I would say the same thing, but look at the other top teams in that category: Sacramento, NJ, SA, Ind. all are up there, NJ, SA and Sac are arguably the top defenseive teams in the league. The difference is that each of the other teams in the Top 7 defensive teams in the league forced more turnovers. 8th and 9th place defensive teams also didn't force turnovers, and those teams were Atlanta and Miami. The 6 teams in the top 9 that did force the turnovers were all playoff teams. 2-3 more turnovers a game - plus a decent running game - can lead to 3 or 4 more points a game, as opposed to the field goal percentage which, as someone above noted, might have a 1 pt effect. FG % is also deceptive - if we gave up a lot of 3pt shots for some reason, then a team will have a lower FG% against us even if their offense does well.
I totally agree. Like I said, the reluctance of the rox perimeter defenders to go for the ball and play the passing lanes is, I believe, the product of too much small ball with no big mann behind them. What I would like to know, if anybody does know, is if JVG's knick teams fared well as far as playing hte passing lanes and otherwise forcing TO's.
You're right Sam, the defense might not get much better because, as you showed with the stats, the Rockets were pretty good. But I think our defense looked bad because our offense was horrible. And a lot of times when the Rockets were blown out it was because the offense was horrible and the team got frustrated. Open up the offense more and the defense will look very good.
Sac's FG% is highly skewed because they blow teams out so frequently, which mean; 1. the other team is forced to speed up the game and shoot a lot of 3s to catch up and 2. Sac is often incapable of getting key stops in the clutch. This was evident in the Dallas series. NJ plays in the East, where every team shoots 10%. You shouldn't rely on stats as a crutch for any kind of analysis. Watch the games, and you'll see how skewed/misleading stats are. Going back to the Rockets, the Rockets had WAY TOO MANY DEFENSIVE BREAKDOWNS in crunch time of close games. Our crappy record in close-games pretty much is attributed by an even crappier defense down the stretch. We also routinely get our butts kicked by opposing PFs and PGs who can walk all over Eddie Griffin and Steve Francis.
What Defense? Mark Twain said there were three kinds of lies; common lies, damnable lies, and statistics.
1. That's not very persuasive rationale. Yes, it makes intuitive sense about sacramento, but you could argue it that it would make it tend to come out the other way as well ("Sac plays in blowouts so its bench is in more and their defense would be better it it wasn't" etc etc.) I tend to think that those intuitive arguments cancel each other out over the course of an 82 game season. But if you think the stats are skewed, by all means look them up; they're easily accessible all over the internet, and you can prove it with a little effort. 2. I guess, I don't really recall them being that much better or worse at that than any other team. In fact, I don't recall any team that consistently gets "stops" more often than not in the fourth q of playoff games. But I don't know, maybe I'm wrong. I don't buy the "blah blah doesn't count cause it's in the East". Come on, that is just a cheap out. The NBA is the NBA. Is anybody crapping on Jeff Van Gundy because he was successful in the East? or Larry Brown? Rick Carlisle? No? Ok then. NJ is one of the better defensive teams both personnel and stats wise. Kidd and Martin are both top notch individual defenders. Jefferson, Collins and Kittles are both either average or above average as well, IMO. And the stats prove it. Griffin, as a man defender is horrendous, I agree, though he's not a bad help man at times. Francis? OK, I understand the common bash of francis as a bad defender. Now, who is a GOOD defensive point guard? Oh, and I want proof too, not just "so and so is good because he's good." All of the common "Steve is bad on d" stuff that is tossed around here is in the form of anectdotal evidence, like "Andre Miller and Marbury lit him up that one tiime", etc. Doesn't it ever occur to you that, if you were a fan of another team and you watched all their games, you would be able to cite anectdotal evidence of Eric Snow, Alvin Williams, and all the other fantasy rocket PG's that people specualte about bringing in getting burned too? I think you have unrealistically high expectations. Look, you could take the greatest defensive PG to ever play the game (I don't even know who that would be), and put him in a one on one situation with Steve, Marbury, Baron Davis, or any of the other athletic point guards of today or any other era, and he is justs not going to be able to stop him with any consistency. Why? because a man with the ball moving forwards can get to a spot quicker than a man moving backwards. It's just biomechanics. I'll grant you that Jason Kidd is much better on defense than Steve, only because I have the opportunity to see him play quite a bit. Who else, and Why?
The way I see it, we can probably be the best defensive team in the entire league. Consider this for a second: We don't make any major trades. Griffin adds 10lbs (like last season) or more. MoT is in better shape and can contribute immediately after another hectic summer of working tirelessly. This gives us a rotation of: Ming/Cato EG/MoT Posey/Rice Mobley Francis If you ask me, JVG can very easily get Francis to improve defensively. Francis is laterally quick enough, jumps high enough, and runs fast enough. All he needs is JVG constantly on his back about defense, and mosre importnatly, to be taught some actual defense (i.e. angles, theories, styles, whatever). This means we have a rock solid defensive first team, and will most likely lead the league in blocks, considering EG improves and gets more playing time and spends more time closer to the rim. The only defensive liabilities we have, absically, are Rice and maybe MoT. We can consider them our sparks off the bench, and besides, they are the bench players. I think that, with our shotblocking potential (Ming/EG/Cato) and our perimeter defense potential, i.e. steals, (Posey, Mobley, Francis), we can transform our deep team into the best defensive team in the league. When you're the best defensive team in the league, while having Steve Francis, Mobley, and Yao Ming to score, I think that you can consider yourself one of the better teams in the league. If Van Gundy is released from the Knicks soon (all indidcations), and he gets a head start on meeting our players and assesnig them, I think that we can make 6th seed next season. I would be more surprised if we were 7th than if we were 5th.
