Let's talk about Dwight's defense

Personally, I don't think ANYONE on the team communicates on D. It seems like every team comes in and sets 3 point or great shooting percentage records against us. All teams have to do is a screen, double screen, back pick, make us switch and BAM!! Wide open shot.

 

Dwight's defense has been mentioned. It has fallen off since ORL. Dwight has always committed dumb goaltends. Intimidation purposes perhaps

On the perimeter, he struggles not only with P&R, but his effort struggles (Harden-esk) when guarding 3PT regardless who is shooting them.

 

Dwight seems to me to have a "take the easy way out attitude" mentality. That's how he plays on the court to me. He lives in excuses. If fouls are not going his way he shuts down gets demotivated... if his body feels weak same thing... if he doesn't get fed the ball enough same thing... during the season you will never see a consistent dominate play out of him at this stage of his career. He believes he's a champion... which wouldn't be a bad thing if he actually played one. Instead he plays like he's been there and done that... like he's already where Tim Duncan is. He needs a wake up call because he's not. You just don't see a man that wants it bad enough. However he gets paid 22 million a year... lol.

 

I've felt that's been the pivotal part of our regression all year long. Dwight stands with his feet stuck in the mud and rarely helps when things are funneled in.

Add in power forwards and weak side forwards who rotate late when he does help and you create way too many points in the paint.

harden's d has sucked, but it always has. With Trevor, Beverly and Howard in the starting lineup - that is supposed to mask his deficiencies.

But Bev is now a shadow of himself.

Trevor has lost a step.

And Dwight was always looking at maximizing his next contract value through scoring this season. Lol at how that's worked out.

I loved how on three straight possessions we tried getting him the ball early and he turned it over twice and we got no shot all three times. Even with as bad as he has played alongside Davis this year, I would prefer Asik over Howard.

 

yup. he doesn't really contest or block shots anymore. i think some of this is physical deterioration but most of it is terrible team communication (teams usually get open layups because our defenders are not on the same page) and some of it is that other players don't try either.

also, it can stem from not getting the ball. we have completely gone away from giving him touches and that frustrates big men and can dampen their effort.

 

Yeah, he does seem to sulk sometimes...you could also call it a personal agenda to still be the #1 offensive option.

Weird thing is, if you look at nba.com play stats, it has Dwight #1 in the league at the sum of Post Touches plus Lane Touches. Haven't looked in a month, so maybe Drummond has past him again. Post touches alone he's been in the Top 3 most all season.

Also, Deandre Jordan mind playing the defensive anchor/rebounder and PnR guy role, without getting post touches. And many would be happy if Dwight would be happy with that.

 

Good post! The "foot speed" limitation really is key in my mind. He just can't seem to "clean up" mistakes from the guards like he used to.

 

Wouldn't have expected that. However, that may just be a sign of the times in the sense that there are not really any dominant offensive centers in the league at this point (think of Drummond and DJ more as guys getting dunks and putbacks) so the benchmark is pretty low, but this is pure conjecture with zero research :grin:

I don't think it's about him not being #1...I think he (smartly) knows that Harden is the offensive alpha by a long stretch...but I think it is more about him being #3 or #4 and rarely getting alley-oops or letting him try (not prettily) to post up his man more often.

But regardless of reasons, his defense does seem to be a shadow of it's former self. Perhaps some of that comes from the fact that we ridiculously switch on EVERY pick and roll and in that situation as his man sets the picks, he ends up trying to guard a smaller, faster player far away from the paint.

JBB defense at it's finest

 

I agree.. we are better off without him. Do you guys think there's any chance Morey gives him a new contract this offseason? It just seems like the one thing that could derail us for good for the next 5 to 10 years besides a Harden injury (even though i think Harden's defense/effort/style of play is also a big problem).

 

I don't think he's regressed that much. He's been terrible the past few weeks for sure but prior to that he's been a very good defender. Not elite, not team-anchoring.

I've said it many times, I find it strange that all of our defenders got worse over one summer. I think it has more to do with our defensive coaching.

Dwight is still a great starter to have at the C position. We just need to be more realistic about our expectations.

 

I said a while ago that it seems like Dwight does not get the same lift that he used to, and he isn't as ferocious of a defender inside and he isn't intimidating like he used to be because other players know he's not the same. I basically said his defense has fallen off a lot, even compared to last season.

And I basically got called an idiot. I'll see if I can find the thread.

 

THIS. I don't think anyone saw this when they were saying we had to get Dwight more than 4 shots a game. He had his chance, and he was hurting the team by not even getting a shot up. Harden and the team made the right choice by not passing it to him in the post anymore.

 

There is an alternative this summer:

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/14998301/heat-find-their-rhythm-hassan-whiteside-finds-focus

 

Let's not talk about it.

 

Hes been with a bunch of ****ty coaches with crappy defensive players and rotations... Just saying

 

can be solved with a compeptent defensive team play. he has regressed but most of it is is just team play. he's otu of position a lot always helping out on the ball handler. no one picks up his man. easy layup. and diwght can be mentally weak so he's more prone to half ass when his team does the same.

he's far from over. but pointless if he's gonna be used like this.

 

Replace Howard with a retiring Duncan.. and the spurs will continue to have the anchor in the middle with a all time great coach ..