In this age of no illegal defense, team defense is more important than individual defense. Team defense takes discipline, focus, IQ, and commitment from every player on the court.
He was late, but not enough to matter. He still had plenty of time to recover. However, Green decided to switch onto Lebron and told Curry to switch onto Thompson. In fact, Green switched onto Lebron before JR Smith had even thrown the entry pass. To call that "bad defense" is a stretch.
If Green didn't switch and stayed with his man, then LeBron would have had an open lane towards the basket. Curry was clearly late on that play, he was several steps behind LeBron who was already in the paint area.
Good post and well written. Agree completely. I mentioned some of the things you said in my first post. I think Bogut gets very underappreciated for his rim protection, but I'm completely fine with that because I hate the guy. I do believe Thompson is over rated as a defender, but he does have the physical tools to be called a good defender. Still, very over rated and a lot of people seem to believe he's a lock down defender on the perimeter. He's not. Also, this thread got ignorant very quickly.
Curry played decent defense in the ok series I believe. Check Westbrook's fg% when Curry was on him. Irving beat the gsw backcourt with superior offense, not because of poor defense.
Just because there are few instances where your shots didn't go in and player A happened to be guarding you at the time, you can't necessarily draw direct connection between the two. Some players' shooting percentages go down when left wide open - just ask J.R. Smith - that doesn't mean air played decent defense. Curry did a poor job on defense in the Finals, lots of people have called him out on it, and there are even few articles suggesting that Curry's defense (or lack thereof) was one of the major reasons why GSW lost.
Wrong. Like you said, Curry was late on the switch. But any advantage Lebron had was taken away when Green hedged: At this point, Green doesn't need to switch. The threat of his help defense gives Curry plenty of time to recover onto Lebron. However, Green decided to switch onto Lebron and told Curry to guard Thompson.
this is how i know your judgement of correct defense is off. Green does absolutely the right thing in this situation. Without Green being conscious and help here that's an easy dunk/layup for lebron. This is an example of high defensive IQ on Greens part. You won't see much of this these days. This play just exposes Curry and his weakness as far as matchups. Amazing how people think they know what correct defense is when that's absolutely far from the truth. This is just a prime example
Also, please explain to all of us how Curry had enough time to recover when hes behind Lebron in this entire play and not even being able to provide contact.
Hmm...are you having problems with your definitions again? Are you conflating "switching" with "hedging"? Green doesn't need to switch. His presence in the lane gives Curry plenty of time to recover. JR Smith isn't going to force an entry pass into, for all intents and purposes, a double team. Nor is he going to try to throw a precision lob to Tristan Thompson.
Of course he needs to switch. Did you even watch the entire play. There's a huge lane straight to the goal for Lebron with an easy pass from JR Smith. However, because of the active defense from Green, JR doesn't make the pass. Again, how is there plenty of time to recover when Curry is in no position as far as defensively to stop Lebron. I guess playing defense from someones backside if what you're going for.
Whoever made the Harden Juggernaut video needs to make the same 10 minute video of curry...JUST IN THE PLAYOFFS. there is definitely enough material.
Yes. Did you? Green doesn't need to switch. His soft double gives Curry plenty of time to recover. Switching was the logical move b/c he's better equipped to guard Lebron than Curry is. Curry is only a step behind Lebron. How long do you really think it would take Curry to recover from being 1 step behind? Also, it's not like Lebron is continually moving. He's boxed in with nowhere to go. That's why Green's hedge gives Curry plenty of time to recover. Also, like I've already said, JR Smith wouldn't have forced that pass b/c it'd be essentially forcing a pass into a double team while being actively guarded by Iggy.
1. The fact that you actually think a mere soft show would stop a play like that let alone Lebron is just low defensive IQ 2. only a step behind lebron lol. So in one step he could recover and get in a legit defensive position to provide resistance to Lebron. Again just another horrible defensive judgement
why are you even trying to defend this? Is it just because you don't want to make it seem like Curry is being exposed when in reality that's what is happening. That's just smart game planning bad defense or not. This is part of the Cavs game plan. They wanted to put guys in situations like this. It forces guys to react and the defense to collapse all based on the initial switch they wanted on Curry because once again he's the defensive liability. From there things breakdown and its on the Cavs to make the right decisions based on how GS reacts. From GS's pov, everything was done that needed to be in this play. Green shows and makes the active full switch on Lebron, likely saving an easy two with a later pass from JR. Curry goes to TT and note some guys won't even go towards TT and still follow Lebron which would mean an easy dump to TT for 2 from Lebron once he got the ball. In the end it winds up being a foul. You take that and move on to the next play
Nope, it's common sense. If you're JR Smith and you see Lebron cutting into a soft double team, you don't pass him the ball. And if you're JR Smith and you see Lebron cutting into a double team while being hounded by Iggy, you definitely don't pass him the ball. If he forced the pass at that point, the likeliest scenario would be that it'd be off target (due to Iggy's pressure) and result in a turnover (due to Green/Curry converging on Lebron when the ball is thrown). Watch the video again. Lebron is boxed in. How much time do you think Curry needs to recover from being a step late? Keep in mind, he'd only be able to recover due to Green's hedge, but he'd still be able to recover.
It's b/c Curry's defensive shortcomings are being greatly exaggerated by that video. There are legitimate examples of poor defense by Curry, and the video proves that. But the "bad defense" video also includes many clips that aren't bad defense. The very first clip is an example of that (this is the clip we're arguing about). The video also treats good defense negated by bad officiating as "bad defense".
No its not common sense it's actually just bad overall ball IQ right here on your part. You're reads are just way off. If you were on the floor on cleveland's side and believe what you just posted, your teammates would be extremely frustrated. If you're GS, you would just be doing them a favor. You actually think a double from Curry is something Lebron would be worried about? whats he going to do block him or his pass? lol Don't pass to Lebron on soft double teams? lol I guess you fail to acknowledge Lebron is fully capable of passing out of double teams and did that all series long. As a matter of fact all career long. Not to mention more times than not the correct pass.
