He wasn't great or anything last year, but I tried telling folks, he was greatly improved from freshman to sophomore year, he was better than Allen and Jackson defensively last year, and frankly wasn't too far behind Matt Jones, whose defense was cysed all season based mostly on his rep from 2015. The fundamentals and IQ are there.

He improves his game consistently in every way. It should also help in the NBA that he won't be asked to do absolutely everything for his team on offense the way he had to do for Duke the first few months of the season. And he's looked strong defensively in the Summer League so far.

He'll struggle with some quicker guys, of course, but he'll make up for it elsewhere. He should be a passable defender when all is said and done-- unlikely to ever be a great defender or anything, but the liability talk has been overblown.

(By the way, to another member of Ellenson's bandwagon, he's been looking good too. A little too in love with the 3 ball, but the offense and the rebounding are so nice. I'm still a fan.)