you’re going to need a perimeter defender much more than a nice C who rides pine 50% of the game against the Lakers and Clippers. If Donovan Mitchell can drop 50 on you every night in a series and you have no one to stop him, you got bigger problems than having a nice complementary 6th man who is a big.
Sure, but there's also the fact that Mitchell finishes 25% of shots for 2Ps within 3 feet of the basket and converts on almost 80% of them. Highly indicative of having no one to stop him in the paint. His 3 point shot is serving him amazingly well, but it helps he knows he can take the rock to the hole without much resistance. This lack of support from behind also causes the guards to keep a little bit of distance from him in order to be more prepared for him driving the basketball, which in turn gives him more space to get his 3P shot off.
As for Plumlee, the whole idea they need a big man who can pass the ball so that they wouldn't change the playstyle too much is beyond idiotic for many reasons, but I'll list just the most obvious ones:
- Plumlee isn't Jokić, who is a unique player. That's like replacing Shaq with Sofoklis Schortsanitis because they play the same way and expecting the same results despite the fact that one is a one of a kind talent and the other is a run of the mill plug.
- You want to be able to mix stuff up so that you are not predictable and easy to defend
- Plumlee brings nothing other than energy defensively
