| . |
 |
Let it sink in that this team has the same offensive rating as a team with Kyrie Irving and James Harden, with Kevin Durant playing in 5 of those games.Originally Posted by Pelicanidae
The top 10 offensive teams during that time period:
1. Brooklyn (12 - 5)
1. New Orleans (10 - 9)
3. Utah (14 - 4)
4. Phoenix (14 - 4)
5. Milwaukee (11 - 7)
6. LA Clippers (11 - 7)
7. Dallas (9 - 7)
8. Denver (9 - 8)
9. Portland (10 - 7)
10. Toronto (10 - 7)
Let it sink in that this team has the same offensive rating as a team with Kyrie Irving and James Harden, with Kevin Durant playing in 5 of those games.
The top 10 offensive teams during that time period:
1. Brooklyn (12 - 5)
1. New Orleans (10 - 9)
3. Utah (14 - 4)
4. Phoenix (14 - 4)
5. Milwaukee (11 - 7)
6. LA Clippers (11 - 7)
7. Dallas (9 - 7)
8. Denver (9 - 8)
9. Portland (10 - 7)
10. Toronto (10 - 7)
9 of those teams are in the playoffs now except us lol......i believe those same 9 teams will remain in the playoff seeding.. question is, will we make it ...
another good game against a top team which is confusing smh....
also this team play defense when they want to.....the last 3 games they turned the defense on late in the games and came out 2-1....laziness and effort is part of the problem...
Zion is something special . He tore up Rudy last night.
For some laziness and effort is part of the problem (cough Bledsoe cough) for others, I think it's been more a mental/physical issue. I think BI's problem is he gets caught flat footed on drives to the basket and he has trouble in fighting through screens. Zion's issue has been his defensive foot work (which seems to be getting a lot better). Lonzo looks like he's playing pretty good defense, because he's real active but on too many occasions he over helps leaving his guy who is often the opponent's primary scoring threat. So then we get career games from Luka and Lavine, ect. Steven Adams often has to overhelp because our perimeter D is allowing too many open drives to the basket. Steven also is not a great perimeter defender, which is where a lot of our opponents are living right now.
If Bledsoe can get his head out of his ****** and if Zion keeps improving defensively we should see a steady improvement in that department.
I don't want to leave out our coaching staff. I think their basic defensive philosophy has been seriously flawed.
Last edited by Freyfamilyreuni; 03-02-2021 at 10:22 AM.
At this rate, no.
9 of those teams are in the playoffs, and almost all of them have a defense much better than ours. Even the Nets and the Mavs, who are a bottom 5 defenses as well, are more than 2 points better than us in DRtg, which is a fairly large gap in this kind of stat. For context, the Nets are +2.3 points better than us on D, which is the same difference as the one between the team ranked 2nd in DRtg and the team ranked 10th. That's how much worse than even the Nets we are on D.
And most of those other 9 teams are in the top half of the league on defense as well: Utah is 3rd, Phoenix is 6th, Milwaukee is 10th, Clippers are 15th, Toronto are 13th.
Basketball.
Let this sink in. Our defense was better under Alvin Gentry. Yikes.
I'm not sure how many times I'm gonna have to say this, but this team is so young. Stop worrying so much about wins and losses and enjoy the process. There's no reason to read too deep into statistics yet.
We're 6-2 in our last 8 home games with wins against Utah, Boston, Phoenix, and Memphis. The only losses are to Portland and Phoenix, who are a combined 16 games over .500.
In contrast, we're 1-5 in our last 6 road games, with losses to Detroit, Chicago, San Antonio, and Dallas.
This team has not yet learned to win on the road, and that is to be expected in such a weird season in which travelling is extremely difficult. Stop overreacting to every win or loss, and start overreacting to Zion's dominance, BI's brilliance, and Lonzo's ascension.
Alvin Gentry had Jrue Holiday and Anthony Davis for most of his tenure. Comparing apples to, like, rotted apples
To be fair Nets defense not much better. May have dodged bullet not hiring D’Antoni
I think you have to be careful with this kind of thinking. Yes, it's true that the process is more important than the results right now.
But you also have to be conscious of the fact that we are currently one of the worst defenses in NBA history, regardless of team age. That is, we are awful on defense, even compared to other very young teams. You can't just ignore that completely and hope it will go away without having to do something.
Well you're also neck and neck with the Blazers for worst defenses in NBA history, and they currently sit at 19-14. We currently have a better offensive rating than they do, so the only real difference is that they know how to close games. And as we both know, the difference between worst and say middle of the pack is one or two missed assignments.
By the way, the Pels are the only team in the NBA that is top 10 in offensive rating and below .500, yet they are one of four teams in that same group who has a defensive rating of greater than 113
I'm sorry, I'm not persuaded by the argument that we shouldn't care just because other teams are also bad on defense. I don't care what the Blazers are doing, that's their problem, and frankly they're not going anywhere (for yet another season) either unless they pick their defense up big time.
Well that's not really the argument I'm making so it's understandable that you're not persuaded.
Viewing the totality of the circumstances, things are not as bad as the record indicates.
Zion's on ball defense has always been pretty impressive to me considering who he ends up having to guard sometimes. Even last night he got switched on Mitchell and Clarkson a few times and made them pass or pick up the dribble.
It's his off ball D that seems to be the major issue. But, that has gotten so much better as the season has gone on. Early on, I was genuinely concerned that he didn't have any defensive IQ. Watching him close down on drives that weren't his responsibility and give up wide open 3s for 2 months was really frustrating. But I've been watching and he is doing so much better to stay on his man and only help when it makes sense.
There's a reason why SVG subbed him out defensively for Hart defensively late in the game last night.
Yeah, he's been a lot better. Obviously still lots and lots of room to improve, he's not suddenly all-defense or something, but he went from being really terrible to just inconsistent and error-prone in the span of about 34 games. That's not a huge amount of time, and the change has been large.
The thing to hope for now is for continued improvement to come along and iron out more and more of the errors so that those flashes can have room to grow instead of being things that bite him in the form of fouls and getting yanked late.
By the end of the year, and most importantly after a few games next year (so basically about a season's worth of games from now) I think the aim should be for him to be a slightly positive on D. Then we talk about potentially becoming a plus, which I think he can be in time but depends on things like linear progression and effort.
Contributor
I ain't really sure there was a actual reason for that imo. Zion defense was fine last night, subbing Hart for Bledsoe made more sense to me.
SVG has been doing it all year, subbing Zion out late, but it basically never actually works. It's not like we have some super intense defensive stalwart to put in instead, it's usually just an excuse to leave someone like Bledsoe on the court.
Totally agree with you, the better option would have been subbing in Hart for Bledsoe.
Though the even better option would have been not playing Zion for 6 straight minutes without taking a shot, but hey, that's by the by.
I agree; it would have been much better for him to get the ball up on the glass late in the game last night than for him turning it over.
Last edited by As I See It; 03-02-2021 at 06:02 PM.
SVG called out the refs post game. "If Xion's not going to the line more than ten times a game the refs are missing some calls."
Nice
Just another Kiwi basking in the reflected glory of Steven Adams....bask bask..
.
Couldn't be more accurate though.SVG called out the refs post game. "If Xion's not going to the line more than ten times a game the refs are missing some calls."
Nice
He's currently number one in the entire NBA in 2pt field goals made and attempted, he takes nearly 16 shots in the paint per game, but he's averaging fewer FTAs than Trae Young who just baits and grifts all game?
The only two guys who roughly match Zion in volume at the rim are Embiid and Giannis, and both of those guys average over 10FTAs a game. Zion's at 8. What gives?
I didn’t see anything outrageous in this game, but the Spurs game was a travesty. They were rearing back and hacking him with impunity without a second glance by the refs. I’d understand it a bit more if it wasn’t for the fact that the Spurs were getting touch calls.
Yeah it's like he's penalised for being too dominant.
Last edited by KoMikaera; 03-02-2021 at 08:32 PM.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote