I like that you set us up for excitement first, then slammed us with the bad news at the end!
Yes, kind of anticlimactic. I blame Wiggins.
Me too. It's easy. But I thought we needed a "rim protector" to be this good defensively?
We have 2 players in the top 20 in steals. Roco and Wiggins.
We are getting good rim protection now. For the whole year teams are scoring 57% at the rim against Kat what is meh at best.
Since the trade teams are scoring 44% at the rim against Kat what is 5th best in the NBA for centers during that time and 2nd for starters only behind javal McGee.
The whole team has taken a massive step up defensively
I think the thing that is really hard to suss out is how much wing defense and help contributes ultimately to paint defense. There is such an array of variables that come into play when defending the paint.
Luc Longley was not a great rim protector, yet those Buls teams were awesome defensively (I know that goes back a ways). Al Jefferson was not a good defender yet he played Center for a Charlotte squad that was 5th in Drtng a few years ago. The Warriors were really good defensively when Zaza was their starting Center.
I think if you lack a good rim/paint protector, it really means you can't have any other weak links and need a couple of defensive studs among the other four positions. Turn that around though and if you have an elite paint defender, you can may be get away with a couple of weaker links elsewhere and still be really good.
Q12543 wrote:I think the thing that is really hard to suss out is how much wing defense and help contributes ultimately to paint defense. There is such an array of variables that come into play when defending the paint.
Luc Longley was not a great rim protector, yet those Buls teams were awesome defensively (I know that goes back a ways). Al Jefferson was not a good defender yet he played Center for a Charlotte squad that was 5th in Drtng a few years ago. The Warriors were really good defensively when Zaza was their starting Center.
I think if you lack a good rim/paint protector, it really means you can't have any other weak links and need a couple of defensive studs among the other four positions. Turn that around though and if you have an elite paint defender, you can may be get away with a couple of weaker links elsewhere and still be really good.
I do think the steals stat for Wiggins and Covington are important when judging our defense. It means they are getting their hands on the ball when guys are driving to the basket thus making them put in a lot of work just to get to the rim. That makes the rim protectors job a lot easier. Rather than getting to the bucket clean and being able to shoot a floater or contort around a big stepping up to defend they are essentially getting chip blocked on the way to the rim which makes our bigs job a lot easier. I think that has really helped Towns elevate his game cleaning up at the rim and the high tide has raised all ships. Everyone is picking up their defensive effort and just making life hard for opposing teams to get easy looks. That's a big improvement and why we've seen such great defense.
Q12543 wrote:I think the thing that is really hard to suss out is how much wing defense and help contributes ultimately to paint defense. There is such an array of variables that come into play when defending the paint.
Luc Longley was not a great rim protector, yet those Buls teams were awesome defensively (I know that goes back a ways). Al Jefferson was not a good defender yet he played Center for a Charlotte squad that was 5th in Drtng a few years ago. The Warriors were really good defensively when Zaza was their starting Center.
I think if you lack a good rim/paint protector, it really means you can't have any other weak links and need a couple of defensive studs among the other four positions. Turn that around though and if you have an elite paint defender, you can may be get away with a couple of weaker links elsewhere and still be really good.
I do think the steals stat for Wiggins and Covington are important when judging our defense. It means they are getting their hands on the ball when guys are driving to the basket thus making them put in a lot of work just to get to the rim. That makes the rim protectors job a lot easier. Rather than getting to the bucket clean and being able to shoot a floater or contort around a big stepping up to defend they are essentially getting chip blocked on the way to the rim which makes our bigs job a lot easier. I think that has really helped Towns elevate his game cleaning up at the rim and the high tide has raised all ships. Everyone is picking up their defensive effort and just making life hard for opposing teams to get easy looks. That's a big improvement and why we've seen such great defense.
I big difference ive noticed it's that both butler and covington are adept at steals, but butler gambles for his while covington doesnt as much. So our defense tends to scramble less abd arent put in awkward spots.
Q12543 wrote:I think the thing that is really hard to suss out is how much wing defense and help contributes ultimately to paint defense. There is such an array of variables that come into play when defending the paint.
Luc Longley was not a great rim protector, yet those Buls teams were awesome defensively (I know that goes back a ways). Al Jefferson was not a good defender yet he played Center for a Charlotte squad that was 5th in Drtng a few years ago. The Warriors were really good defensively when Zaza was their starting Center.
I think if you lack a good rim/paint protector, it really means you can't have any other weak links and need a couple of defensive studs among the other four positions. Turn that around though and if you have an elite paint defender, you can may be get away with a couple of weaker links elsewhere and still be really good.
I do think the steals stat for Wiggins and Covington are important when judging our defense. It means they are getting their hands on the ball when guys are driving to the basket thus making them put in a lot of work just to get to the rim. That makes the rim protectors job a lot easier. Rather than getting to the bucket clean and being able to shoot a floater or contort around a big stepping up to defend they are essentially getting chip blocked on the way to the rim which makes our bigs job a lot easier. I think that has really helped Towns elevate his game cleaning up at the rim and the high tide has raised all ships. Everyone is picking up their defensive effort and just making life hard for opposing teams to get easy looks. That's a big improvement and why we've seen such great defense.
I big difference ive noticed it's that both butler and covington are adept at steals, but butler gambles for his while covington doesnt as much. So our defense tends to scramble less abd arent put in awkward spots.
It's weird to say because Butler is a very good defensive player but when Roco goes for a ball especially right now there is an even higher chance he gets it away from someone or just flat out takes it away from someone than Butler. Honestly this team is sorta playing the way that I think Flip envisioned when he had that group that included Rubio and Brewer who were energetic guys with ability to take the ball away from people. Of Course Covington is obviously a better player than Brewer on both ends of the ball and is longer. Rico gambles some but he also gets a lot of his steals coming off his guy as a help defender. His hands are elite For this stretch of games I don't know if I've seen anyone better in the past chunk of years. He is a beast.
