Is Doug McDermott ready for a bigger role?

Tim Legler thinks so, and he told Mike McGraw of the Daily Herald it reminds him of his own career:

"It was tough because I felt like I could guard a guy really well for four or five possessions, but the one time you'd get beat -- somebody would turn the corner and get to the rim -- the coach would overreact and yank you out of the game. So eventually you just have to stick with it and find the right coach. I'm not saying Hoiberg isn't this guy, but he hasn't had enough experience with Doug yet. But you have to play for a coach that values the things you do well so much that he is willing to try to hide some things that he might think are your weaknesses. Once you find that situation, you're going to be good to go."

Legler's point is the elite offensive players are going to score plenty of points no matter who is guarding them. So it's better to use someone who can at least make the opponents work hard on the other end of the floor.

Kind of strange to hear this in a year when McDermott's getting more playing time than ever (no, he's not playing in clutch situations, and that's a point made here), and when the coach is his dad's friend and seemingly the entire offseason was geared around getting him 'more confidence'.

Then again, he is shooting so well it does at least bring up the conversation, to which that's good news.

But his defense is anecdotally abominable and the lineups he's in have performed poorly on that end. Later in the article Legler sort of admits he hasn't seen McDermott enough as to say whether he can get to a Korver level of defense, but even that case took years.

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