Boston Celtics: The best defensive assignment for each of Brooklyn’s Big-3

Best Boston Celtics defensive assignment for James Harden: Evan Fournier

Like we insinuated already, Marcus Smart is the best defender on the Boston Celtics and, in turn, is simply the ideal defensive assignment to go up against any one of Brooklyn’s Big-3.

That said, we believe his services are best-used elsewhere, so that writes him off from being included on this slide.

As for Tatum, we already see him going up against Durant based on the previous slide, so that leaves him out of this conversation as well.

Now, one could certainly make the argument that James Harden is the toughest player to defend on the Nets, for he can go about and dominate on offense both by means of scoring and with his distribution skills.

However, when looking at the options Boston has in their starting lineup, coupled with what they find themselves going up against, process of elimination really does leave just Evan Fournier as their best bet at simply doing an ‘ok’ job against the former MVP.

Ranking second on the team in defensive box plus-minus (out of those currently on Cs who have over 400 minutes played) and fifth in defensive rating under the same qualifications, coupled with his 6-7 frame, the 28-year-old wing seemingly has the best track record on the less glamorous side of the ball and the most ideal size of all the remaining Celtics (you’ll see who they are in time).

Because of all this, we believe that going into this series against the Nets, Evan Fournier is the best available player to square off against The Beard.