Transition Defense

Excellent thread, I was thinking about this also tonight. All key points have been said.

On Battier, I just don't know if that one guy can make a difference in this problem. It's a teamwide dilemma and Adelman needs to get everyone on the same page, someone is blowing assignments or doing something not within the gameplan after a rebound or made shots.

 

You are using a percentage of our total rebounds as an indicator? Wouldn't just the actual number of them be more useful as a stat?

Because the other team could be horrid shooters and we get tons of defensive rebounds, driving our OREB percentage down....

Like tonight we got 10 of them....which seems prett good, but I am not sure if it is above or below average?

DD

 

One thing i left out besides Tracy limping around. Our starting lineup essentially has 4 guys who want to operate in the post. Yao, Scola, Ron, and Tracy are all more effective when they're in the post and as someone already noted Rafer is crashing the boards after his shots.

Usually there are atleast two guys sprinting back on D after the shot goes up now we have no one. Adleman has to notice this, right?

 

I hope that Adelman is indeed looking at the tapes and is assessing how to deal with the lack of transition defense. The schedule is going to be tough for the next week and a half and you can't give up easy baskets to those teams. The Boston game will be a good guage to where we are offensively cause they are a good defensive team. The Blazers and Hornets game will test our transition D as those teams like to run.

 

Rox need to pressure the ball handler better, by slowing the outlet pass, the fastbreak will be stop.

And why is everyone bashing tmac? Its not like he stop defending, or his defense intensity drop compare to last season. Actually, i see tmac running more than he did last year.

The only difference from last season is artest and barry. Artest is playing at the post, which makes it further for him to run back compare to battier who is in standing at the 3p line, and barry who is slow......

And the only player which i think have a huge drop of defense intensity is rafer.

 

Does anyone think it might be becasue of the teams we have played against? Dallas has reverted to there old style of play. Instead of getting ready fora possible offensive rebound, they jet on the fast break.
And we played Memphis and OKC who arn't good enough at running a half court set, so need to use there youth and athletisicm to have a chance against any team.

So I think after our up-coming road trip those numbers may decrease.

 

The problem is before our big guys are even ready to get set on the offensive end, mcgrady and rafer start jacking up crazy shots from all over the place. its not easy to go after those oof boards if you're not even half way up the court before they go mental and hoist crazy hail marry looking shots. the root of the problem lies in the shot selection on the other end.

 

I really think Battier is gonna help solve alot of these problems. He has been described as the defensive floor general.

 

True. mcgrady and artest are scorers. if they miss or someonelse misses, there first reaction is to go after the offensive boards. not to get back. a guy like battier is the opposite. his first and foremost reaction is to be the first guy back. you're right.

 

One strategy teams employ to stop the fastbreak is "forcing the defensive rebounder to cuff the ball" or delaying the outlet pass. Once the defensive player grabs the rebound he is looking up the court to make the outlet pass and ignite the fastbreak hence some teams leave one player to obstruct his vision and try to steal the ball or pressure the defensive rebounder , usually defensive rebounders are annoyed and they have to either spread their elbows or cuff the ball to stop the pesky defender. This gives the other players time to sprint back on defense.

 

I think that's just how the team is. We crash the boards even on the offensive glass, and that's gonna give up fast breaks. Also teams gameplan on running against us, even if that's not their natural style of play.

I'll give a pass for these 3 games:

Against Memphis and OK, our shooting % was horrid, so the chances of a fast break would naturally have a major increase. The fact that we won those games without much threat at the end and shut down the break in the 4th is a testament to our defense.

Dallas has Jason Kidd, nuff said.

 

WE do give up a fair few points on the fast break. But hopefully its something that can be rectified in the near future.

when i say near, i mean like REALLY near cuz we hhave a horror schedule ahead of us.

 

Battier is the answer.

 

I don't like the excuse that T-Mac is not 100%. He doesn't have to put 100% effort in defensive side. It is just an excuse. come on, you get paid by playing. You get high rewards by paying huge salary just for defense and offense. If you only play offense, you should get half pay cut.

 

Is this a rersult of poor shoot selection and offensive rebound?

In the game against Mavs, I was pissed that Rockets suddenly shoot at 20 feet while the teammates were not ready to fight offensive rebound. Missing that kind of shot gave Mavs plenty of fast break points.

 

Again let me say this, stop bashing tmac.

For every tmac turnover, i can show you the same turnover from artest.
For every time tmac did not recover defensively, i can show you the same from artest.

Actually replace anyone on the roster with artest.

He is only one player, and he only plays 30+ minutes out of 240 minutes from the whole team. Transition defense is done by the whole team, not only 1 player.

The guys in the post got to disturb the outlet pass, the guys at the 3p line need to run back. If you are saying tmac is getting burned by his man on iso plays, fine by me, but blaming the bad transition d on tmac?

 

This will fix the problem.

naismith

 

Didnt i say the same?. tmac and artest are going after to many offensive boards instead of getting back. there first reaction as scorers is to go after offensive boards. battiers foremost reaction is to get back on defense.