[Highlights] PnR versus OKC's sagging bigs with no help off shooters

ICE is very popular in the NBA.
Scoring is up tremendously in the NBA.
Hmmmmm...

Ha. I'm not saying there's a correlation though it is curious.

More to the point, help defense or not, a good offense is going to exploit that. A good offense with a great backcourt scorer (basically every good offense) will exploit that. Because bigs can't guard those wings whether they sag or pick up hard. just like we saw. Thunder didn't double and rotate so Rockets racked up paint points. If Thunder do double Harden will find the open 3.

In any case I think the best defenses are the ones that rotate the best combined with solid man on man play combined with flexiblilty to change up style. You can't just give them the same thing over and over - well unless it's working perfectly, which is unlikely.

An interview with a Draymond the other day spoke to this. He mixes up how he defends players regularly.

There's a reason zones don't work in the NBA. And you're right. The ICE sagging wall has elements of zone.

 

No way in hell does okc leave our shooters open for 3's. Game would be over before halftime. I expect okc to run shooters off the line and quadruple team Harden. 3headed monster of ryno/Gordon/Lou will light it up tonight. Another boring game.

 

Zach Lowe actually spoke about this 3rd man in the PnR on his podcast today. Even went so far as to say it is a staple of the D'Antoni PnR

On the Raptors overcoming the Bucks trapping the PnR:

"It's sorta similar to what the D'Antoni teams would call shorting the PnR, which is, you bring someone up usually on the strong side, you lift someone up high, so not the roller, it's a third person on the wing who's an outlet target and as the defense is moving you ping the ball to that guy and that guy can kinda survey the floor from a more advantageous position and either he can slip a pass to the roller who's still open because the trap is still recovering, or he can skip it to the other side"

 

Lol at Westbrook being "not that great". Westbrook is probably their single worst defender, and one of the worst in the league. I don't know how/why he has a reputation among some people for being anything more than atrocious defensively.

 

It's because Westbrook at least has the athleticism and skill-set and size at PG to be a good defender.

But the reality is he comes from the reach school of defense, not the move your feet school of defense.

 

And from the go-for-rebounds-instead-of-contesting-shots school of defense. Westbrook contested fewer FGA than ANY PLAYER IN THE NBA who played at least 30 mpg this year, and fewer 3PA than any player at all except Gobert and Whiteside... who are centers.

He's completely awful.