Evaluating Beverley by referring to games that don't involve the Rockets is not a compelling argument.
He's a good defender. Scouts have said it about him in college, Europe, in the NBA, we've seen it, analyst have said it after seeing him in the playoffs, coach has played him for it, statistically we improve defensively by a decent margin when he's on the floor, he has the length and athleticism, not much else to say.
I would agree if I didn't see Beverley just sitting at the top of the paint not covering anyone. And when we are in a zone D, the least he can do is just run at the open man and get a hand up. All the other Rockets would try and do that, even Lin in his battered state.
I think that's closer to the truth. But even then, his on-ball pressure defense is what also leads him to pick up a lot of quick fouls which isn't what a good defender does.
Of course he is not a good defender. He is a rookie. Defense takes a lot of study and practice. Ask battier and Tony Allen. Allen just said he studies film every night. You can't expect him to play great D so quickly. But what he does have is amazing athleticism and all the tools and desire to be a good defender. So no worries he will be.
He's good at getting steals and pressuring the ball. His man-to-man D is good when HE'S GUARDING HIS MAN. I still don't know if it was the game plan to leave Jackson wide open for all of those threes, but if it was then he sure did a good job.
Hey my bud Badlee. Not at all. Just breaking down the difference of why Jackson is suddenly a non factor in Game 1-2 against Memphis. He's just not getting open looks. And Durant is getting doubled and being held to less shots. I've said it before, I like a lot of things about Bev's game, mainly his motor... I just don't agree with most folks about his D (from what I've seen of it so far).
2 out of 3 wins in those games Bev's defense was solid, the plan was to clog the lane to let anyone beat them except Durant and the Thunders did.
OK, I understand the theory. But didn't Durant average 37pts on 50% shooting in the series, including 41 points in game 3?
Posting Reggie Jackson's stats is bs. We all saw the series and what we were trying to do. “When I have the ball, it’s like four guys guarding me at one time.” Durant “You’ve got to perform,” Garcia said. “We want other guys to beat us and take the ball out of KD’s hands. That’s the game plan. “You have to think …” Beverley started, before stopping himself for a more complimentary approach. “At the end of the day, Oklahoma is still a great team. With Westbrook going down, it changed the dynamic of the team. We’ve been trying to make other people beat us. Kevin Durant — we sent two, three guys at him; he still has 30-plus points. (Garcia) has been doing a great job with him. We have been trying to make other people beat us, and if that’s the reason we have to lose a game, we’ll go down like that.” “It’s easier when they’re in the post,” Rockets coach Kevin McHale said. “You can double-team them and fly out. When you double-team a guy on the top of the key, where he has the ball a lot, someone is going to be open. You’ve just kind of got to take the temperature of what’s happening. And you just have to live with it.”
and if Patrick Beverley isn't a good defender, than we are truly ****ed defensively from our guard positions.
Then how is Memphis holding Durant down to less shots than we did if we swarmed him so much? Everyone's plan is to double, triple Durant but it doesn't mean he just passes the ball to the open guy and that guy gets an open look every time. You still have your guys rotate or run at the guy with a hand up. And there were plenty of times that Beverley wasn't doubling Durant and his man was still getting wide open looks.
He might be overrated, but your analysis seems to be quite lacking. The fact that Jackson had a few good games against Houston and has now had a decent couple of games against Memphis does not mean that Beverly didn't defend him well. It could be that he has yet to get comfortable with the defense that Memphis is employing against him. Point is that you cannot directly point to Beverly's defense as the catalyst for his good games. Reggie Jackson is a good player who will have good games. We've seen that in the regular season and now in the playoffs. Using a few games to reach this conclusion is just absurd especially given that he hasn't even played that badly in the Memphis series. He's taken 8 shots in each of these games whereas in the last 3 games against Houston he was taking around 16-17 shots per game. Is Conley guarding him so well that he can only find room to fire up 8 shots? Or is it that Memphis trusts its perimeter defenders to contain Durant and so there are less shots available for Jackson? It's probably the latter. I don't think that you can conclude that Beverly is overrated defensively based on your analysis.
Just goes to show that Durant is just that good. As soon as he blew by the first guy he was dunking it on the whole team. Plus he played over 40 mins a game being the primary ball handler. He did have a 10-25 and 13-30 game as well though.
The last game (game 6) the Rockets lost Beverley was +4 he was in foul trouble and whenever Lin came in the momentum shifted. Pat had the highest +/- till he was replaced by Lin in the 4th because the lead got pushed to 8 and Harden went nutty so his +/- went down.
