You can call that an anomaly, but that doesn't explain how many open looks Utah players got. If they happened to miss those jumpers, it's an anomaly too, but that is still terrible defense right there. I can't remember when was the last time an opponent got so open both inside and outside. Plain horrible defense.
I really wish we could find a stat on league average of a player taking an open shot from 18-20 and then again from 3 point range. I would venture to guess it would be in the mid 50s. The Jazz were not missing very many of those open looks. I mean, Scola gets open looks every game, but he only hits about half of those open shots.
I watched every minute of the game. Right in the shooter's grill? Rarely happened. A couple passes by Utah and the rotation became so late.
It doesn't matter for your argument. I totally concede that Lowry is a far better defender than Brooks. I never came close to once suggesting otherwise. Lowry may be the best defensive PG in today's game with Brooks being one of the worst. What I was trying to get at was not whether Lowry in the lineup makes us a better defensive team or not. It obviously does. My question is how much better? Does it take us from a well below average defensive team to even a league average defensive team? If not, what does it tell you that players like Lowry, Batter and Ariza getting signficant minutes can't even make us a league average team, defensively? Does it mean that perimeter defense is overrated while protecting the paint and the rim with your frontcourt is infinitely more important? Is the loss of Yao 80% of the reason why we've seen this drop-off this season even with all these defensive studs guarding the perimeter? We probably have more elite perimeter defenders than any team in the league this season.
There are nights when Scola was hot to hit those open jumpers, and defense would adjust to make him miss more. But tonight, every Utah player other than Boozer is getting open looks all game long.
Nobody knows how much, and with current team in first half, AB's offensive gain might be enough to cover the defensive loss since we only have 2 efficient and good offensive guys in the lineup. but next year it can totally change with Yao in the lineup. The scoring AB provided this year can pretty much go to Yao and Martin, that would make his impact on offense much less than this year. Lowry's defense and all around play would make a bigger impact for starting lineup.
And Boozer was 8 for 9. So what's that tell you? And if your sentence had read: "Every Jazz player not named Williams was taking contested shots all game long" you might have a legit gripe in saying Brooks was the culprit for the bad defense. But you said it yourself. It seems only Boozer was taking contested shots, which means it's much more than an issue of point guard defense. The team wasn't making the proper rotations, and this includes Brooks. You can't pin it on one guy.
So that's 105 points per 100 possessions. That's kinda high for 3 perimeter defenders. Guessing it adds weight to Brooksball's hypothesis for a lack of Yao being a big part of the defensive issues.
Agreed. I'm posting too much right now. Like I said in a previous post, I meant for people to make a guess based on the fact that we seem to be a bad defensive team no matter who is on the court this season. I'm also not sure if that latter statement is true. I want to know if we have any combinations of players this season that play defense at even a league average level.
You didn't get my point. I don't mind if they score 140 with every shot being contested, but I do mind if opponents shot open jumpers all game long even if they only score 90. Tonight, the latter part happened. Many fans only look at the score but nothing else, that's why they overrate scorers that much.
I think we're arguing different points. I am saying that its not all on Brooks or Brooks/Martin that the Jazz were getting open looks. Everyone was missing rotations, and the few times they got it right, the shot seemed to go in anyways.
And I'm not pinning it on one Brooks only. But this lineup is obviously not working defensively, and I believe it won't work even if Yao is there. AB/Martin/Cbud/Scola simply won't be an average defensive team. I don't mind Ab start as a shooting guard next season either, so it's not against AB.
well that's just 50 minutes of play so the sample size is too small to draw anythng too meaningful, but i believe it is below the league average.
yeah, I agree the entire team is missing roations, because there are just too many weak defenders there. That can't happen next season, Yao won't be able to save all those mistakes, in fact he's the slowest to rotate on perimeter.
Oh, I would rather Budinger come off the bench next season with whichever of the Battriza combo does not start. I think Lowry, Battier, or Ariza would help alot of the issues we saw today. But again, its too small a sample size from a team that has 2 new faces seeing solid minutes and 3 other regulars who are out with injury.
I have no idea what 1.05 ppp means. If that is good, then it certainly lends to your argument of the importance of PG and perimeter defense. I just get the feeling that the rule changes have made it such that just about any perimeter defender can get around the first line of defense. While denial and pressure can slow things down, it still seems to be that interior defense is infinitely more important than perimeter defense in today's game.
Guessing ppp is points per possession, and that extrapolates to 105 points per 100 possessions. But the sample size is a little small.
Why should I have to read an entire thread? One would assume you *should* put everything you want into your original post. If it was sarcastic, then yeah I didn't detect it. Maybe because it was misspelled. It's not out of the realm of belief that yet another stupid thread popped up in the GARM. What's more likely? Someone created a brand new thread to be sacrastic or that it's just a plain dumb thread?
