Defending the pick and roll

So I was watching a lot of game tape from the past two years and I noticed that in 2012-13 our philosophy was completely different from this past season. In 12/13, Monty employed a soft ice. Lopez wasn't particularly mobile so he would have him sag back to prevent dribble penetration while the guard would go over the screen to apply backside pressure. Its the same philosophy used by Indiana and Chicago.

Yet this year he employed the aggressive hedge and trap to contain the ball handler and emphasized help rotations and switches- similar to what Miami has been using. I know both philosophies are valid depending on personnel. Having a non mobile center like Lopez doesn't let you run the Miami scheme, and this year we arguably had quicker players that fit the mold.

But the net result was an indentical 110.1 DRTG both years. Sure we had injuries both years which changed a lot of things, but we bash Monty a lot for his schemes where I'm thinking its more a personnel issue. Whether its health or IQ or youth, we were similarly futile in both schemes that have been utilized successfully by other teams.


Oddly enough, Portland did the exact opposite. They went from the hard hedge scheme with JJ as center to the soft ICE when they picked up Lopez. This further suggests some players are better for one scheme or another. But Portland improved from 109.2 to 107.4 - a ten team jump.

So which scheme will we use this year?

With Asik I'd imagine we'd stick to the hard hedging this season as well. Asik's ability to cover ground as a true 7' and that's not an outer worldly athlete still amazes me.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by da ThRONe

With Asik I'd imagine we'd stick to the hard hedging this season as well. Asik's ability to cover ground as a true 7' and that's not an outer worldly athlete still amazes me.

---

Love Asik and his mentality. He knows his role on the court & doesn't attempt to break out of it.
Definitely sticking to the hard hedge.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by da ThRONe

With Asik I'd imagine we'd stick to the hard hedging this season as well. Asik's ability to cover ground as a true 7' and that's not an outer worldly athlete still amazes me.

---

This.

He has exclusive timing, defensive moves, ball movement and many other things that come from bbiq. He is so fun to watch that you feel how good of a game basketball is when you play it smart when you watch him.


Aşık's game can be melt into the motto of "no bs... just ball."

Hard hedging really seems to me to be high risk high reward and demands specific abilities from your players. I think with our personnel we should be able to execute it effectively though.

They WILL NOT be hard hedging with Asik. Only did it last year because we had a PF (Jason Smith) playing center, but he did not have the feet nor coordination to pull it off. Worked sometimes with Davis. Didn't do it with Stiemsma much and not always with Ajinca.

Asik won't be dragged out to the 3 point line. That plays opposite to his strengths. He didn't in Chicago and he won't here, and he's already said the schemes they are teaching this year are similar to what he did in Chicago.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by da ThRONe

With Asik I'd imagine we'd stick to the hard hedging this season as well. Asik's ability to cover ground as a true 7' and that's not an outer worldly athlete still amazes me.

---

This, with AD and asik this team is taylor made to hedge hard, maybe the best big man duo at doing it in the league.

Also, Asik's pick n' pop defense is excelent.

i.e. against Duncan&Parker last year.