It’s About Scoring

[Lipoli390]

Bill Clinton's campaign manager was fond of saying, "it's the economy stupid." His point of course, is that the key to winning in politics is the economy. In today's NBA, I'd say the same thing about offense. The old dogma tells us it's about defense and that defense wins championships. But as we saw in last season's playoffs, it was largely offense that won the day. Even the old defensive curmudgeon coach, Larry Brown, recently lamented that good defense in today's NBA is, in his words, "efficient offense." I would just say, offense -- although clearly the more efficient the better.

By way of example, just take a look at the last couple nights. 12 NBA games were played Wednesday night. The winning team scored at least 112 points in 9 of them. The winning team scored 119 points or more in half those games. And only one of the 12 winning teams scored less than 100 points. The Wolves you might remember scored 104. There were two games played last night and the winning teams scored 112 and 113 points respectively.

Yes, part of outscoring your opponent is limiting their point total by playing defense. But let's not kid ourselves. It's an offense-driven League and to contend in today's NBA you have to have a high-powered offense.

Fortunately, the Wolves have the personnel to score a lot of points. I'm not sure, however, we have a head coach who can tap the full extent of that scoring potential. Time will tell. But I want to see the Wolves become a consistently explosive offensive team. If that happens, then I see us contending for a top 4 position in the West. If not, we'll be fighting for those last two or three playoff seeds.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Everything is relative. Keep in mind the league is playing at a much faster pace. The more possessions there are, the more scoring. So it's possible to be very good defensively, yet still give up 100+ points because you and your opponent are playing the game fast.

Golden State plays elite defense. That is what is so damn scary about them. They have the best defender in the league in Draymond Green and probably one of the best three or four perimeter defenders in Klay Thompson. Everyone else works hard and is strong fundamentally.

I agree that good, efficient offense can lead to better defense because then you get set up in the halfcourt. Of course, it applies the other way too....creating missed shots and turnovers can lead to easy transition baskets.

[Lipoli390]

Everything is relative. Keep in mind the league is playing at a much faster pace. The more possessions there are, the more scoring. So it's possible to be very good defensively, yet still give up 100+ points because you and your opponent are playing the game fast.

Golden State plays elite defense. That is what is so damn scary about them. They have the best defender in the league in Draymond Green and probably one of the best three or four perimeter defenders in Klay Thompson. Everyone else works hard and is strong fundamentally.

I agree that good, efficient offense can lead to better defense because then you get set up in the halfcourt. Of course, it applies the other way too....creating missed shots and turnovers can lead to easy transition baskets.

I agree with everything you wrote here. I'd add that it's not only possible to be very good defensively and still give up 100+ points, it's likely. Bottom line is that to win enough to be a top team in today's NBA you have to consistently score 110+ points and often score at least 115 unless you are very, very good defensively. Even then, I'm not sure. I'm convinced the Wolves need to be a consistently high-octane scoring team to be a top 4 or 5 team in the West.

[Monster]

The Wolves are gonna score. Even Sam Mitchell got them to score. It defense I'm worried about. The good news is going into tonight they weren't the worst defensive team in the league. The Cavs were there at 30. They are the example of a team that can score and wasn't good enough defensively last year.

[Coolbreeze44]

To me it's all about getting timely stops, especially in the 4th quarter. The best teams can man up and force you deep into the shot clock and cause lower percentage shots. You can't do that for 48 minutes but teams that can do it at crunch time are tough to beat. We've got some personnel now that might allow us to get those stops.

As far as offense goes, we can score in the half court with just about anybody. But it would help our overall game if we can get more easy baskets. Points in transition can aid our defensive effort throughout the game.

[Monster]

To me it's all about getting timely stops, especially in the 4th quarter. The best teams can man up and force you deep into the shot clock and cause lower percentage shots. You can't do that for 48 minutes but teams that can do it at crunch time are tough to beat. We've got some personnel now that might allow us to get those stops.

As far as offense goes, we can score in the half court with just about anybody. But it would help our overall game if we can get more easy baskets. Points in transition can aid our defensive effort throughout the game.

Good post Cool. The Wolves are near the bottom in fast break points per game at around 6. GS has an absurd nearly 28 PPG In that category. Last year The Wolves were in the middle at #16 with 12.8 PPG. There are a lot of factors going into why they seem to struggle to get going in that area. Being one of the worst defensive rebounding teams in the league is part of it. I feel pretty confident in that improving significantly.

[TAFKASP]

Funny you bring up Clinton, he was all about scoring!