Tayshaun Prince: Elite defender

[sas45champs]

This post is lengthy. If you have tolerance for reading a lot, go ahead and skip this little summary. If not, then my main point is that Tayshaun Prince is one of the best defenders in basketball and is seemingly shunned and forgotten, and this may be the case of several other defenders. Awards, stats, accomplishments don't paint the whole picture, and Prince is one of the best examples.

 

I would have put this in the Pistons forum but there's a bigger topic to this than only Tayshaun Prince. But let's start with my initial idea.

 

So I was watching the Pistons-Thunder game on the free league pass which turned out to be a greater game than I thought. Villa hit a 3 to surely win but poor defense on Green pushed the Thunder to win.

 

Well I'm from Austin, Texas, so I'm a big KD fan. But I was also a huge fan of the guy guarding him: Tayshaun Prince. And I couldn't help but notice that KD was shut down the whole game. If you watched the game, shots that Durant normally would make over worse defenders would rim out. Not by poor shooting or shot selection, but because of the defensive intensity that Prince brought onto him.

 

What makes Prince a great defender is his height(6'9), length(7'2 ws), and athleticism. The thing is, so many players have these things. What puts Prince ahead of them all is his hustle and intensity. That's what defense is in the NBA. Everyone has size, it's how you use your size. On initial stats, Durant looks like he dominated Prince with 30 points. But really, Durant was held to 9-24 shooting(37.5%) and he had 11 of his points from the free throw line, which are as it suggests, free points. Because there's no way you can't foul Durant, he's tall, athletic, it's hard to stop him without fouling him. Unfortunately the defensive posts of the Pistons didn't have the awareness to avoid fouls.

 

In honesty, Prince is one of the greatest defenders of all time. People always get heated up when you talk about all-time, because people always seem to think that the 80's and 90's players were in a whole different league above the current players. Hell, Prince is a better defender than Kobe, Jordan, etc.(this isn't going to turn into a Prince-Jordan defense argument, is it?). Yet he what does he have to show for it? All he has is a 2004 ring, no stats or all-star appearances to show his elite defensive skill, one memorable highlight block that will be played for many years, and 4 All-NBA defensive second teams.

 

People will say that his shutting down of Kobe Bryant in '04 was the whole great Piston's team defensive effort. And it was, but Prince should be given much of that credit.

 

No stats to look back on. Defense is being seen more and more as stats, stats, stats, actually that's how the entire game as a whole is seen. He's never averaged 1 block or 1 steal, even though he deflects every pass and contests every shot and makes them miss. No all-star appearances. Basically, if you never made an all-star appearance, you were never elite in anything.

 

A block on Reggie Miller? That had summed up everything Prince stood for on defense, everything defense stands for overall; not letting the other team score. Except it's not like Kobe or Jordan, whom in their highlight mixes have various steals and blocks and finishing with some 1 handed 360 dunk on the other end. Prince only has one highlight.

 

But 4 All-NBA defense second teams outrages me the most. It just shows that accomplishments really don't show much at all. Basically, Prince will be remembered as a good defender, but never as a great one. He had to compete with possibly the two best perimeter defenders of the decade(Bowen and Battier), great post defenders(Garnett, Duncan, and help-defender Camby), and various of other names who I honestly think Prince is better than.

 

04-05 second team: Prince's first individual accomplishment in the league. Other defensive wings were AK47(stat stuffer), Bruce Bowen(legacy of great defense, pest, and maybe a little dirty), Dwyane Wade(2nd team), and Larry Hughes(1st). Larry Hughes? Dwyane Wade? These two are good playing the passing lanes. But Hughes took risks and as a result let up a score many times. He didn't have defensive intensity. Wade is a good defender...never shut down. Neither Hughes nor Wade can ever be called a shut-down defender.

 

05-06 second team: Bowen, AK, Kobe, Artest. Prince is just as great as any of them. Because Prince has not been exposed as an elite defender, many of you won't think that he is better or on the same level. All these players have the name-values as a defender due to superstardom(Kobe), influence(Artest), many 1st team appearances(Bowen) and stats(AK)

 

06-07: Bowen, Bryant, Bell. All 1st team. Bell was the self-proclaimed "Kobe-stopper." Last I checked, the true Kobe-stopper held him to 38% shooting, 17% from three, and forced him to commit 4 turnovers in the finals of 04.

 

07-08: Bryant, Bowen, Bell(2nd), Battier(2nd). We're seeing constant appearances of Bowen and Bryant. I would suppose that after a while, the GMs grow on these guys and just continue to vote for them over and over again, while they ignore defenders such as Battier and Prince who are just as great.

 

After that, no more defensive team awards. 08-09, the entire first team was basically the all-NBA team. Dwyane Wade was suddenly elected again in '09 and '10. LeBron James is a good defender, but he is put because he can make the highlight reel. Like Wade. Never shut-down. Kobe is put again because he is Kobe. Just as you have to put Jordan on 1st team because he is Jordan. Josh Smith(2nd team in '10) is similar to LeBron. I liked the selection of Varejao, and Wallace should've always been on one of the teams. It showed that they had players that always worked 100% on the end, and the results are wins. I would definitely put Battier over Sef, and Prince, but I guess '10 is an exception due to his injuries.

 

So basically, my main point is that awards and accomplishments show nothing. All it shows is what the people giving them think, and I believe the results are misleading. For instance, if such a great defender as Rasheed Wallace never makes one of these defensive teams, something is wrong. Basically, Wallace will never be given the credit on defense he deserves. Neither will Prince as well, when people are talking about the greatest defenders of all-time 20 years later, Prince's name won't come up. There's probably plenty of players who were better lock-down defenders than the names we know(or think) as great today.

 

The funniest thing is I doubt that Prince even cares. He's a team player, and he doesn't work for himself as an individual. That's why so many teams want him as part of their franchise. That's why the Pistons hold on to him while getting rid of just about everyone else. That's why he's a true winner, and one of my favorite players of all time.

[Real Deal]

People will say that his shutting down of Kobe Bryant in '04 was the whole great Piston's team defensive effort. And it was, but Prince should be given much of that credit.

I was looking for this comment, actually.

 

But, he should be given the most credit for it...along with Ben Wallace. It was basically cutting off circulation in the triangle offense. Stick Prince on Kobe, double him before he gets within 23 feet of the rim, and ask Rip and Sheed to play the passing lane between Bryant and Shaq, really the only two offensive threats the Lakers had during Malone's injury. Ben Wallace comes into play for how he played Shaq down low, and how he positioned himself to stop Bryant on any screens. He basically baited Shaq to get deep into the post, because he knew the deeper he got, the longer the pass, and the more likely Shaq would not step back out and set a screen.

 

Give credit to one of the greatest defensive coaches of all-time, Larry Brown, as well.

 

Sorry for my rant. But, yes, Prince was a huge part of that. His length bothered Kobe's jumpers, and Detroit's help defense kept Bryant from driving in. Perfect recipe to defeat the triangle, and it was a way teams looked to do this when Winter was running it at K-State with a post and a facilitating wing back when he created it.