I think you guys mentioned but did not expand on what to me is one of the most clear-cut explanations for Herro/Robinson being picked on: regardless of their merits as defenders relative to the rest of the league, they're almost always the weakest defender on their team when they play, making them a natural target.
Hunting mismatches and iso-ball might be ineffective means of generating offense in a narrow sense, but it also can (it seems ) have meaningful and useful knock-on effects for teams - sowing dissention in the other team (as we might be seeing with the Heat), hurting the confidence of the player being targeted, tiring him out, or even getting his coach to remove him from the game and thus making the other team's offense less potent.
I don't doubt that race is a part of this, but I also think Coach Thorpe is right in general in that teams (and players) at the NBA level are generally not in the business of making their team worse just to pursue stereotypical ideas of who is good and bad at what.
I think you guys mentioned but did not expand on what to me is one of the most clear-cut explanations for Herro/Robinson being picked on: regardless of their merits as defenders relative to the rest of the league, they're almost always the weakest defender on their team when they play, making them a natural target.
Hunting mismatches and iso-ball might be ineffective means of generating offense in a narrow sense, but it also can (it seems ) have meaningful and useful knock-on effects for teams - sowing dissention in the other team (as we might be seeing with the Heat), hurting the confidence of the player being targeted, tiring him out, or even getting his coach to remove him from the game and thus making the other team's offense less potent.
I don't doubt that race is a part of this, but I also think Coach Thorpe is right in general in that teams (and players) at the NBA level are generally not in the business of making their team worse just to pursue stereotypical ideas of who is good and bad at what.