I have watched every game, and what you said is somewhat true. The team defense has improved, but it hasn't improved to an elite level. Our offense on the other had has dramatically improved. If you have watched the recent games you would see that our transitional buckets have increased. When you score in transition, it makes it much easier to defend the next play. How many times have you seen Lowry bringing the ball up court with C.Lee Buddinger or Martin darting down the court in front of him. Easy buckets. When you have an offense as potent as ours, it breaks down the opposing defense, and forces their offense to go into scramble mode. Making it much easier for us to defend. A long time quote for sports and in life in general "The best defense is a great offense" Alot of people misquote this saying, The best offense is a good defense, but you can look it up if you like My Point Being: As we have stepped up our play in almost every aspect of the game, the improved defense weighs heavily on the improved offense. which is earning us some pretty impressive wins. We have only trailed by 2 points these last four games. Mainly because we are putting the ball in the basket more frequently than our opponents, and getting the stops that we need when we need them,
sry, you are the one mistaken. In basketball, and other continuous motion sports with transition play, the saying is "best offense is a great defense." ie...turnovers, transition, etc. Here's a recent article 10 days ago explaining how Thibodeau and JVG live by this old sports adage: And Football believes it too, for reasons of field position and turnovers. What you are quoting is what military strategists say, and lawyers and other facets of life outside of sports. In cold war, the best defense is a great offense. Please don't argue this; accept that you confused the term with Military Strategy and what Lawyers do.
OMR, you trying to talk about tough is like Bullard talking about being tough while eating a cookie. You thought Spanoulis was Mr. Tough Guy but look what happen to him. He wound up jettisoning back to Greece because he missed his mamma's greece cooking. Are you saying the Rockets were NOT tough when they were playing .500 basketball? The Rockets have better chemistry now and are making more timely shots but they are not tougher all of a sudden. JVG oughta slap you!
My people my People http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_best_defense_is_a_good_offense http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/best+defense+is+a+good+offense If i had time I can go on, But you are also right about the quote being used by military strategist, but it has also been relevant in all sports. Thank You Now i do believe that our players need to work harder on defense than they do on the offensive end. Everyone knows that defense is the key to winning, but when playing the cards that are dealt, as we are, we will win majority of our games by being Offensively Great and Defensively Good. When you look back to earlier in the season, we would lose big leads because we couldn't continue to score at a steady pace. Which would lead to easy transition baskets and naturally frustrate our players creating even worse defense. When your team is scoring it makes it much easier to play good defense. (if you ever played organized basketball any coach would tell you that) We are an uptempo team. Not many uptempo teams have elite defenses, most of the elite defensive teams are mostly half court teams. (SAS,CHI,LAL ect.) Why do you think the Suns beat the Spurs in the playoffs. Not because of their defense.
The dichotomy between what is more important for winning, offense or defense is a false dichotomy. A good offense helps you put your opponent on their heels and therefore makes it harder for them to attack you. On the flip side, a good defense also gives you good offensive position. This is true in most sports. Yet, sometimes emphasis on one side of the game also hinders the other side. The run-n-shoot offense in football is great for scoring but it also takes your offensive unit out of the field faster. It is similar to what Phoenix used to do and what Golden State is doing. Most good offensive players try to limit their energy on defense in order to stay fresh for their offensive effectiveness. JVG's system of putting at least two guys in position to run back for transition defense also limit offensive movement. And Adelman's motion offense is just the opposite.
The difference is that you can always control your defense but not your offense. Your shots may not be falling every day but you can always contest shots and make good rotations. This is why it has been statistically shown that good defenses lead to far more success than good offenses.
SUCCESS ALWAYS STARTS WITH GREAT DEFENSE. you can argue whatever you want. The history has proved it and the current hottest team, bulls, proved it. the best player of the current bulls said it. the champions in last a few years, spurs and celtics, proved it.
Any cliches used about defense and offense are interchangeable. In basketball, just as creating turnovers and bricks lead to easy baskets, the opposite is also true. The best transition defense is to simply make your shot. Making your opponent work on defense(i.e. not being worthless ala Shane/Rafer) also keep them from being fresh on the other side. In football, many teams with incredible offenses can keep their defense "covered" by making opponents one dimensional and allow pass rushers to lay waste on opposing QBs. In baseball, pitchers pitch better with a lead, they don't force as much when they know they can give up a run and still be okay. As for Thibeadou's quote, the Bulls have an average offense. So no, his great defense does not allow them to score a lot. But it helps in winning. Due to the defense being amazing the offense is "good enough", their overall team is awesome. Something JVG's teams always lacked in Houston. Our defenses excellent. Our offenses were putrid.
They don't exist. At least if you use offensive/defensive efficiencies rather than straight-up stats. The reason why this misconception exist is due to the concept of possessions. Teams with superstars tend to play low-possession games and defensive style because it accentuate the power of superstars. For example, Kobe scoring 30 in a 100-90 game is more important than in a 120-110 games. Also Kobe tend to be more useful than a half-court situation than in transition than your average SG. Take for example the 93 Bulls. They were 2nd in opponents scoring, and 15th in scoring. It would seem like they're a great defensive team with an average offense. Yet take a closer look and you'd find that they played the slowest pace in the entire NBA. And that they were actually 2nd in NBA in offensive efficiency, while only 7th in defensive efficiency. Bulls, Lakers, Spurs, Rockets, these championship teams all allow the maximum use of their superstars through low-possession games. While a team of no-stars like the current Rockets need transition, back-door passes, and other shennanigans because we lack that player who can just impose his will on the game.
pretty easy to see. kyle lowry emerging as the clear PG without any doubt with the brooks trade, hayes playing more minutes, lee and pat having bigger roles. those are our toughest guys and they are all playing well.
Yes the Spurs and the Celtics had great defense, but they also had great offensive efficiency. When the Celtics won they pretty much had one of the best offensives. As well as the Spurs. And the Bulls have the best point guard in the league running their team. They have a 20-10 PF, They have an energetic C, and they have a Veteran SF. I would consider that a good offensive team
Dude, you are wrong. That wikipedia is primarily about Militarty Strategy as I said. It had one wee bitty sentence about BBall. And your second link has NOTHING to do with sports. The best Offense is a Good Defense is the original adage for sports. There are books on this subject. Dude! You're confusing it with Military Strategy and Lawyers and life. Think about it. The GS Warriors suck. The best defense is NOT a good Offense. Stop confusing yourself. This is used in Football and Soccer as well. Anyhow, go ahead and get your last word in. I ain't listening because I know I'm right on this.
"The best defense is NOT a good Offense." I agree, but our offense in transition has improved, at least to my tired eyes, with the trade of Shane and Chase becoming a starter, along with Lee's increased minutes. Overall, losing Battier has to hurt the defense, imo, but Bud is such a better weapon on offense, especially after a long defensive rebound or a steal, with his quickness getting back down the court with Martin and/or Lee on the break. Chuck, in particular, has been making some OT-like long bullet passes in transition leading to easy buckets, and Lowry (and now Dragic) tears down the court with them. Good offense, a quick score, but keyed off the defense. I've been surprised that our defense hasn't been as impacted by the loss of Battier as I expected it to be, post trade. I agree with the earlier member about the rest of the team stepping up. Even Chuck has stepped up his defense, something I didn't think possible. That's my impression watching the games, at any rate, without looking at the stats.
The Suns beat the Spurs last year because the Spurs were dinged and never really got it together the whole year. Parker was coming off the bench in that series and was never full strength. The Suns were a 3 seed playing a 7 seed Spurs team. In 2009, the Suns missed the playoffs altogether. In 2008, the Spurs (3 seed) knocked out the Suns (6 seed) 4-1 in round 1. In 2007, the Spurs (3 seed) knocked the Suns (2 seed) 4-2 in round 2. In 2006, the Spurs (1 seed) went down to the Mavs, who also went on to beat the Suns. In 2005, the Spurs (2 seed) met the Suns (1 seed) in the Conference Finals, and took them down 4-1. The Suns have made the playoffs 6 times in the last 7 years. The Spurs have been responsible for knocking them out 4 times, including twice when the Suns were a higher seed. The Suns have beaten them once. Push comes to shove, the elite defense wins.
Neither quote is particularly relevant to basketball, but it doesn't stop people using the cliche or idiots arguing over it.
