I’d love to hear about your defensive identity and your defensive role, and how you feel that’ll translate into the NBA.
XT: The first thing that I would say is that I am vocal and I am an anchor on defense. I am the guy who is calling out all the screens on the back end, calling out all the coverages. I’m the guy who watches a lot of film and I call the plays out as soon as they come out. I help my teammates navigate through all of them. Getting everybody on board, that’s what I’m good at.
Then, individually, I guard well coming off screens. Michigan State did a great job of teaching me every single piece of defensive coverage: From a soft hedge to a hard hedge, to a feather, to icing ball screens, to dropping back. We looked at every single ball screen. I’ll be able to translate that to the NBA. I know the unathletic bigs will drop while the really athletic bigs can press up and trap. I can get the ball out of the guard’s hands or even switch onto them. That is something I feel like I have the capabilities of doing and that’s what will help me a lot in the NBA because a lot of teams will move and switch. That’s what Michigan State did to prepare me for my career.
The last thing I would say about my defense is my on-ball ability. I am able to guard both bigs in the post. I can guard fours and threes on the wing, who can put the ball on the floor. That was kind of the last piece that showed up my junior year. I was able to do that, hold people down to way below their numbers. I was able to come up with the right job.