Minnesota Sports Forum

Q12543 wrote:

Mikkeman wrote:

Q12543 wrote:
But are Saric and Simmons innately great defenders or did Brown coach them up? I remember Simmons was damn near indifferent as a defender in college. And Saric hardly strikes the fear of God into opposing offenses.

The bottom line is Brown gets his guys to play hard and has made defense something they all value. Embiid and Covington are the only two inherently great defenders on that team in my opinion. The others have been coached up.

Also Amir Johnson is great defender in that Philly team. He has been ranked top 25 in DRPM already in three consecutive seasons and he is main reason why Philly has been respectable in defense even in games that Embiid has missed.

But he doesn't even play half the game generally. And Boston certainly hasn't missed his defense, as they have become the #1 defense in the NBA without him.

I watched a good chunk of that game last night. Both coaches have their guys playing extremely hard on both ends of the court (with the exception of Whiteside, who looks downright indifferent at times).

Boston replaced him with Baynes whom is also very good defender and happens to cover the only area that was weakness for last years Boston team in being able to box out bigger and stronger centers. They also replaced Olynyk with Theis whom is probably better defender.

I've watched every playoff game so far this year. First time I've done that in a while. The level of defensive intensity from every team except Cleveland has been incredible. Miami turned up their defensive intensity another notch last night and it disrupted the Sixers offense.

But here's the bottom line for the Wolves. In spite of the defensive intensity, the winning team scored at least 113 points in 7 of the 10 playoff games played thus far. Meanwhile, the losing team scored at least 101 points in 7 of those 1 games. That's the nature of the NBA today. It's an offense-oriented League with the bevy of good to great 3-point shooters and the limitations on physicality that weren't present when Michael Jordan was racking up championships. The need to score is particularly critical to a team like the Wolves, which (breaking news here) is NOT a good defensive team.

And let's not kid ourselves. The Wolves are not going to suddenly become a good defensive team in the playoffs against the Rockets. The Wolves defense wasn't nearly as intense and relentless as the defense I've seen from the winning (and even most of the losing) teams in the playoffs thus far. The Rockets missed a ton of wide open threes that they will typically make. I doubt we'll see that Houston Rockets team again, although we can hope they're in some sort of collective shooting slump.

So the Wolves' offense has to fire on all cylidars if we're going to have any chance of winning a game or two against the Rockets. The Wolves obviously have the offensive talent to put up lots of points. Four of our five starters could easily score 20 points per game and our main rotation bench player, Crawford, is a big-time scorer. No other team, other than the Warriors, has that kind of offensive firepower among their top 6. During the regular season the Wolves had a lot of games in which they put up big offensive scoring numbers against good teams. Yes, the Wolves need to be much more relentlessly intense defensively and maybe we'll see that. And we have to do a better job guarding the 3-point line than we've seen from the Wolves all season. But I still see the Wolves offense as the key to stealing a game or two from the Rockets this series.

Our guys do the same things the raptors do on offense. Except lowry knows what hes doing. he pounds the ball, but he plays such a fast pace that he attacks and draws defenders to create for others or he'll throw up a 3. Hes the exact opposite of teague. teague pounds the ball without purpose then hesitates on a 3 ball in order to put up a contested floater. Defense isnt even close.

Teague is a good player, but he isnt exactly good for this team. Hes an older Schroeder..

And love that Poetl guy. hes the exact type of back up C you need behind KAT. UnfortunatelyDieng isnt it and I dont think Patton is that type of player either.

crazy-canuck wrote:Our guys do the same things the raptors do on offense. Except lowry knows what hes doing. he pounds the ball, but he plays such a fast pace that he attacks and draws defenders to create for others or he'll throw up a 3. Hes the exact opposite of teague. teague pounds the ball without purpose then hesitates on a 3 ball in order to put up a contested floater. Defense isnt even close.

Teague is a good player, but he isnt exactly good for this team. Hes an older Schroeder..

And love that Poetl guy. hes the exact type of back up C you need behind KAT. UnfortunatelyDieng isnt it and I dont think Patton is that type of player either.

The LeBron-Irving version of the Cavs played a ton of iso ball. They were constantly looking for the right switches and matchups to take advantage of and it wasn't necessarily beautiful basketball. But we don't have LeBron or Irving. Butler isn't as good at iso ball as either of those guys. And KAT is great, but he needs someone to get him the ball.

The Bucks are such a disappointing team. IMO, they are the one team that could really use Dieng because hed be an upgrade over henson.

Celtics are so well coached.

Find the mismatch and attack the mismatch.

crazy-canuck wrote:Celtics are so well coached.

Find the mismatch and attack the mismatch.

CC -- I was thinking the same thing watching this game tonight.

lipoli390 wrote:

crazy-canuck wrote:Celtics are so well coached.

Find the mismatch and attack the mismatch.

CC -- I was thinking the same thing watching this game tonight.

So impressed at how Stevens has been able to integrate a bunch of young guys into his rotation - Brown, Tatum, Rozier, Thiess (until he got hurt) - while at the same time being a top 5 or 6 NBA team. Rozier's trend line in terms of improvement is incredible by the way. Go look at his rookie year numbers...

lipoli390 wrote:

crazy-canuck wrote:Celtics are so well coached.

Find the mismatch and attack the mismatch.

CC -- I was thinking the same thing watching this game tonight.

Thibs needs to take some lessons from Stevens.

We run basically the same things and the same types of motion.

Biggest differences are that they attack mismatches and they make quick decisions. when they get an open shot, they let it fly. Monroe or someone gets doubled, pass it out and attack or let it fly. When we pass it out, we dribble and dribble and dribble until the player decides what to do which eventually ends up with a contested iso.

Id love Bjelly or teague to just let it fly without thinking. But they always hesitate and gives the defense time to gather. The one guy that doesnt hesitate to let it fly is wiggins, but he isnt our most accurate shooter.

Another great game between Portland and New Orleans. These teams both play with great pace and intensity.