WolvesFan21 wrote:This is just sad. I still think that Thibs style can and does rub some guys the wrong way with his constant yelling.
How about sitting down calmly explaining to them if they do ever want to be somewhat successful, ever, they are going to have to focus on the defensive end at some point.
I don't know if the guys can't learn, Thibs can't teach, or they simply don't care. Some guys are fine with just collecting a paycheck. They say the right things but, really, is it just lip service?
I wonder if the real big reason behind Thibs bringing in Ta and Butler was to HOPEFULLY for him, have the guys listen to THEM. Since he can't get them to do the right things or effort, night in and night out.
To be fair... eventually... we're going to have to question Thibs' chops as a defensive savant IN TODAY'S GAME if this continues.
Young kids. Old vets. Shitty results?
The only way to really know unfortunately is for KAT to miss time. His off-court numbers have us at 7th in the league based on stats others have provided through the various threads. No way to know how much of that is legit or just our bench defending another bench better if he doesn't miss time. I'd like to see a game or two like when Butler missed time to see what it looked like because I think a Taj/Dieng/Belly trio would be a lot better than dead last defensively.
Shumway wrote:I'm sure your main point (that we are very poor defensively) is completely valid. But I'd speculate that the entire league has become more efficient and league average Opponent eFG% is also far worse than previous years.
I think the fact that we haven't improved is in itself a compelling stat (in a bad way), so I'm sure it doesn't change your main point. But you're a stats guy - context is always very important.
Good point Shumway, but I don't think this additional information will make anyone feel better:
League median eFG% compared to Wolves Opponent eFG%:
2014-15 - .494 NBA median vs. Wolves Opponent .537 = 43 basis points worse
15-16 - .501 vs. .524 = 23 basis points worse
16-17 - .512 vs. .535 = 23 basis points worse (zero improvement on a relative basis!)
17-18 - .516 vs. .561 = 45 basis points worse
So yes, the league is getting more efficient. Unfortunately, our defense is becoming less efficient on a relative basis. Even worse than our 16 win season!!!!
Yikes. I'd expected more of an increase in the league's eFG%.
I'm an optimist at heart and so I tend to really want to feel everything is OK and it's slowly moving in the right direction, but it's a building data set of evidence that Thibs is not getting the results defensively that we'd expect.
Interesting stuff Q thanks for looking all that stuff up.
Well...the good news is Chicago has been horrific on defense the last few games so they may be joining us at or near the bottom of these categories soon.
