Start josh smith. Let him play a ton of minutes, tell him to keep his shot selection tight abd tell him to play D. To me josh smith can really play some good D if he just hunkered down and grinded. Paul millsap is a great example of a smaller bit big pf that can just be a work horse.
Ive actually wondered if the having an easier schedule in the beginning plus the heavy load that Harden and Ariza had to play has taken some of their legs away.
Our transition D has notably gotten worse as of late. Smith, Howard, and even Harden have been biggest culprits. Doesn't help that we turn the ball over at a high clip and jack up a bunch of contested 3s which all lead to fast breaks. We need to run back and get teams into a half court again where Howard / Dmo can patrol the paint.
I give Harden a pass on transition D. There have been games also when he got into foul trouble. It's our offensive scheme which puts Ariza and Bev in the corners which opponents can then exploit when there are misses or TOs. We also need to take care of the ball more. That funny sequence on Vine where Ariza turns the corner and walks, just simply takes many steps. He's expecting to pass the ball to someone who's not there. You can see him upset at someone over there. We are messing up our sets. Maybe coaches are calling sets, but some guys are out of position. Often. That leads to the seemingly stupid TOs, but it's because we're trying to run our sets.
Lazy play by everyone, especially Dwight, is the main culprit. Just not enough effort, we've slipped to 5th in defense.
Best game of the year was blowing out the Grizz at home with Black DMo and Dorsey beating up Gasol and Randolph. It'll be hard to top that. It's hard to do anything but underachieve with DH out there nowadays. I'm sure there's some hidden advance stat that says that's not true, but that's not why I watch.
I am the biggest dwight supporter there is but even i've come to the realization that this version of dwight will not get the job done. He started off very promising but injuries have derailed that momentum. I hope he can get back and healthy otherwise we have absolutely no chance to advance in the playoffs.
Like you say, it's the turnovers. If you are worried about fastbreak transition D, it's cause we have problems on the other end.
lol That is one of the best rim protectors in the biz right there. Maybe when Howard is out he actually protects the rim.
As others have pointed out: 1. Howard's hurt. 2. The team's added two guys who gamble on the defensive end in Smith and Brewer. And when their gambles fail, they can't completely rely on Howard to clean up, at least not until he gets healthy. A bad combination of two separate elements, I think.
