A3P0 nailed it. Bulls would keep it close, then just turn it on and crush the f**k out of teams defensively, particularly that 1996-1997 team.
Hustle and scheme have already been mentioned, so I'll add. Trust and team effort. Defenses break down when unnecessary help defense occurs (how many times do you see a unnecessary double team on a secondary offensive threat?). You have to trust that your teammates will cover their positions and you have to focus on covering yours.
I have always heard that good team/individual defense is 30% scheme, 10% players ability, and 60% effort and effort can make up for scheme and ability. This team just lacks the effort needed to be a good defensive team. Beverley can't supply all the effort in the perimeter, especially if he isn't 100%.
I'm seeing a lot of people suggesting we funnel the defense to the middle, into Howard. That's exactly our problem, IMO. It appears our wing players have this mentality that Howard is always there to save the day. The problem is, when he is, no one steps up to box out his man and we easily give up a layup after the block or block attempt. To me, it seemed like all year our issue was less about schemes and more about hustle and lack of awareness. Harden especially, how many times did Batum beat him on back cuts?
Thanks for the replies everyone. The popular answers are effort & scheme. I'm assuming effort rates above scheme and players just don't buy into it. I think this is one of the truths for the Rockets: the perimeter player doesn't accept the challenge of shutting down his man himself. Dwight and Asik are there as backup help defenders for the perimeter players and can't be expected to leave their man to help every time. There's also no help for the helper but that's the third step in the scheme.
That's a good experiment. The scheme trumps the personnel here even though Dunleavy is not known as a good defender. It shouldn't be that hard to replicate schemes across teams; surely the coaches are smart enough to break things like this down from video. Definitely.Turning good defense on and off when needed is such a luxury. That is the goal for any championship contender.
No holes on defence. EVERYONE needs to hold their own. Then be able to turn on 150% for suffocating team defence.
Much the same can be said for rebounding. It's probably even simpler in many ways, less scheme, more effort.
A scheme that protects the paint, mobility at every position (at least to some degree), the ability to adjust to other teams, players who are smart enough to play effective help defense, toughness in your wing players and a point guard that can put pressure on passers/create turnovers (by mucking up passing lanes).
Not trying to be difficult or picky, but the goal is to play good defense all the time for 48 mins because of scheme and fundamentals while ratcheting up to great defense selectively.
Some good comments and observations in here, about the Thunder, about the Bulls this year, about how good defense can come in a variety of packages, be it big man centered with a Duncan, or not with the Heat. It all, to me, points to SCHEME as the number 1 item. Effort matters, sure, but I don't think any NBA player wants to get scored on repeatedly. Not even James Harden. It's just the Rockets have no scheme. One must also factor in what the NBA is today. It's an outside-in league more than it's ever been. It's a guard dominated league more or as much as its ever been. Bigs score offensively by being "stretch" players more than they ever had. If I'm designing a defense, these are the things I focus on. #1 - Pick and roll defense. This is probably the most important thing to focus on. Ideally, I'd like to have a preferred way to defend, but would also teach repeatedly how to defend the pick and roll in 2 or 3 ways, so you can adjust by team or player. My ideal way to defend would be to do a quick hard trap on the pick and roll, followed by a quick rotation back to allow the defender's to switch. Meaning for the Rockets Dwight would pop out as quick as possible to say force Lillard back the way he came, or delay him long enough to allow the guard to get back in position. In an ideal world, you can play this allowing Dwight to quickly get back to his big man as well, and basically the PnR has been ineffective. In reality, you will need solid rotations (see below) behind the pick and roll. The other two ways I'd teach would be for the guard to aggressively trail behind and the big to stay on his man, and of course for the straight switch, which is more applicable in guard/guard pick and rolls, etc. #2 - Rotations. This is almost as important as #1, because even with great pick and roll defense, you may often get beat. There are various ways to rotate... BUT, taking a page out of the analytics playbook that has definitely worked on offense, I think the key to rotations is understanding %s, and then secondly to understand opponents. On the %s side, I'd teach rotation to give up the mid-range jumper, if anything. Even when wide open, these are made at meaningfully lower clips. This is imperative. What does it mean?It means that you better be running people off that 3 point line, have constant rotation, etc. What it also means is that you better also have someone ready to protect the paint, even if your big has rotated out to a three. And finally it means that if you have just been beat on your rotations, you are better off giving up that open mid-range shot, than having a big who will clearly get beat try and stay laterally with a guard 15-18 feet out. On the opponent side, I'd teach rotation to understand who you're playing. Some guys you don't leave open. Some guys get hot and you don't rotate off, etc. #3 Communication - this is obvious, but #1 and #2 above only work well if there is constant and effective communication. #4 Rebounding - if you're giving up offensive boards, your great defense is neutralized. Everybody needs to board. And box out. #5 Hustle plays - charges drawn, balls tipped, etc. #6 Special situations. Not sure I would have mentioned this otherwise, but given the Lillard shot, and given the number of out of bounds plays that do occur with limited shot clock time, it makes sense to focus a bit on how to play defense, if differently at all, in those special situations. What this looks like in reality is A LOT OF ACTIVITY. Because you're almost always guarding a PnR, set play, or a pass or two away from help, and need of a quick rotation. When done well, you end up with an offensive team that is probably overpassing, taking more contested shots, even if just a bit more, and a higher % of their open shots as mid range jumpers. I understand and love the value of steals. But steals are something I don't focus on, at all, until way down the line. Because the problems with steals is that absent a good fundamental core, going after and getting steals, while great plays in themselves, tend to work against building that core. It encourages the player to play loose and aggressively in the wrong ways, and for all the benefits of the steal, the non-steal that allows the offensive player to drive by, or puts the defender in a somewhat awkward position that results in a bad rotation, etc. happens way more often. What I would do, though, is in year 2 of a system that is clearly working, then start adding a focus on turning that ball over. Also, I don't focus a ton on individual defense. Definitely some, and on a player by player basis. I don't focus a ton on fast break defense. Again, some, but this is principally a function of #5 hustle, and not turning the ball over. The reality is that if you give up fast breaks too much, you're in trouble. Too many athletic players in the NBA. Finally, I actually try and get my guys to play a little less like PBev in some instances. His over aggressiveness hurt him almost as much as it helps. He's basically relying on a "can I get in this guy's head" type game... and the occasional steal (which again is great, but see above). In the NBA, generally, no, you can't get in someone's head, at least not as an individual defender. What does get in your opponents head, as has been proven time and again, especially for the Rockets (see Hakeem against early 90's illegal defense, see Harden this series), is when a great scheme and team defense makes it seem like it doesn't matter if you can beat your guy, or the next guy, you can't beat the system. Those are my thoughts. I'm not a coach, but it seems to be some fairly simple stuff. I'd spend half my practices on defense, half on offense - not that complicated. On defense, I'd do a ton of stuff like pretending there is a 2 minute shot clock and the offense is passing the ball around the three, dribble driving, pick and rolling, and just have the offense never shoot but constantly force rotations for 2 minutes, 4 minutes, 6 minutes type thing... pushing the team to not have that defensive breakdown until longer and longer into the drill. You get into the game situation, then, and the 24 seconds seems easy peasy.
Quality post! and well communicated too - Thank you! I'll reply when I get more time, but I really agree with a lot of what you say e.g. the focus points and their order of priority. 2-4 minutes continuous rotations drill sounds great too: it would take a lot of mental conditioning to be able to focus on a single event like that but would pay huge dividends in games. As it stands, players tend to become antsy when neither team scores for 3-4 possessions in a row.
