OP, a lot of here at CF love to look at boxscores and highlights and then react with our kneejerkiness. Your post was too deep and analytical.
If I was playing on Lawson and had d12 behind me I would just ice every screen and force a decision from him
solid analysis. ive been saying this all season, the biggest weakness in our D is NOT individual players, its team/help defense. bigs scared to step up and late rotations with a combo of too much ballwatching from our guards is the true culprit. although i must say, there is some pretty cringe worthy moments from harden on defense. particularly when hes on shooters
agree he looked comical a couple of plays late in the game. its either because of his 5 fouls, we were up big late in the game, d12 was behind him, or combination of those but you notice those messups you have to notice that he had 1 block and 1 steal the opposing SGs went 6 for 22 in this game just curious who do you consider as stars in this league? and we can tell if Harden cares about defense the least among them..
I'm sorry, but this just isn't true. Yes, help-defense matters a great deal, but saying that the entire goal of pick and roll defense is to get the ball out of the hands of the PG could not be more wrong. Totally coverage depended, which is totally depended on personnel. Again just not true. You just can't put it this general. There's so much that the PG can screw up before the alley-oop pass occurs. If guard X beats his man off the dribble in an isolation situation... that's on the on-ball defender. If the guard Y play doesn't the coverage properly or gets stuck on the screen in the pick&roll when his big is calling it out in time... that's on the guard Y. If the guard Y plays the coverage properly but fails to recover and put pressure on the ball/"build a wall", that's on guard Y. If you want a example for this, watch 7:52-7:38 in the 4th quarter from the Sixers at Hawks game from two days ago. IIRC Brett Brown was so mad at James Anderson failing to proper put pressure on the ball after recovering -- leading to an alley-oop, that he called a time-out right after it. Again. It's just not that simple. The Rockets will pretty much never hedge with Howard or Asik against most traditional centers. The same is true for more than 3/4 of the league. Again, pick and roll coverage is totally personnel depend. Some guys you do want to hedge against. Some guys you don't want to hedge against. Some guys you want to hedge. Others you'd rather play it soft (drop back).
BIG BIG THANKS for the wonderful analysis, Rox On Rox Off!! I LOVE IT. For those who said who cares, sad to say, but you are the examples of complacency, plus a lack of appreciation for the hard work of another CF member. Understand that there is nothing we can do to help the team, but I sincerely hope our coaching staff and players do not think the same thing, i.e., who gives a crap if we are winning? In any case, from the analysis, it is clear that our PNR defense is not very good, definitely a far cry from the likes of Spurs' PNR defense. Interestingly, our PNR on the offense side isn't that good either, maybe there is a correlation.
So right on!!! That's why McHale NEEDS to hire a defensive assistant, maybe someone who used to coach under or play for Popovich. C'mon, DM, please make it happen.
Playing great defense requires the entire team to be in sync. Our rotations are pretty bad. Wonder how they will do vs Boston.
Excellent post and analysis. Itdebunks the common myth that Lin can't defend just because opposing guards score lots of points. Pick and roll defense requires the effor of the entire team, not just one individual.
