http://www.espn.com/nba/statistics/rpm/_/page/3/sort/DRPM/position/6 As usual his on/off defensive numbers are near the very bottom of the PF rankings, like they are every year. It's a very small sample for one year, but given that it is right in line with his career performance it's pretty easy to accept. He is slow laterally, has no length, and is visibly slow to rotate. Unlike Terrence Jones his defensive mistakes are mostly physical, not mental, but they kill us nonetheless. He is terrible, absolutely terrible, and it's the reason most of us never wanted him in the first place. Front court players are counted on to anchor your defense. http://www.espn.com/nba/statistics/rpm/_/sort/DRPM/position/2 Harden on the other hand, isn't killing us at all. He's basically an average defensive SG.
We are competing much better in transition this year .... But still commuting too many turnovers . If we can get that in check we will be alright
Atlanta has the most turnovers in the leauge and still have one of the top defenses. I don't think it's too bad with turnovers, off course it's not great but this is not why the defense is considered bad. I also don't like just bashing on players like Harden and Anderson, those are the guys we have and we knew it from the start. They are trying which was the most frustrating thing about last year. What I'm interested at is if: 1) It is what it is and we're just a bottom 3rd defensive team with this personnel. 2) It's going to get better like it is now with better chemistry and understanding 3) Change is needed in personnel, lineups or defensive schemes. It'll be nice to know some numbers regarding different lineups as strong defensive lineups when we need to get those stops.
We already aren't a bottom 3 defense. We're up to 20 right now http://www.espn.com/nba/hollinger/teamstats/_/sort/defensiveEff
Bottom 3rd in the league. That means under 20 (30 teams). We want to be on the top 15 at least in order to be a good team.
Wow! I'm glad the numbers match what I was seeing in the game. This bodes really well, even though it's a small sample size. Didn't I read a bunch of threads this summer saying that Eric Gordon is terrible on defense? It certainly doesn't match the eye test, what I'm seeing on court is 100% effort and great work staying in front of some amazing guards. If DMO (oh please oh please) can return to form and provide the excellent, high IQ team defense he gave us 2 seasons ago, we could really do well. Even if we're only league average at defense with a top 3 offense, we can get a good seed and make noise in the playoffs.
thanks man, but actually i didn't say harden is one of the worst in FG% against him, i said nene was one of the worst in the league at FG% against him in the paint specifically. separately i said harden is a league leader in FG made against him per game, with opponents scoring on him about 12x per game. going back to nene, that's the reason i think we need a second rim protector. i dont want to take any minutes away from capela, but when he's out, nene doesn't get the job done on D at all. having rim protection for 48 minutes would be great. as for harden getting scored on, i dont think that will be something that ever changes. teams will always attack him on defense. even if he became a great defender, it would be worth it just to tire him out so he can't be so dominant on the offensive end. its tough defensively to play him alongside ryno who also gets scored on about 12X per game. but i think they more than makeup for it with their offense. in the end harden and ryno are a net positive because of their offense making up for their defense. unless ryno is having an off night in which case be becomes a net negative and needs to sit. nene however, doesn't always produce enough offense to make up for his defense (he did tonight in a win against the jazz).
Gotta think he might be regretting picking Dallas over Houston right now. They're not even gonna sniff the playoffs
Nice! I'm happy that my eyes were not completely fooling me as the defence do look stable now. Hope they can stay locked in 48 minutes like the past few games. Nice job
Nene isn't here for his rim protection. He's here to add offense with the backups. In tight games it will be Capela closing out the game defensively. As the season goes on I fully expect the defensive side to continue improving. I'm actually more than worried about their offense and the way it stagnantes in the second half of games, especially in the final few minutes of the game.
Defence wasn't great at the game against Portland but I actually see a progress on the right direction. Defence is not all about hustle, although effort is a big part of it. I'm starting to see more complex variation of Zone and Matchup zone on the defensive end. It still looks bad if a player loses his man on the One on One there's a huge space for the offence to operate. And players are still finding out how to block the middle while taking care of the perimeter. But I really think this is the correct defensive scheme for this team with its limitations. I just hope players will have patient to learn it and learn the correct timing of switches and traps and where to stand. It is a lot to learn for a team that had no defensive plan before, but once we'll get there it will be great.
Tied for 23rd, according to NBA.com http://stats.nba.com/league/team/#!/advanced/?sort=DEF_RATING&dir=1 Their defense looks way more inspired compared to last year. Hopefully, they continue to improve as they become more familiar with Bzdelik.
That's not good but I remember reading we were 29th earlier so maybe we're climbing. We're 4th on offense and 8th in net rating and have had a tough schedule so far so that's a promising sign.
