Wolves' defense

[FNG]

The season is only 6 games old, but early returns are that our defense is not nearly effective as it was last year. NAW, DiVo and Rudy have been stellar and Naz is showing signs of improvement, but as a whole, the defense has not been nearly as effective as last season. Why? I'll offer a few possible reasons to get the conversation started:

1) Randle, instead of KAT. Randle has been quite effective on offense...still leads the team in assists, screens very well, and is shooting efficiently. But the drop off in defense at the PF position has been notable. Several times he has appeared totally lost in rotations...I can't tell if it is because he is getting used to a new system, or if he has been lazy. Opponents are scoring a disastrous 19.1 more points per 100 possessions when he is on the court. Randle's on/off defensive numbers have always been below average, but never as bad as this early season. I never thought I would say this, but our defense actually gets better when Naz is at PF instead of Randle. I wish the "dog" mentality he shows on offense would happen on defense too.

2) Jaden: He has looked like a perennial all-defense candidate in prior years, but not this year. I don't know if his offensive woes are affecting his performance on defense, but he doesn't look at all like the same guy. He ranks second worst to Randle in defensive on/off...opponents score 15.7 more points per 100 possessions while he is on the court. Reaching in and fouling continue to be a problem, but he is also struggling this season in pick and roll defense. He looked lost a few times last night when Sochan was his assignment. Jaden has been one of my favorite players in the past, but something is seriously off this season. Finchie may have to make a rotation change if Jaden continues to hurt us at both ends. Even though it makes us smaller, NAW deserves the starting SF role right now. We would lose 4 inches in height, but NAW is actually averaging more rebounds per 36 minutes than Jaden this year.

3) Q gave Ant a D+ last night despite his 21/5/2 line, so I suspect he noticed what I noticed...Ant was a disaster on defense last night. His wonderful on-ball defense on Castle on one possession was a reminder of what Ant is capable of doing if he is locked in, but he seemed disinterested the rest of the night. I guess that is how you earn a team-worst -20 plus/minus. I worry that Ant is reveling in his national reputation and concluding he can become the face of the NBA with dunks and 3's...with defense optional. It was sad to see a poor offensive team playing their third game in four nights (and yes, I realize we were also on a back to back) carve up our defense, and while Randle and Jaden were also terrible, I have Ant as the main culprit last night.

I've really enjoyed watching this team on offense this season...I think they clearly have the potential to be a top 10 offense. But I really miss the defensive excellence we watched all last year with Jaden, NAW and Ant playing stellar perimeter defense and Rudy ruling the paint. We need to get better much better on defense soon.

[kekgeek]

All you need to know is when Rudy sits the wolves don’t get stops. They are literally in the first percentile (dead last in the NBA) on defense when Rudy is off the floor. Don’t know how many times I need to say it. Naz is the worst defensive center in the NBA by a wide margin. If the wolves resign Naz to a huge contract and don’t bring in a backup big to play along side him that Naz contract is will be the death of the Ant era. It’s not just the defense with Naz, it’s not finishing possession when Rudy sits. 36.5% of opponents shots end in an offensive rebound and the wolves are dead last in defense after an offensive rebound happens when Rudy sits. So over 1/3 shots taken and in an offensive rebound and a bucket by the opponent when Rudy is off the floor, that is not even accounting for the points given up when no offensive rebounds accrue.

When Rudy plays the wolves are equivalent to the 9th best defense in the nba. So not as elite as last year but still a top 10 defense. Rudy sits they are dead last.

It was my biggest concern before the year and it is still my biggest concern now. I don’t know how that changes

[FNG]

I agree, Kek, but that's no different than last year. When Rudy went out last year, we were also very easy to score on, regardless of whether KAT or Naz was the center. But there's a big difference in our defense compared to last year when Rudy is out there...9th compared to 1st is a significant difference, and not nearly good enough to make up for their last place defense when he sits. As you say, our poor defense when Rudy sits is not going to change...we don't have a backup center that can defend. What I want to talk about though is what is different from last year. And to me it's clearly the downgrade in replacing KAT with Randle plus some inattentive defense by Jaden and Ant...two guys who I thought were quite good defensively last year. And Jaden and Ant can change...check that, they need to get better on defense if we are going to be successful.

[kekgeek]

I agree, Kek, but that's no different than last year. When Rudy went out last year, we were also very easy to score on, regardless of whether KAT or Naz was the center. But there's a big difference in our defense compared to last year when Rudy is out there...9th compared to 1st is a significant difference, and not nearly good enough to make up for their last place defense when he sits. As you say, our poor defense when Rudy sits is not going to change...we don't have a backup center that can defend. What I want to talk about though is what is different from last year. And to me it's clearly the downgrade in replacing KAT with Randle plus some inattentive defense by Jaden and Ant...two guys who I thought were quite good defensively last year. And Jaden and Ant can change...check that, they need to get better on defense if we are going to be successful.

That’s actually incorrect FNG. Wolves were in the 91st percentile (elite) when Kat was at center last year defensively.

I get why they made the trade but we were a significantly worse team defensively when Rudy sits this year because we don’t have Kat. We are still dealing with small sample size numbers this year but the wolves are 16.1 pts per 100 worse this year defensively when Rudy sits compared to last year when Rudy sits that is such a huge difference.


People are massively underrating the downgrade the wolves have now moving from Kat to Randle/Naz on defense when Rudy is off the floor and some of that is because Naz is a terrible defensive rebounder at center also

[FNG]

I’m going to keep pushing back, Kek, because KAT missed a quarter of the season last year, and my recollection was our defense was still elite during those 20 KATless games. Correct me if I’m wrong, because if our defense wasn’t very good while KAT was out, then you are correct that our poor defense this season is mostly about Randle replacing KAT.

If you haven’t watched last nights game yet, watch it and compare ant’s and Jaden’s defense last night compared to last years. I see a big difference, and it killed us last night.

[Q-is-here]

I’m going to keep pushing back, Kek, because KAT missed a quarter of the season last year, and my recollection was our defense was still elite during those 20 KATless games. Correct me if I’m wrong, because if our defense wasn’t very good while KAT was out, then you are correct that our poor defense this season is mostly about Randle replacing KAT.

If you haven’t watched last nights game yet, watch it and compare ant’s and Jaden’s defense last night compared to last years. I see a big difference, and it killed us last night.

I think you're both right. The Wolves had the 5th ranked defense in the time KAT was out last year, so they were still pretty damn good on that end. Keep in mind that SloMo was a very effective defender and would naturally soak up more minutes with KAT out, playing his more natural position of PF. His absence is notable as well.

But I also think the rest of the group has been less attentive to detail on defense.

If this is truly Ant's team, he needs to start doing a better job setting the tone. We all know he's capable of dialing up the intensity to a dizzying degree, but it's only sustainable in short bursts and the rest of the time he's basically half-assing it out there a lot. Can there not be an in between switch!?

[thedoper]

I think all the perimeter has been the problem. NAW is the only perimeter player who seems to want to stop anything. Jaden, Ant, DDV, Conley have all routinely been getting burned. Its bad and I really dont see it changing against good teams. Were going to have a stretch of natural improvement against 6 straight games of crap teams, but it just doesnt feel like the same urgency of last year. I dont think KAT has anything to do with it.

[Lipoli390]

I think all the perimeter has been the problem. NAW is the only perimeter player who seems to want to stop anything. Jaden, Ant, DDV, Conley have all routinely been getting burned. Its bad and I really dont see it changing against good teams. Were going to have a stretch of natural improvement against 6 straight games of crap teams, but it just doesnt feel like the same urgency of last year. I dont think KAT has anything to do with it.

Good point, I think our terrible interior defense and defensive rebounding so far this season is attributable to all the things you and others have mentioned in this thread:

1. Poor defensive play by our wings and guards except for NAW. As Jim Pete has said repeatedly over the years, good interior defense starts with wing players stopping penetration. As Jim often noted, even the greatest interior defender can’t stop today’s athletic NBA players coming at the rim unimpeded at full steam. Ant, Jaden and Conley have all been bad at stopping penetration so far this season. DDV hasn’t been much better. Other than NAW, none of our guards or wings are defending well. Conley is small and 37 years old. DDV has never been a great defender. But there’s no excuse for Ant or Jaden. Both of them should be elite defensively at stopping dribble penetration.

2. The loss of Slo Mo. There was so much attention paid to his poor shooting last season that I think some might have lost sight of how tremendous he was defensively. He was also an excellent defensive rebounder. His absence is a big loss

3. Swapping KAT for Randle. This is no surprise to me and some others who saw this coming after the deal. I love what we’re getting from Julius on the offensive end, but he’s a huge drop off from KAT defensively and on the defensive boards.

We can improve defensively if Ant and Jaden would play up to their potential on that end consistently. But we’re not going to get back to anything close to what we were last season without KAT and Slo Mo. And we’re not going to rebound at the level we should to be a championship contender with a starting SF as bad as Jaden is on the boards. It doesn’t help that Naz, as our third big, isn’t a good rebounder either. I agree with those who have suggested we’ll need to find a new identity since we can’t be the imposing defensive team we were last season with our current personnel. We have the makings of a great offense as the players get more comfortable with one another and if Ant reduces his three-point obsession in favor of attacking the rim. But even if our offense reaches the high potential I think it has, we still have to improve markedly on the defensive end if we want to be better than a team batting for the 6-8 seeds.

It’s still very early but I can see things developing to the Wolves front office makes a significant trade that could include Jaden or Naz.

[WildWolf2813]

We also coddled Jaden to a fault.