Minnesota Sports Forum

Agree with Tim and SJM that getting a defensive-minded coach may have a larger impact than any individual move we can do with trades/the draft/free agency. I've always said that GMs build great offenses and coaches build great defenses.

We don't have the personnel to be a good defensive team. Kevin Martin isn't and never has been a good defender. He's not going to change at age 31/32. Love has turned himself into a decent defender, but he's physically limited as a defender at his position and his limitations are similar to the limitations of our other big, Pekovic. Brewer is an overrated defender and can't match up physically with a lot of SFs in the League. Ricky is a good defender, but has a hard time staying in front of the quicker PGs.

Bottom line is that a defensive-minded coach won't be able to create a good defensive team out of this collection of players. Could a coach like Hollins squeeze a little more defense out of this roster? Probably. But I wouldn't count on a coaching change as a magic elixir for what ails this team. In theory, I still think we can build or re-tool around Love. But I'm afraid we do t have the assets, cap room or front office acumen to succeed.

Yet, maybe we'll get lucky and the stars will align for us. How might the stars align? We hire a Tom Thibodeau caliber head coach. Shabazz breaks out next season as the second coming of Paul Pierce, replacing Brewer as our starting SF. Ricky develops the ability to consistently finish inside and consistently hit open three-pointers with his Jason Kidd like set shot -- even if he fails to develop a decent mid-range jump shot. We draft next season's rookie of the year. And we stay at least as healthy as this season.

If we draft Stauskas, we're set. We're winning the championship. :D

lipoli390 wrote:We don't have the personnel to be a good defensive team. Kevin Martin isn't and never has been a good defender. He's not going to change at age 31/32. Love has turned himself into a decent defender, but he's physically limited as a defender at his position and his limitations are similar to the limitations of our other big, Pekovic. Brewer is an overrated defender and can't match up physically with a lot of SFs in the League. Ricky is a good defender, but has a hard time staying in front of the quicker PGs.

Bottom line is that a defensive-minded coach won't be able to create a good defensive team out of this collection of players. Could a coach like Hollins squeeze a little more defense out of this roster? Probably. But I wouldn't count on a coaching change as a magic elixir for what ails this team. In theory, I still think we can build or re-tool around Love. But I'm afraid we do t have the assets, cap room or front office acumen to succeed.

Yet, maybe we'll get lucky and the stars will align for us. How might the stars align? We hire a Tom Thibodeau caliber head coach. Shabazz breaks out next season as the second coming of Paul Pierce, replacing Brewer as our starting SF. Ricky develops the ability to consistently finish inside and consistently hit open three-pointers with his Jason Kidd like set shot -- even if he fails to develop a decent mid-range jump shot. We draft next season's rookie of the year. And we stay at least as healthy as this season.

It isn't athleticism that prevents Love and Pek from showing hard on the PnR. It is either laziness or stupidity. When Love does show (about half the time) they shut the play down most of the time. Getting Pek to put a couple hard fouls on guys trying to finish at the rim wouldn't hurt either. Teaching Cory not too reach while in the half court defense would really help. I haven't witnessed Rubio having any trouble staying in front of quicker PG's. I have watched them continually pick him off. Every player gets beat at least a couple of times. It is no different when Rubio blows in for a layup on that same quick guard. Some times you get caught looking back.

I think Hollins is exactly what this team needs. No more practicing on one day during a three day layoff.

sjm34 wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:We don't have the personnel to be a good defensive team. Kevin Martin isn't and never has been a good defender. He's not going to change at age 31/32. Love has turned himself into a decent defender, but he's physically limited as a defender at his position and his limitations are similar to the limitations of our other big, Pekovic. Brewer is an overrated defender and can't match up physically with a lot of SFs in the League. Ricky is a good defender, but has a hard time staying in front of the quicker PGs.

Bottom line is that a defensive-minded coach won't be able to create a good defensive team out of this collection of players. Could a coach like Hollins squeeze a little more defense out of this roster? Probably. But I wouldn't count on a coaching change as a magic elixir for what ails this team. In theory, I still think we can build or re-tool around Love. But I'm afraid we do t have the assets, cap room or front office acumen to succeed.

Yet, maybe we'll get lucky and the stars will align for us. How might the stars align? We hire a Tom Thibodeau caliber head coach. Shabazz breaks out next season as the second coming of Paul Pierce, replacing Brewer as our starting SF. Ricky develops the ability to consistently finish inside and consistently hit open three-pointers with his Jason Kidd like set shot -- even if he fails to develop a decent mid-range jump shot. We draft next season's rookie of the year. And we stay at least as healthy as this season.

It isn't athleticism that prevents Love and Pek from showing hard on the PnR. It is either laziness or stupidity. When Love does show (about half the time) they shut the play down most of the time. Getting Pek to put a couple hard fouls on guys trying to finish at the rim wouldn't hurt either. Teaching Cory not too reach while in the half court defense would really help. I haven't witnessed Rubio having any trouble staying in front of quicker PG's. I have watched them continually pick him off. Every player gets beat at least a couple of times. It is no different when Rubio blows in for a layup on that same quick guard. Some times you get caught looking back.

I think Hollins is exactly what this team needs. No more practicing on one day during a three day layoff.

Our PnR defense is the worst and that makes Rubio look bad, I've seen countless times where Rubio gets picked and the opposing PG simply dribbles by Love or Pek. Also the way Rubio plays defense is different than most players, he determines what the opposing PG is attempting to do and he tries to stop that instead of simply trying to stop his man from scoring. For example if the PG is trying to set up Novak for a 3, Rubio tries to keep a pass from getting to him. Tthis makes Rubio look like he's getting beat because he isn't between his man and the basket and he gets no help from our bigs after he gets "beat."

Good observations on Ricky and how our poor P&R defense can make him look bad. But keep in mind I referred to him as a good defender and I stand by that assessment. And a really good offensive player/elite ball handler will usually beat his defender one on one. But I still question the defensive capability of the others on this team. It may be mental as well as physical, but the end result is the same and I don't see a coach changing who these guys are.

We need to significantly upgrade the roster -- improve the level, mix and depth -- around Love and Ricky if we want to be a Western Conference contender. The right head coach might -- and I stress might -- be enough to barely grab the 7th or 8th seed next season. But I wouldn't count on it. A better bench would go a long way towards taking this team up a notch.

I still say we way over paid for Pek. Way too much money for a brute in the paint on only one end of the floor...

We're back to Pek being the issue? And he's overpaid? Really? How does this argument continue to get brought up. Are you kidding me.

Lip, I agree with SJM that there are adjustments a defensive-minded coach can make with existing personnel that can help our defensive efficiency. Another example is simple player minutes and rotations. Did you know that Dante Cunningham has played 500 more minutes than the combined minute total for Turiaf and Dieng? And a ton of those minutes are next to Love. That's two 6"8 players "anchoring" our defense for extensive minutes.

We're not a poor defensive team. We consistently win the battle of possessions due to our ability to turn teams over and protect the defensive glass. Where we suck is in opponent field goal percentage. Now if you break that down further, we really only suck from one area on the floor: 0-5 feet. Here is our opponent field goal ranking by spot on the floor versus the rest of the league:

0-5 feet: 30th (Worst in the NBA)
5-9 feet: 15th
10-14 feet: 22nd
15-19 feet: 12th
20-24 feet: 14th
25-29 feet: 13th

We're average or above average from every distance except 0-5 feet. I don't even count 10-14 feet because this is the range that sees the least amount of shot attempts. It simply doesn't make much of a difference if we defend those well or not. But on mid-range to long jumpers, we're very solid at contesting shots.

If anything, this gives further fuel to the "trade Pekovic for a wing" crowd. I'm open to that idea, but that may create more problems than it solves, depending on who we get in return. What really needs to happen is that nearly 100% of Pek's back-up minutes needs to go to Dieng or Turiaf.

Something that really jumps out at me in our team defense is how our perimeter guys setup. I understand the benefit of shading a player usually to encourage him going to his weak hand or toward the baseline where the big can give help, but we don't accomplish this. Our perimeter guy (whether that is Ricky or Cory) tend to way overplay the shading, and literally step completely out of the path of the ball handler. What this does is it gives the ball handler a one on one with either Love or Pek, and since neither are shot blockers, it gives them a layup or foul 90% of the time, and that is if the help is there at all. It is a recipe for disaster, and I can only come up with one reason for it. We are so afraid of the PnR defense, that we are willing to sell out everywhere else.

I just don't think Rick is a very good defensive coach, and worse yet, I don't think he spends enough time in practice on it. Every time it gets brought up in an interview, he gives the same reply, "we talked about it".