And this team is not D'Antoni's Suns. McHale will pull anyone not hustling on defense. Now that they sport the best offense in the league, defensive improvement has to become the highest priority.
He has trouble against shorter guards who can get the leverage on the him and change directions quickly and more suddenly. Strangely, Lin seems to defend the best against guys like Westbrook, Irving, Jennings and Rose, who , while certainly fast and explosive, arent as quick as guys like Ty Lawson or Parker (who is more of the craftier type rather using overbearing you with his quickness). Lin's main struggle is that he isn't a good closer once he closes them off. Part of that is the lack of prototypical length and also lack of instinct to close off (and not foul) Honestly, I've heard stories about him being a good defender when he was in GS, and I see why now. He's not great laterally, but more than good enough and certainly above average. And when combined with his strength and size, he CAN be a very good defender at times if he can anticipate well enough. You don't stay in front of Irving while he's shaking and baking like that if you don't have good enough lateral quickness.
I think all of our top 3 guards are capable of playing at least decent defense. But they all also have some weaknesses. Lin - doesn't always come over the top of screens and instead goes under even when guarding hot perimeter shooting guards on the other team. Harden - plays okay defense until he gets in foul trouble. At that point he plays almost no defense at all. He has the ability to have some great blocked shots, and will do so at the right times during the game. Harden also doesn't always come over the top of screens and instead goes under even when guarding hot perimeter shooting guards on the other team. Harden is also the best of the guards at playing the passing lanes to get the steal. Douglas - plays some of the best 1 on 1 defense. But like the other guards doesn't always come over the top of screens and instead goes under even when guarding hot perimeter shooting guards on the other team. The one thing all of our guards have trouble doing is fighting over the top of screens. Sometimes it doesn't bite us as much as others, but when playing against the Spurs and OKC we need to stay on their perimeter shooters. The guards should be fighting over the top of those picks, or else have the pickers man step up. I'm not sure why all of our guards have trouble doing that one aspect of the game.
Really, Lin should be first team all-defense. He is the ONLY PG that is top 10 in steals, blocks, and rebounds. Not Chris Paul, not Rondo, not Deron Williams.
These quick PGs have also been using screens all the time. McHale needs to quickly come up with some solution. No one can effectively guard a good PG if there are one or two other teammates of his helping blocking you. I am a harsh critic of Lin. But to be fair to him, I have been watching replays on League Pass just to verify how Lin has lost his man, and 80% of the time that is the case. I have also been wondering why 90% of the time when these illegal moving screens happened they didn't get called. This is why I am disappointed with most of the refs.
harden often lost his focus when his man was on the weak side. i saw many times his man sneaked under basket and scored easily.
Harden has been watching the ball and giving up threes a lot more. Watch the first ten minutes of the games against the Bucks.
As much as Tony Douglas frustrates me (clanking shots and missing layups albeit, he's been doing good as of late), Tony is a much better defender than Lin. Jeremy Lin has good one-on-one defense, however he can't seems to fight through screens. He usually loses his man and cause the big man to rotate to the guard and usually doesn't end up well. Tony does better than Lin when fighting off screens.
This is why Lin said about a month ago with a sigh that no matter how good he was, he had had to do it more than others just to prove himself.
Is this a joke? I'm sure Toney could have defended that Irving - Zeller play much better. And guarding PnRs is not always about fighting through screens. It all depends on the situation. It depends on how the coaches what you to defend the PnRs.
Last season, especially in 4th qtr, Lin would have to score to catch up on their opponents. He had to squeeze out his last drop of energy.
Let's not put too much emphasis on the excuses, though. Harden is our most often used offensive weapon. I still demand good d from him.
