Official Patrick Beverley appreciation thread

I'm beginning to think some of you don't understand the concept of team defense/help defense. Either that, or you pretend not to understand it because doing so fits your agenda.

 

Please get out of my head.

 

Even if the help defense is not there, he gets so easily caught on screens that he is also part of the team defense problem. I'm tired of all the excuses people give him when you would have people adamantly hating on other PGs on this team for being apparent defensive liabilities.

 

GOT THIS FROM SOMEONE IN GAME THREAD
Rockets making the comeback... (75-74 Phoenix)

6:45 Morris screens for Bledsoe on Beverley -> Jones switches, Beverley is late on the switch, Casspi helps on Morris free run to the basket, leading to wide open drive and basket by his man Tucker. (77-74 Phoenix)
6:04 Morris screens for Dragic on Beverley -> Jones switches, Morris easily shoots over Beverley in the paint after the switch. (79-74 Phoenix)
5:32 Never recovered in transition, Frye layup, not Beverley's fault. (81-74 Phoenix)
4:48 Frye screens for Dragic on Beverley -> Howard switches, Dragic fakes drive on Howard and steps back casually for the open 3. (84-74 Phoenix)
3:50 Frye screens for Dragic on Beverley again -> Howard switches again, Dragic dances around Howard and draws the foul. (Phoenix wins)

Coincidence Hornacek went screenplay after screenplay after screenplay after screenplay vs. Beverley when the game was on the line but not before? Doubt it. He was probably holding it for a crucial stretch so McHale could not adjust in time. Coincidence that McHale switches on every single one of those screenplays against Beverley? Doubt it. He didn't switch for the other guards and Beverley wasn't exactly good at guarding bigger players. McHale probably knows just as well as everybody that Beverley can't defend screenplays, but McHale is so dead set on the guy he was willing to completely change the defense to cover Beverley's defensive gaping hole (unfortunately, the remedy was worse than the disease this game).

 

It's almost impossible to avoid a screen when you are guarding multiple players at once, because your attention is already overloaded between those players. It's hard enough focusing on just two players at once, and by asking him to "stop falling for screens" you're essentially asking him to focus on 3, 4, or even all 5 players at once.

When a player gets caught in screens, you need a help defender to prevent the scoring. Unfortunately, Beverley is the only one actually playing defense right now- so when he does get caught in the screens, the other 4 players with red jerseys are standing around placing bets on how high the shooter gets.

Beverley is a great defender, but he's not a magician. Give him a break.

It's unfortunate that Beverley is the one guy playing hard on just about every play right now, and the only guy playing defense on our team- and some fail to give him credit for that.

 

Are all of the analysts and former players who have been saying the same thing making "excuses" for him, too? I mean, come on. I'm not hailing Bev as some premiere defender, nor am I denying that he sometimes gets caught on screens.

What I'm talking about is the "____ had a career high on him." "____ put up __ on him." "He will have failed tonight if he doesn't hold ___ to ___ points and ___ assists." No matter how good a man-to-man defender you are, you still need the help of your teammates to be successful. No matter how good a defender you are individually, you are ultimately only as good as your help defense. And that is not an excuse I'm making for Beverley. I said the same exact thing when people were ranting about Lin letting Chris Paul put up ___ points on him. Expecting man to man defense to completely shut your opponent down, in the absence of help defense, is ridiculous. It's a dumb standard to hold any of our guys to, considering how far we are from being a defensive-minded team.

There is a reason why adding Dwight Howard to this team did not transform the team defensively overnight like a lot of people imagined it would. Good man to man defenders thrive on defensive-minded teams, where every guy who sets foot on the court makes defense a priority. Like someone was just discussing in the Harden v. Paul George thread -- PG is far superior to Harden, defensively. But if you traded them tomorrow and brought PG here, his defense wouldn't look nearly as spectacular as it does now b/c of what the rest of the team does (or does not do, rather) defensively.

 

^ Or maybe his defense is just more impactful when he plays 20-25 minutes so he can go full out like last year? Chalmers and Cole are great defensive specialists for the Heat cause they don't play too many minutes and are able to go full out when they are on the floor. He's needed now with Lin out and Brooks being too small to be a defensive plus so I'm good with him playing 40+ minutes. Just saying how his D this year is overrated with more minutes.

 

I sat in the club section 109 row 8 last night last night, If you know the TC its the section right on the corner 3 sideline where the opposing team is on offense in the second half.

Im not here to bash bev but I will point out down the stretch all they did is run screens on him to seal the game. Its like dragic or bledsoe would see him guarding him and just say hey screen him knowing he can fight over it. That’s when help defense and proper rotations should come into play. Howard would have to come out on dragic and I’m sure u remember when he hit the step back 3 in his face, same thing happened to howard while guarding burke, burke nailed a 3 in howard face.

This would happen last year but asik perimeter D is a little better than howards when he was forced to cover a guard on a switch. This is a big problem with our perimeter defense when players get screened, it’s not always harden playing a lack of D on the perimeter,the screens and help defense plays just as an important role.

 

I agree 100% that he is better with fewer minutes. I actually preferred him as the spark/change-of-tempo guy off the bench, but as I've said many times before -- I think switching things around this way was the easy way out for the coaching staff, as the other alternative would be to have a come to Jesus with Harden about playing off the ball and letting Lin run the offense in the starting unit (which I highly doubt they are ever going to do).

 

Yup. Even if Rondo were to join the team, I doubt Harden would give him the rock as much as he would want. It would just be a diminishing returns type of situation. Bev is a great starter fit next to Harden, but he is human and no one can sustain his type of defense last year playing extended minutes.

 

Problem is...

Lin and Brooks also play better off the bench. One of those three has to start, and frankly Beverley might be the best choice out of them due to the energy and intensity he brings.

 

I think Harden would defer to Rondo. I don't think he would be happy about it, but I think he would do it (and I certainly think the coaching staff would be a lot more likely to have a "here's what going to happen" type talk if Rondo were involved). Rondo's been in the league longer than Harden has, and has championship pedigree. Not sure what that locker room dynamic would be like, but I definitely think the level of deference/compromise would be different.

 

This is par for the course and if Beverley fails this he doesn't bring much else to the table. He also fails to make his teammates better around him on both ends of the floor; getting open looks and easy buckets; getting critical stops when we need them. If he can rise above this bar then credit will be served.

 

Are you serious right now?

Almost all of Burke's points came on P&R switches, or when he was sodomizing Brooks. Bev locked him up.

 

Your lack of understanding is your problem not Beverleys

48% True Shooting
48% Effective FG%
97 Offensive Rating

Any coach, any GM, would kill to hold the opposing team's best player to that kind of production.

 

this year, asik's pnr and perimeter D is much better than howard. howard is a great shot blocker and can change shots at the rim, but his perimeter and pnr D is pretty bad. maybe it's the back injury but he rarely step out to contest the shot or hedge on pnr to allow his guard time to recover - he doesn't do any of this well because he knows he can't recover back to his man quick enough.

 

i agree with you, and think it says a lot about the coaches and harden that they aren't able to get him to buy into a system/structure that is the most beneficial to the team.

and yes, having lin play a more traditional pg role and harden off the ball and attack in the flow of the offense has shown to be the most effective offense, based on results from last year. harden will still get the most number of shots (as he should), but they will be easier and more efficient shots. it frustrates me to know that they're taking the easy way out, as you said, as opposed to the "right" way out.

 

^^ I don't think it's unusual or says a lot about the coaches, TBH. Most organizations cater to their best/franchise player and make decisions on that basis. I do think they'd walk it back if it had been a total fail, but we were looking great and winning until these last 2 games.

As I've said in other threads, I think the Spurs are a pretty lone exception to this general rule.

 

I think Dwight is fine and there is no problems with his back this year. It seem its a total team defensive problem and Dwight seems more concerned about giving up drives by his man on the pick and roll than trying to stick with a guard or small forward 20 feet from the rim. I see him doing a lot of talking on defense and that's good. I just think this will be a ongoing development period for them on defense because mostly all of our players are not defensive minded players.

 

ive been saying this since we got howard, I wanted to keep asik as starting center... people may not agree but I never got on the howard bandwagon