how so. you may have control over whether you put the effort out, but it's still comes down to whether the other team is hitting or not. just like a good offense can come down to whether they are hitting or not. a good offense uses talent and scheme to provide the best possible looks for it's players. then it's up to them to hit the shot or not. good defense uses talent and scheme to provide the worst possible look for the other team's players. then it's up to them to hit the shot or not. a good offense gets the good looks more than most and hits it's shots more than most. a good D causes bad shots more than most and pressure a team into shooting even worse. it still all comes down to hitting your shots or hoping they don't hit their shots.
You've pretty much answered you own question. You can have an amazing offense, you get great looks. You can't control the ball to go in the basket. You can have an amazing d, you can control what kind of shots the other team gets, if they get off a shot at all(steal, turnover,prayers,shotclock...).
It seems to me that good defense helps create good offense, while the reverse really isn't true. Good offense doesn't lead to good defensive possesions. Bad offense can impact defense (fewer shots, slower game give the impression of good defense, or an enormity of missed shots leading to large # of fast break opportunities for the other team). The only way good offense directly impacts defense is mental/physical fatigue. A good offensive team may become physically fatigued more from running around a lot (not likely though) and can certainly wear down the opposing team's mental and physical fatigue. That is my theory.
The Showtime Lakers of the 80's weren't just about offense. What has been forgotten was that they had some great defenders on those teams like Michael Cooper and Kurt Rambis. Kareem would still block a few and alter many shots while Magic's size and mobility gave him an edge defending smaller guards and helping down low. The NBA was fairly different then with a greater concentration of talent in fewer teams but even then the teams that did well played sound D along with excellent O. The flashy offensive teams in the 80's like the Hawks still couldn't make it to the Finals past the Lakers and Celtics. In contrast the two teams to interrupt the Lakers and Celtics domination through most of the 80's played great D, the Twin Tower Rockets and Dr. J / Moses Malone 76'ers. Basketball probably more than any team sport is fluid between offense and defense so its difficult for one dimensional teams to dominate. That said D wins Championships because over the course of a series its usually the team that makes the least mistakes wins so as another poster pointed out your shot might not always be there but as long as you can play D and take away your opponents shot you can still win.
another thought: once you've gotten a bunch of pro hoopsters to buy in on defense, you've created a team. and that shows up elsewhere, as well. on the offensive end, even.
f4p- The 94 Knicks averaged 98.5 ppg in the regular season. For comparison, we averaged just over 101 that year. The 95 championship team averaged 103.5. room4rent- Rasheed Wallace? The guy is a great talent, but he's NEVER performed at a superstar level. Never scored 20 points for a season. Never grabbed 9 boards a game. Did Larry Brown not get Wallace to commit to Pistons basketball?
Timely defense win championships. You can allow a lot of points and still win, you just have to be able to amp up the defensive intensity in the 4th quarter. The Kobe/Shaq Lakers were the best example of that. Sort of like football, where if you give up a ton of yards but keep the other team out of the endzone, you'll be in pretty good shape.
The Bulls and Lakers both played great defense, more importantly PHil was able to get them step up their defense even more come the last months of the season and playoffs, his ability to get his teams to play defense is vastly underrated...
It should read; solid defense and solid defensive rebounding wins championships. Good defensive rebounding is often underrated imo. Good offensive rebounding is a good luxury to have.
BINGO !! The Rockets won their 2 championships and were the worst Offensive rebounding team in the league. DD
