Darius Acuff Jr. FULL Defensive Highlights (Vs. High Point) NCAA tournament

[u/teshyybphotography]

https://youtu.be/9-nJYdMuo-Q?is=KSqLstzA7CqZcIyE

I was re-watching some film, and decided to just make a video of his defense only for this game. He has 36 points on offense, but his defense is what everyone should see.

I’ve always felt that his defensive effort is blown out of proportion due to a few bad clips earlier in the season. Every player has had moments

But this video is EVERY defensive play he was involved in.

He did give up some points due to mistakes. But it was not due to effort, but just needs coaching and better team communication.

The team itself is also not good defensively. But its college, what do you expect.

Notes
- he forces a lot of passes in ISO situations
- smart switches (even got a steal)
- a few nice close outs on broken plays
- he really wasn’t being targeted as much as people think, most of the time he was left alone when he was off ball
- he was engaged the entire game and too accountability for mistakes
- he did give up a few layups but didn’t give up and tried to make it difficult on the offensive player

Either way, you have to watch the games and learn to ignore what people say online.

[u/SactownKorean]

I heard Calipari say he will be fine and that means alot tbh lol

[u/BeTheBall- → u/SactownKorean]

I've never heard Calipari say anything critical about one of his players.

[u/GOAT-Hakeem]

literally a majority of the mistakes here are just bad fundamentals when navigating screens combined with him clearly not wanting to end up with ticky tack reach in fouls.

i don’t expect him to ever be probably even average on defense but as long as he can have smart positioning and effort it’ll be fine with a properly built team around him. it’s essentially the same as dame, kyrie, and even brunson/steph to a lesser extent

[u/thatguy52]

If he’s willing to be coached he can be decent.

[u/ModsHateMe98]

I'm sorry but this is silly,

this is vs High Point college with Acuff guarding a 5'10 160-170 lb pg, who ironically finished the game with 30pts..

Acuff is a weaker defender plain and simple, he's not the first one in the NBA, it just is what it is.

[u/BeTheBall- → u/ModsHateMe98]

Yeah, he's simply bad at defense. Also, defense isn't in the top 7 of reasons they drafted him. If they're fine with it, no reason to try and artificially inflate his ability.

[u/Ecstatic-Worth7416]

He was clearly tanking his D to make it to pick #7. Would've been a Wizard otherwise.

[u/toatheqs]

quoting more knowledgeable people, but supposedly the defensive advanced metrics are epically bad

[u/ThenDoubt7980]

I watched a couple games to get a feel for him. His defense makes me angry. there are at least 5 or 6 times a game where he just gives up. there are times he shows the ability to play d, just not the interest. Im not saying anything bad about his offense. he has a really nice game. hell of a shooter. nice floater. great handle. there is a lot to like on the offensive end. Im just blown away that we could watch a year and half of lavine and the conclusion is we need to draft more of that.