TJ Warren, man-watching
We hear all the time about ball-watching as a sin. It's easy to spot. It leads to backdoor cuts. It smacks (sometimes falsely) of greed: an obsession with possessing the ball so that one might then shoot it.
We hear less about the inverse: when a defender on the weak side fixates on his man, oblivious to the ball and any help responsibilities. You might call it man-watching. Coaches call it "hugging," and it can be just as damaging as ball-watching.
Warren is a serial hugger. That may not seem important: Warren isn't particularly big, stout, or long; is he really going to scare people by darting into the paint?
He might. Bodies flashing into the paint at the right moment make even the most powerful ball handlers pause. You can't just mow over people who get there first.
Warren is a gifted scorer. If his early-season 3-point bonanza proves real, he becomes a very dangerous offensive player -- even when he doesn't have the ball. But until he internalizes some basic principles of team defense, a lot of his game will be empty calories.
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...e-including-kawhi-leonard-toronto-raptors-nba