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?