Last year we were ranked #1 at denying points in the paint. We were pathetic in comparison at opp 3pt%. But whatever works, works for me.
moochie?! i'll give him props for that charge he took yesterday in the 4th quarter, but calling him decent on defense is a tad on the crazy side.
Exactly. It's not that we're that poor defending the three, but we just aren't going to give up dribble penetration to the basket. Obviously it's working, since we've won the last two games. I haven't looked it up or anything, but I think it's safe to say no team has ever won a championship by shooting 20-30 threes a game...just look at the Mavs playoff failures a few years ago.
The Rockets teams that won the titles relied heavily on the 3pt shot. Remember Horry, Ellie, Cassell, Kenny Smith, Mad Max and even Drexler could hit the 3. The Rockets made two good adjustments in the 2nd half last night. They started keeping the Sonics off the offensive glass better and they started meeting the Sonics shooters above the 3pt line. In the first half they were giving the Sonics way to much room to shoot. Wesley did a great job D-ing up on Ray Allen when the game was hanging in the balance and Swift came up with some big rebounds too.
It's a lot more complicated than that... Layup = 2 points 3 pointers = 3 points I really love the helping out defense, but sometimes we tend to overextend and double way too much...heck, we even doubled floppie evans once yesterday. We need to find that balance on how much and hard we collapse and help out depending on the opposing players on the court. Once these new players get more used to JVG's defensive schemes (Swift especially), our defense will only tighten up and get so much better...our defensive rotations during the win streak is like night and day if you compare in the beginning of the year and can only get better. We have more quickness and potential defensively than last year primarily because of the additions of Swift and Head. Our defense will be NASTY by years end...just wait and see Just like offense, you should start inside to open up the outside...for defense, defend interior is the first priority and then stretch out to the 3 point shooters as the game goes on.
Not necessarily. layups @ .80 fg% = 2 points + 1 freethrow + 1 foul on Yao is less favorable than 3 pointers @ .35 fg%= 3 points
Ding, ding, ding! I don't think it's necessarily a part of his strategy, I think it's a result of his strategy combined with our slower guard play. JVG's first and foremost goal seems to be deny the paint and deny penetration. Everything else is secondary. If we succeed in doing that, but don't rotate back out effectively, threes are there for the taking. He's playing percentages in that he'd rather give up a jumpshot or a long jumpshot than give up an easy 2 inside.
As some have already stated, it really comes down to our 'aging' backcourt more than anything else. Sure, JVG's system might have something to do with it, but when your guards are that slow-footed it means that you're unable to cover as much ground on defense and means that guards are slow to react to a PnR among other things. It will get better once we clear the roster of slow guards following this season...
I'd even go one step further and say that it's teams with "big men" who can shoot the 3 that give us the most grief. I don't know if it started with the likes of Antoine Walker but if you look back at our last few games, the real damage has been done by that overlooked power forward or forward/center type that can hit the 3. R2K is probably going to fry me for saying this but Juwon Howard, in particular, seems to have difficulty defending 3-point shooting opposing forward. I'm not saying "Juwon doesn't try." I just feel like above and beyond slow guards, it's really our slow forwards that hurt us. theSAGE
If you think our perimeter defense is bad, the Warriors shot 17/29 from beyond the arc against the Raptors last night. Sad thing is they only won by 10 points. This is a good thread. Count me in with those who think JVG has used the practice time on the road trip to drill the team into stopping easy baskets, sometimes at the expense of giving up open 3 pointers. Some teams will be able abuse us but it's worth the tradeoff. Besides, many of the 3s the Warriors hit against us were not wide open. Too many were, though.
That's what I think too...it has to be part of the strategy because teams are getting WIDE OPEN looks from 3...but I agree, its a while lot better than allowing easy scores inside...
It's a bold strategy, I'll tell you that much. Having the opponent rain threes on you all game long, but let's see if it pays off
It's not as if you have to defend one and give up the other. Do the Spurs get burned on D when they guard the paint? No, they don't they defend both the paint and the perimeter well. I know guys will say we're to slow on rotations, but outside of Parker and Ginobili the Spurs are just as old and slow as any of our guys.
