Battle in Bullhead: Top Defenders
Battle in Bullhead was this past weekend and showcased some high quality players. Here are the top defenders from the event:
Dominic Gonzalez (Ironwood 2020): Camp MVP
Gonzalez is a great on-ball defender but that is not why he makes this list. He makes this list due to his communication on defense and his ability to make proper reads/rotations. That is something that is very hard to teach a player, most of it being instinct/IQ. He’s always calling out where the ball is moving and talking to his teammates. I love that trait in any player.
Jacob Martel (Kingman 2020):
Martel has good size and long arms. This is why he blocked a ton of shots this weekend. At the beginning of the day, he was turning away any shot that came near him. As the day went on and fatigue set in, he was a little less willing to get up and block shots, so that is something to work on. His ability to time shots and turn them away was very impressive.
Alex Elum (Ironwood 2021):
Alex is a great defender due to how gritty he is and is inability to be afraid of anyone. He is going to pressure his match-up with all of his effort whether he is a nationally ranked player or a complete unknown. I really appreciate that about Elum’s game. He was able to cause a lot of turnovers which leads to extra possessions for your offense, something all teams would love to have.
JJ White (Ironwood 2021):
I like JJ’s defense because of his ability to guard 1-4. If he got the correct math-up he may be able to guard an undersized 5 but can guard 1-4 on any team. His arms are long, he’s quick, and has the same defensive mentality of Alex Elum (mentioned above).
Nathan Lawsen (Kingman 2019):
Lawsen makes this list due to his communication on defense. He played great help side defense and did a great job of not allowing the pass to come to his match-up. He really did not have to play a lot of on ball defense because he was a pest and didn’t allow easy passes to come through. That’s a trait I would want all of my players to have.