddling (see technicals/Orlando management problems)

Dwight's legend has always been rooted in the fact that he's a game-changing defensive force. Before this season, he's played minutes in the mid to high 30s for the past six years with the Magic, while never missing more than four games. During that period, the Magic were 6th, 6th, 1st, 3rd and 3rd in defensive efficiency. He's clearly a transformative figure on defense--always making a huge impact in team defense, as he has the lateral quickness (particularly for his size) and anticipation down pat, and needless to say with his build and athleticism he's an imposing figure to shoot over. His man defense is much the same way--he completely neutralizes the opposing starting center, severely snuffing out their field goal percentages and outrebounding them badly. He's rapidly improved his defense over the past several years, and as mentioned above, the results show team-wise--the Magic weren't known for having any good defenders at all besides Dwight, and he was able to single-handedly elevate the team on that end. You can count the number of players on one hand who are able to do that in the league. Dwight is one of them. He has three DPOYs under his belt to further validate that fact.

People always rave about Dwight's combination of speed, strength, and athleticism and say he's the most "ripped" person in the league, and that's obviously a big factor in his success. Where Dwight excels at is in clearing the defensive boards--over the past six years, he's absolutely been league-leading material in this end. He's the best in the business at forcing misses and then clearing the subsequent board--this is important because too often we see bad rebounders/defenders who go for every block, or guys who don't bother contesting shots who go for every board. Dwight does both, and for 34-38 minutes a night. Because of this, over the past six years, he'd be in the top one or two in overall rebounding among centers. Dwight's defense and rebounding are absolutely transformative aspects of his game--he's arguably the best in the business right now on those fronts.

Dwight's defensive playmaking numbers have tailed off a bit, particularly in the shotblocking front, but over the past several years he's jumped into the top six-eight among centers in steals--he's developed quite a nose for poking at the ball. He's still a good to excellent shotblocker, however, needless to say with all those highlight reels populating youtube. Ironically, for a Lakers team that is severely lacking in steals, he might actually be one of the major pluses on that end. On the whole, he's in the top seven-twelve among big men in making defensive plays. However, unlike many of the big men above him in defensive playmaking, Dwight ranks the highest in defensive plays/foul ratio, so he knows how to judiciously make defensive plays without jeopardizing his minutes on the court (the only one who is better than him in that is Ben Wallace, although Chris Andersen is in the periphery). Needless to say, many of those big men play minutes from the low teens to mid 20s, as a result of their foul trouble. So even Dwight's reduced defensive playmaking can be construed as a positive. But defensive playmaking is useful only if it is coupled with the actual defense and rebounding, which as mentioned above, Dwight is absolutely the cream of the crop in this area. Coupled with the defensive discipline he's shown in the past few years, that makes him an even bigger factor. Only six centers, including now former Laker Andrew Bynum, average fewer fouls per minute, but Bynum didn't rebound as well as Dwight nor did he play defense at that level either.

Again, with the exception of this season (which we'll talk about later), Dwight's offensive efficiency for a big man is top five material, and what's more is that he creates these shots on his own accord (five of the past six seasons, he was in the bottom five in shots assisted). Dwight's a good offensive rebounder, but not even as close as good as he is on defensive rebounding (which speaks to how great that attribute of his game is), so he isn't always just getting tip-ins. Dwight's more than just a catch-and-dump player in the post--he's good at creating his shot there, even if the way he gets off his shot doesn't look completely orthodox as say, Andrew Bynum. He's always largely been in the top five in finishing around the basket, and is an extremely prolific dunker who always ranks in the top five in dunks per 48 minutes every season. He's never averaged less than two dunks a game since his rookie year, and by and large he's the most prolific dunker since Shaq, and this is another area where he bests Bynum in. He also made the most AND-1 plays the past year, and ranked second in AND-1 percentage, which is not a surprise as he can easily finish through contact. Also, he ranked first in the league as the roll man in pick-and-roll plays, and considering Steve Nash led the league in pick-and-roll passes this season, this is a pairing made in heaven, and can see Dwight get more than his average in dunks as a result. Of note is that Dwight's 2008 season saw more of his shots assisted far more than his norms, and as a result he shot significantly better at the rim and drew more fouls. So there's precedence that Nash can improve those areas.

The path of lesser resistance is to foul Dwight given his high finishing ability around the basket, and that's what teams do--he's mostly in the top, sometimes second, in free throw drawing over the past half decade. It's a way better proposition to have Dwight shoot 58.8% from the line (his career average) rather than consistently finish at 74% around the basket. But even though Dwight's prone to getting hacked at the end of close games, getting to the line is still an easy way to manufacture points, and it comes with the bonus of getting opposing frontcourts in foul trouble, which Dwight is the best in the business at doing.

There is a common misconception that Dwight is super turnover prone and that he's easy to strip the ball from--and many teams use double teams largely to force turnovers in this fashion. He's been above the league average for centers several times over the past decade, but also been below the average several times, such as this season. He isn't as bad a ballhandler as many would like to believe, and he's actually made inroads in this area. Among centers with usage rates above 20, Nene, Derrick Favors, Chris Kaman and Tiago Splitter were worse this season.

Where it's easier to criticize Dwight on is his passing--he's oscillating between very bad to bad, but still he's definitely subpar after eight years in the league, and for that usage rate it stands out. That's also a reason teams double team him, because he can't find the open man, and teams wish that it would lead to a turnover rather than a forced shot. But the reality is, there are quite a few big men playing in the 20s in minutes who don't pass the ball well and accrue turnovers at a similar pace (JaVale McGee, Marcin Gortat, Derrick Favors, Andrew Bynum to name a few) and they all contribute in various ways, so this issue isn't as big as it should be made to be. As a roll man finisher, he wouldn't need to think and hold on to the ball as often, so issues like this would be less important as well.

Howard's game is largely centralized within 10 feet, and he virtually will never take a shot beyond that, so he knows is limitations (as seen by his free throw percentages). He's steadily increased his shot attempts from that range--about 2/5ths of his shots come from there, well above the norms for most centers. Roy Hibbert, Al Jefferson, and Andrew Bynum take as many shots from this distance and hit them better, but Dwight hits them at a pretty good 41-44% clip, above the average for centers, which helps to optimize his post up game. He also creates quite a few of these shots for himself as well, so he has an assortment of moves here. Overall, between his prolific and almost-indefensible-without-fouling at the rim game and an underrated 3-9 foot game, he's quite underrated offensively, even if aesthetically he doesn't look as smooth as many offensive-minded centers. But still, he gets it done, and has elite attributes (dunking/free throw drawing) that no other big can boast of, and which gives him a big advantage. In the mid to late 2000s, he's also posted very good offensive +/- numbers, so he's capable of being a first offensive option.

In a league where big men are most prone to injuries, Dwight played all 82 games in his first four seasons and never missed more than four games for his next three--he was as close to an "iron man" in this league as anyone, between his ability to stay healthy and his physique. He had back problems and subsequent surgery this year, but still, his track record for health still appears to be very good, and on top of that he's staying on the floor better (reducing fouls while maintaining his defense).

Dwight's demeanor may be a bit of a concern. He got injured this year, yes, but there were complaints that he was coasting because he wanted to be traded--the Magic's D only ranked 13th this year, largely because Howard wasn't applying himself. Also, Howard wasn't as active blocking shots, wasn't drawing as many fouls as he did in the past, and also he shot a career low from the free throw line (49.1%) within the past six years, which reduced his scoring efficiency from years past. So there's that factor that when he's dissatisfied, he won't fully apply himself, although before that he was rapidly improving (particularly on defense) and not really regressing in any factor of the game, so this could be a one-time blip. He is quite immature, though, although with the daily beatings he's taking on offense (he's first-second in free throw rate in the league, with a top three-four usage rate as mentioned) he's taken to retaliation against the refs a lot--he's had 58 technicals over the past four seasons, which is definitely on the excessive side. Still, he's personable and charming, is always seen with a big smile on his face and you can tell he loves the game and means it (seen by his improvements) and doesn't have any real off-the-court baggage.

What this all means is that Dwight is just indecisive, petulant and immature when the going gets rough. He won't bring it on the court as hard, and his indecisiveness really put Orlando's management in a state of flux, leading to the firings of their coach and GM. Dwight essentially held the organization hostage to his whimsies. He isn't exactly egotistical, but he seems to be trying to explore his newfound power in free agency to the fullest, but he doesn't exactly know how to handle it. The Magic really seemed to lack a steadying presence, whether in the form of management or players, and appeared to have coddled him too much. The Lakers have a lot of alpha males and while it will be interesting to see how Dwight reacts as a likely reduced offensive option, but at the same time the Lakers have many vets who can react properly if Dwight starts to show discontent.

In the aggregate, Dwight is an absolute game-changer on defense, both being elite in rebounding and completely changing the team's defensive culture by playing elite man-to-man and team defense. He's also vastly underrated on offense, with elite dunking/finishing and foul drawing ability, and an underrated game within 10 feet. He also has a nearly clean slate with health, and has made improvements in defense, turnovers and reducing his fouls. The only downside is the slight immaturity, but with so many elite attributes, he's definitely a superstar and likely HOFer when all is said and done.

Strengths: Low usage-high efficiency three point bomber/good primary spot-up shooter, Surprisingly very good man-to-man defense without fouling, Side element of possible foul drawing, Limits turnovers, Knows role
Weaknesses: Undersized and unathletic, Cannot/unwilling to put the ball on the floor to score or pass, Mixed team defense, Nonexistent mid-range game, Rarely attacks basket

Meeks is an efficient scorer--in the 2010-2011 season alone, he was fourth in efficiency, and over the past three years he's been no worse than 17th among SGs, and quite above the league average. For the Lakers' purposes, he's particularly useful because given all the ball-dominant alpha males on the team: he doesn't need the ball, as he's had bottom 15 usage rates among SGs for the past two years. Also, he spots up or gets dished for everything--he's in the top two for shots assisted the past two years, and only Raja Bell exceeded that this year. In line with that role, Meeks doesn't pass the ball--at 6'4", he's tenth from the bottom the past two seasons in assist rate--but the other plus is that he doesn't turn the ball over either--he had the second lowest turnover rate this year, which only Daequan Cook bested, and his career numbers are in line with that. Meeks largely has had the role of staying out of the way, and when he receives it, he doesn't dribble or pass--he lets a jumper rip, with highly efficient results. That makes Meeks a "resourceful" player--he fades into the limelight and lets the alpha dogs do the talking, but he's able to make the most of his scoring opportunities. He has a similar scoring rate to Evan Turner for instance, but has a far less usage due to his efficiency, and the rate is in the ballpark of players like Courtney Lee and Dahntay Jones--so he clearly is an adequate bench scorer, or a possible fifth option scorer for starting lineups.

So how does Meeks score? His scoring is very three point heavy--whereas most SGs take a third of their shots as threes, Meeks takes 50-60% of his shots as threes. Meeks loves to set up shop from distance--over the past two years, nearly all of his threes are assisted. He's a very good three point shooter, having shot 38% and 39.7% from distance in the past on a sizable number of attempts, and he's a career 37.1% three point shooter. He could be excellent in this area--he's a career 88.4% free throw shooter, and shot 90.6% this past season, so clearly he has the shooting chops.

Meeks' ability to rain threes and be efficient is clearly his calling card, because he completely lacks an in-between game. Meeks virtually never uses a pull-up jumper off the dribble if defenses fly at him, and as mentioned, doesn't handle the ball--and he rarely spots up for mid-range jumpers, if at all. His percentages appear decent from mid-range, so it's just a matter of him developing or gaining confidence in a slight dribble game to perhaps optimize his three point shooting. He can certainly shoot, but defenses appear to play him for the three rather than the drive, and that might have hindered his percentages.

Meeks will rarely attack the basket or even go for a floater in the lane--only about a fifth of his shots come from within 10 feet--and he's just an OK finisher. Not surprisingly, he's extremely deficient in athleticism--he's only had 11 career dunks in 200 career games, and his four dunks this season actually matched his career high. Surprisingly, however, he gets to the line at an OK rate. In fact, in 2010-2011, he was actually showing some surprising "mutual exclusion" type properties on offense--he was in the top 15 of SGs in foul drawing, despite being such a heavily inclined three point shooter. That was really what buoyed up his scoring efficiency, because he could hit threes and draw fouls. His foul drawing has become slightly subpar again, but he appears to have a slight knack for drawing fouls for a jumpshooter, and this is an element that many inclined shooters simply don't have. It's an interesting wrinkle to his game that helps to optimize his turnover-free scoring.

Meeks is definitely a subpar rebounder and has even been in the bottom ten in the past in this category, and to further illustrate that severe lack of athleticism, Meeks is routinely bottom twenty among SGs in making defensive plays (he was in the bottom ten this year, even). The major issues are that he's nonexistent as a shotblocker, obvious given his height, but also he doesn't really have quick reflexes, as a subpar stealer. Despite only standing at 6'4" and having subpar athleticism, he's actually seen success defending opposing starting SGs in Philadelphia. Doug Collins actually optimized his defense, as Meeks started 114 of the past 140 games he played, and he played significant enough minutes such that for the past two years, Philly ranked 3rd and 6th in defensive efficiency. Yes, a lot of that can be attributed to Andre Iguodala and Elton Brand, but Meeks more than held his own as a man-to-man "contain" defender--he's held down his man's overall efficiency, particularly in shooting the ball. His team defense is more of a mixed bag, but Meeks was highly regarded as even the best SG defender this year by 82games.com. He also plays good man-defense without fouling, having bottom ten foul rates the past two years, so he definitely has his uses here.

Meeks is a very useful player particularly for a team like the Lakers--his offensive "resourcefulness", comprised of staying out of the way until he can spot up for threes, is pretty much what the doctor ordered. The Lakers need shooters, and they don't need ballhoggers: Meeks fits the bill on both fronts, and that's all he'll be required to do to keep defenses honest. His side attribute of foul drawing is a side wrinkle that also puts him in better regard compared to most shooters. His inability or unwillingness to dribble or pass is completely neutraized with the Lakers. On defense, he's undersized, unathletic, lacks reflexes and has a mixed bag in team defense, which one might immediately equate to being a defensive liability, but Doug Collins really appeared to "coach" him up and make him quite a good man-to-man defender. He's definitely a tougher than he looks sort of player, and his defense might be surprisingly good, even though in the aggregate he appears above average, given the tools and team defense. But unlike past Lakers like Jason Kapono and others, he shouldn't be benched for being a defensive liability, and he could be a plus in this area. Meeks ultimately has a threes+defense attribute going on, and might be an interesting cog player off the bench.

Strengths: Shotblocking foundation/length
Weaknesses: Very bad foundation for offense, Can't finish around rim/gets shot blocked, Soft and takes a ton of mid-range bricks, Very poor shooter, Nondescript passer/loose handles, Progressively foul prone on defense, Bad team defender, Subpar rebounder

Clark by and large has played the majority of his minutes at power forward, although he's had some test runs at small forward as coaches still believe he's the versatile hybrid forward he was billed as during the draft (he was a lottery pick back in 2009). Clark's still somewhat of an unknown quantity, having never played more than 12.4 minutes a game, but not really doing anything more to really justify more minutes either.

Clark is absolutely atrocious on offense. He's actually experimented with high usage rates especially for a bit player, but he uses the majority of them to chuck up blanks--he's had bottom three-type TS% among PFs in two of his three seasons. He couples this with slightly subpar court vision and a somewhat loose handle, but really it's the inefficient chucking that's hurting him. Clark does play around the rim, but he really struggles to finish around the basket, even off cuts--he's been at the bottom ten in finishing ability among PFs. He has a nagging tendency to get his shot swatted--he was in the top twelve in shots swatted against this year, and that continues a trend from previous years. He's just soft around the basket--he's a subpar offensive rebounder, and also a bit subpar at foul drawing as well. Also, it really hurts Clark that he doesn't have a game within 3-9 feet to optimize his paint game--he virtually never uses it.

But where Clark really hurts himself? He must have fed into the delusions that scouts have fed him about being "versatile", because he's taking an exorbitant amount of mid-range jumpers. EXORBITANT. In his rookie year alone, over half of his shots came from that distance, and this season with Orlando 45% of his shots came from there--the average PF takes 28% of their shots as mid-range J's. But Clark is a subpar mid-range shooter, and at times very subpar, despite taking the majority of them in spot-up situations. To wit, he shot 27% on his mid-range J's this season, on a huge number of attempts. He's a career 66.1% free throw shooter and has been in the low 70s for some seasons, so his jumper, at best, will be on the mediocre side. But right now, it's awful, and he's really hurting his team by firing up mid-range blanks whenever he gets the ball. His offensive +/- numbers the past two years in Orlando were absolutely atrocious, and he was playing against backups. There's a ton of work he needs to improve on, both on a personal and team standpoint, with regards to his offensive game.

The reality is, I can't see Clark ever being much of an offensive player. He lacks three point range and can't draw fouls, and these are the two easiest elements to generate points. He has an obsession with a shot that has the least value, and based on his current results and free throw percentage, there's little hope he can improve it significantly. He's also soft and can't finish around the basket. His passing, hyped up in college, is overstated and subpar, and he can get sloppy with the ball. There's no real strength to draw on, and that doesn't bode well for him. He's really a tweener on offense--not good enough to space the floor to be a SF, too soft as a PF. I really question whether he can figure it out. To his credit, he severely reduced his usage rate this year, but even that was a bad decision--he became invisible. It might be better to experiment with chucks rather than disappear. So he's in a bit of a precarious situation.

The thing is, all these symptoms were seen in college. Clark was extremely turnover prone and didn't pass the ball well at all in his first two years at college, and had a nonelusive offensive game that didn't see enough threes or foul drawing. His last year in college saw a precipitous dip in foul drawing, so that should have been a warning sign. And of course, he couldn't shoot--he shot between 59-64% from the line, and had seasons of 22% and 32% from three. He already looked like a wreck offensively in college, and we had three years of data to validate it. So it's no surprise that he can't produce offensively in the NBA, particularly given the step up in talent.

If Clark's to make a name for himself, it will have to be on defense. Clark did appear to trade off his offensive usage for more shotblocking--he was the seventh best shotblocker this year among PFs--and virtually because of that his defensive plays skyrocketed from what was once slightly subpar to quite good. He's always been an above average shotblocker for a PF, which is aided by his 7'3" wingspan immensely. But that's where his current pros on defense ends. He's a poor stealer for someone of his mobility, doesn't draw charges, and has started to become increasingly foul prone--he had a bottom ten foul rate among PFs this year, so he's just hacking as he's trying to swat away shots. I use a tool called defensive plays/foul ratio to monitor defensive discipline, and only Chris Wilcox, Samardo Samuels, Reggie Evans and Amir Johnson have worse defensive play rates and higher foul rates. Those players currently play 13-24 minutes a game, so if Clark doesn't improve on this, the likelihood is that he'll receive minutes in the teens as the upside. Needless to say he's not disciplined defensively, and for someone who will likely need to make a living defensively to stay in the league, that's a bad sign.

But that's not even the worst of it--Clark's a subpar rebounder, being slightly below average at best a defensive rebounder. It's not a surprise, once again: Clark's rebounding dipped to average at his junior year, another telltale sign. And his actual defense is awful--in man-to-man, he surrenders high scoring rates and high efficiency to backup PFs, and also is quite in the negative as well in team defense. Based on seasonal data, he appears to have more potential playing guys in man-to-man in team defense, though--in 2010-2011 he was actually decent man-to-man, but still in the aggregate his defense is poor. Ultimately, the impression Clark gives on defense is that he means well, but just doesn't have much intelligence at all--he goes for every block and won't mind hacking players, but neglects the rebound in doing so and is poor overall in defense.

There's too much to learn for him at this stage--he's 24--to the point where he probably would still be subpar in defense, but at least unlike offense, he actually has one thing--shotblocking--where he has a NBA foundation in. On offense, he's quite hopeless. Even if he semi-improves one or two things, he's still a bit NBA player, and at this stage he's becoming more "player" rather than "prospect". He could very easily be out of the league--he was vastly overrated even at the time of the draft, and while hindsight is 20/20, it's now easy to see why he isn't producing.

Strengths: Shown some ability to defend backup PGs, Decent three point shooter
Weaknesses: Fades away from the limelight offensively, Becoming incredibly turnover prone, Wildly inconsistent yearly as a shooter/questionable efficiency, Overrated passer, Severely lacks athleticism/defensive playmaking, Some off the court issues/baggage, Poor rebounder, Horrible defender against starting PGs, Struggles to finish around the basket, Nonexistent mid-range game

Before we start this scouting report, let's just say this about Duhon: Duhon was never a good player. Never. Not even when New York binged 36 minutes and 30 minutes a game on him from 2008-2010, while having a super fast pace (2nd and 8th) to artificially increase his in-game stats.

Duhon's offense has been a wreck the past several seasons, having deep in the negative +/- numbers on offensively. Duhon has never had the clout or athleticism to handle the ball for prolonged periods of time--this year alone, he was the 2nd worst among PGs in usage rate, and only Royal Ivey was worse. Even current Laker Steve Blake and former Laker Derek Fisher had higher usage rates. Even in his "glory" offensive days of New York, he had the sixth-seventh worst usage rates--as mentioned, the fast pace and the heavy minutes just made his numbers look better than they should have.

What's more is that Duhon is quite clumsy with the basketball--he went from quite turnover prone with the Knicks to very turnover prone the past few seasons. His low usage rate/assist rate was comparable to another set of washed up PGs, Mike Bibby and Steve Blake, but he was way more turnover prone than either (this is why Magic fans don't hold a very good opinion of him). He's never passed the ball at the level of a Jason Kidd, Jose Calderon, or even Earl Watson of this year--he's way more comparable to the aforementioned Bibby and Blake, with added turnovers--and that's disconcerting.

As a scorer, Duhon wildly oscillates in terms of efficiency, with years where he is inefficient, years where he can't hit the broad side of a barn, but also some years where he's decent, at the behest of his three point shooting. And Duhon has mostly been a three point shooter for his career--where most PGs take almost 30% of his shots as threes, Duhon wings 40-60% of his shots as threes over the past half-decade. Career-wise, he's decent (36.4%) but nothing special--he's not consistent in this, having good years and bad years in shooting. That's sort of the story of Duhon's career--you just don't know what side of Duhon you'll get, and the three point shooting comprises the bulk of his efficiency. It doesn't help that Duhon has a severely underutilized mid-range game, despite shooting a career 78.9% from the line--as a result, defenders can play him for the shot at the three point line, and considering he's only a decent shooter, defenses don't even need to respect his offense that much at all as a result.

Duhon is severely unathletic--he's only had three dunks for his career of 560 games--but in the past he's actually attacked the basket quite a bit and even had one season where he drew fouls. He's actually overzealous in slashing to the hoop--and in New York, where he attained the majority of his minutes, he's had bottom six-seven finishing ability among PGs. By and large, he's a below average as a finisher and foul drawer, and might be losing his athleticism even further--his foul drawing and slashing rates dropped precipitously this year as he's taken greater interest into his "decent" three point game. It might be a good choice, given that his three point shooting, relatively, is better than the finishing--even if it makes him more predictable.

Overall, the offensive template for Duhon is that he's a guy who stays out of the way of the offense, but when he receives the ball, the choice has been reduced from slashing bricks in favor of what is just a decent three point shot, or more likely, a turnover. Duhon either needs to be a supreme passer or a excellent shooter (think 40% from three), to justify the incredibly low usage rate, but he isn't: instead, he magnifies it with turnovers as well. He needs to keep things simple, but if he can't, it's way easier to get a three point shooter who limits turnovers from a D-League contract, which provides more offensive value than what Duhon is currently doing. That's why he's an incredibly frustrating player on offense, and why he's rendered useless on most nights.

Duhon once did carry a defensive rep in college and also in his first several seasons in Chicago, and while Mike D'Antoni never did coach defense in NYK, he's definitely responsible for the 23rd and 27th worst defenses that he was a part of in 2008-10. Moreover, he made those defenses worse--in man-to-man, he surrendered high scoring rates and field goal percentage to opposing PGs, and made a very bad defensive team even worse by playing team defense in the negative. But it's a tale of two defenses for Duhon: he actually put up pretty good man-to-man and team defensive stats against backup PGs the last two years, or the past 114 games in Orlando, so there's recent history of some success here. Also, in his rookie year, Chicago was the 2nd best defensive team and he had positive team defensive markers. One wonders if he's capable on defense against backups, but awful against starters. In the aggregate, he probably rounds up as a mediocre defender, but awfully polarizing depending on the situation.

To further illustrate Duhon's lack of athleticism, he's always been a subpar rebounder and he's always routinely in the bottom ten among PGs in defensive playmaking. He's deficient in forcing steals and getting blocks, and relatively average at drawing charges. He isn't foul prone, however, but overall the template is that he's a mediocre defender who really struggles against starting PGs, and he's further sunk by his athletic deficiencies on this end. For a player so awful on offense, his poor athleticism and mediocre defense don't even come close to cutting it at all. If it weren't for some of the name-cache he gained as starter of the Knicks, he really should be out-of-the-league material.

On top of that, Duhon doesn't have the best personality teamwise--he has missed practices, clashed with coaches, and seems to enjoy the nightlife a lot (in Los Angeles, this problem will only be exacerbated). He doesn't seem to be a veteran-type leader who could infuse his knowledge to other PGs, especially since he was not too talented or intelligent as a PG to begin with, along with the off-the-court shenanigans. So again, the fact that fans have sometimes called him "the worst PG in the league"--they might have a point.