Three young defenders who walked out of Trek!

When ball control, organization, and the outside line are no longer limited to defenders, more and more wingers and even forward players with better body shapes can perform the work of these defenders, and even perform better. Under this trend, the league teams will no longer pay attention to traditional point guard commanders.

Therefore, for those young defenders, once they enter the NBA, if they do not get a suitable training plan in the early stage of their career, and encounter some injuries, lineup changes and other accidents, which leads to not being able to seize the opportunity to transform in a critical period of their career, they are likely to become abandoned children in the league after the rookie contract.

However, such things seem to have some surprises this season. Judging from the current performance, we can find three defenders. They have all entered the stage of loss, but they have also come out smoothly for different reasons, and eventually become the key point that affects the team's victory or defeat.

The three defenders are Dwyne Mitchell from the Miami Heat, Jerome from the Cleveland Cavaliers, and Chris Dunn from the Los Angeles Clippers.

Heat's new guard choice?

Heat won two away games in the tenth place in the East this season, breaking through the playoffs again and advancing to the playoffs; and from the content of the game, the key player of the Heat in the two playoffs is not Hiro or Adebayo, but Dwyane Mitchell.

The first thing I saw that Xiaomi Michel threatened was the Chicago Bulls. When discussing the Bulls and Heat’s play-offs, we were quite concerned about the way Spoo and Xiaomi Michel were used, and the final situation was indeed worth noting. In the play-offs, the Bulls’ substitute lineup was completely suppressed by Xiaomi Michelle alone.

Until before entering the playoffs, when we mention Mitchell, most people will only think of the Heat's first-round opponent Donovan Mitchell, and few people will think of Davideon Mitchell.

As the No. 9 pick in the first round in 2021, his career started with the Kings. Because defenders Fox and Halliburton at that time, if they were not fans of the Kings, many people would not be very familiar with Xiaomi Mitchell. Later, because the Kings' development was not smooth enough, they were traded to the Toronto Raptors in the 2024-25 season.

During the Raptors, Michelle still got some opportunities, but was still not sure. Until the season trading deadline, most people were focusing on the Heat Butler's trade, but did not pay attention to the additional trades of Michelle's move to the Heat.

Just in terms of playing style, Xiaomi Michelle and the Heat's culture is still very consistent. However, after the farce between the Heat and Butler, in the remaining season of the Heat, there is still much attention to the direction of cultivating Xiaomi Michelle. This link is still worth paying attention to.

Just referring to two playoffs and four playoffs, Spoel's special adjustments to Michelle have come a lot more than we expected. In addition to the team's record, Michelle's performance in the first round series has been quite outstanding, which also allows us to retain more expectations for this first-round pick next season.

The third sword in the Cavaliers' backcourt, like Michelle, Jerome regained his life in a new environment that suits him. He played our best expectations for Herro in front of Herro. In his first game against the Heat, he scored 10 of 15 shots, second only to Donovan Mitchell in the team, and blocked the Heat's momentum of chasing points in the second half.

As the 24th pick in the first round of 2019, he was unexpectedly affected by the epidemic as soon as he entered the NBA. He played for the Suns, Thunder and Warriors, and finally returned to the position with the Cavaliers.

In fact, from the perspective of performance, he played quite well in the second year in the Thunder, and occasionally had a single highlight moment. In the second year, in addition to his significant decline in his outside shooting percentage, Jerome's position gradually became marginalized because of the Thunder's back.

Jerome, who once thought he was going to be eliminated by the league, thought he was just a recharge option when he first joined the Cavaliers last season, but unexpectedly, with Atkinson's coaching and the assistance of his friend Mitchell from childhood, this season's regular season was able to efficiently average 12.5 points, 2.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.1 steals per game, with a shooting percentage of 51.6%, and a three-point shooting percentage of 43.9%. With excellent performance, he once occupied a popular position in the discussion of the best sixth man and the fastest progress. Chris Dunn, 31, entered the NBA with the fifth pick in the first round in the 2016 draft, probably didn't expect that he would wait until the ninth year of his career to get a chance to contribute in the playoffs.

Of course, this is not the first time Dunn appears on the playoff stage. In the 2020-21 season, Dunn helped the Hawks play a surprise playoff journey. However, at that time, he only played as the end-rotation role on the bench, playing 6 games, with only single digits per game, and his personal data contribution was very little.

Since being regarded as the most mature combat power in the first round lottery show, it was once regarded as the candidate for the future main control of the Timberwolves, but was soon traded to the point where the Bulls were badly sold. In addition to Markkanen and Zach Laven, it has brought many eye-catching points to Bulls fans.

Unfortunately, in the chaotic Bulls did not get a certain team positioning, nor did they have a complete training plan. Although the Bulls gradually transformed into an active peripheral defensive sharp knife in the later stage, they still did not match the player positioning and the team direction. Then they encountered injuries after the rookie contract, and even suffered several consecutive years of injuries, causing a sharp decline in the value of players. They lingered in the Hawks and the Trail Blazers to fail to get the chance to prove themselves..

In the end, the turning point of Dunn's career came from the Utah Jazz during the reconstruction period. In Salt Lake City, Dunn met his teammate Markanen during the Bulls. Just like Markanen played star players in the Jazz, Dunn's defensive value gradually began to show. Even if he was playing a bad team with no fans' concerns, he still attracted the attention of many playoff teams. He eventually left Salt Lake City and joined the offseason to suffer major lineup changes, which were not optimistic about the Los Angeles Clippers.

Just like the Clippers who were not optimistic at the beginning of the season, they finally achieved impressive results. During this year of Dunn's year with the Clippers, he got 74 games in the regular season, started 58 games, and his total playing time reached 1,783 minutes. Although his average game data was only 6.4 points, 3.4 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.7 steals, many of the data reached career highs.

Even the shooting ability and outside line that are considered weak in the early stage of his career, although his performance in the regular season is average, his playoffs have made great progress. For the Clippers, whose defense is the top level in the league this season, and the team has a defensive machine Leonard, whenever we mention the Clippers' defensive choice, Dunn's name will be placed at the forefront of the team, which is a very special achievement.

When Dunn helped the Clippers beat the Golden State Warriors who had performed hotly after getting Butler in the last game of the regular season, it was of other significance to this defensive sharp knife.

In the first round of the Nuggets, in addition to Zubac, who is the 32nd pick in the same echelon and is now the absolute main player in the Clippers' penalty area, this series also gathered in the three point guards in the draft lottery area that year: Simmons, the No. 1 pick in the draft night, joined the Clippers after being bought out in the middle of the season, and served as Zubac's substitute; then the opponent Jin Nuggets, and Jamal Murray, who was ranked 7th in the year, which was also Dunn's main defense target in the series.

The Bulls were unable to train Dunn as a mature rotation, but now, this person who was once facing the brink of elimination finally became an excellent role player in an excellent team through his own efforts, and even played a key role in the final victory or defeat of the first round series.