It's An Offensive League

[Lipoli390]

I'm not going to say that it's ALL about offense. Winning teams in the NBA still have to be good on both sides of the ball. But watching the playoffs so far this season has reminded me of the preeminence of offense in today's NBA.

There are been 15 semifinal games so far. The winning team has scored 115 or more points in all but 4 of those 15 games and has scored over 100 points in all of them. At the same time, the losing team has been held under 100 points in less than half those games (7). The losing team has been held under 90 only once and then only barely at 89 points. Gone are the days in the Michael Jordan era when championship contenders would slug it out in 92-89 contests.

We've all heard the mantra that good defense leads to good offense. I'm going to challenge that a bit and suggest that great offense leads to good defense, even thought it certainly works both ways. In my view, the great teams today win mainly with offense and their offense in effect becomes a big part of their defense, inspiring their defense and often demoralizing the opponent.

[bleedspeed]

I agree with this to a degree. I think if you play good defense it leads you to better looks on offense if you push the pace. Also if you are scoring your defense will be better because the other team can't put as much person on you if they have to take the ball out of the basket. I would be curious if it is better offense or faster pace that is making the scores higher.

[Coolbreeze44]

It's harder to play defense in this era. Offenses spread you out and you're not allowed to breathe on anyone without being called for a foul. You can play excellent defense on a possession, and still give up a 2 or 3 point basket toward the end of the shot clock. But the very best teams will still be able to come up with stops at crunch time. Golden State, Cleveland, and San Antonio can dig in and make it very tough to get a quality shot. They can't do it for 48 minutes, but they can do it for short stretches and during key possessions. It's still often the difference between winning and losing.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

If one is true (good offense leads to good defense), isn't the opposite true (bad offense leads to bad defense)? And if bad offense leads to bad defense for a team, doesn't that mean for their opponent that their good defense led to good offense? In other words, stating that good offense leads to good defense is saying the same thing as good defense leads to good offense. There isn't a difference!

Now that we're done with that lesson in logic......I'm not sure how well either axiom applies.

We were a top 10 offense this past season, yet were near the bottom of the barrel defensively. Leave it to the Wolves to prove any axiom (new or old) wrong. Denver is another team with very good offense, but crappy defense. Then you have Atlanta and Detroit, which had very good defenses, but poor offenses.

The bottom line is that being good on both sides helps with the other side, but only up to a point.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

It's harder to play defense in this era. Offenses spread you out and you're not allowed to breathe on anyone without being called for a foul. You can play excellent defense on a possession, and still give up a 2 or 3 point basket toward the end of the shot clock. But the very best teams will still be able to come up with stops at crunch time. Golden State, Cleveland, and San Antonio can dig in and make it very tough to get a quality shot. They can't do it for 48 minutes, but they can do it for short stretches and during key possessions. It's still often the difference between winning and losing.

Agreed.

I think the key to countering the spread offense is you need to have a bunch of versatile defenders that can guard in space and switch onto different types of players. What makes Draymond Green the best defender in the league is that he can competently guard every single position.

The key to differentiation is fielding a team with small-ball skills, but that can still play big. Golden State can do this with Draymond at C, Durant at PF, and Iggy at SF. Cleveland can do it with Tristian Thompson at C and LeBron at PF.

We're seeing San Antonio struggle a bit in their series against Houston because their bigs (especially Aldridge) are having a really hard time guarding in space and dealing with the constant switching and recovery required out on the perimeter.

[Monster]

If one is true (good offense leads to good defense), isn't the opposite true (bad offense leads to bad defense)? And if bad offense leads to bad defense for a team, doesn't that mean for their opponent that their good defense led to good offense? In other words, stating that good offense leads to good defense is saying the same thing as good defense leads to good offense. There isn't a difference!

Now that we're done with that lesson in logic......I'm not sure how well either axiom applies.

We were a top 10 offense this past season, yet were near the bottom of the barrel defensively. Leave it to the Wolves to prove any axiom (new or old) wrong. Denver is another team with very good offense, but crappy defense. Then you have Atlanta and Detroit, which had very good defenses, but poor offenses.

The bottom line is that being good on both sides helps with the other side, but only up to a point.

I read an article recently that basicallly said Jokic is pretty bad as a defensive player much like Towns. That's a pretty big problem to overcome but both guys are amazing offensive talents.

[60WinTim]

So, we are trading Rubio and our pick for Carmelo?!?

;-)

[TeamRicky [enjin:6648771]]

So, we are trading Rubio and our pick for Carmelo?!?

;-)

Shhhhhh!! This is how rumors get started.

[Lipoli390]

If one is true (good offense leads to good defense), isn't the opposite true (bad offense leads to bad defense)? And if bad offense leads to bad defense for a team, doesn't that mean for their opponent that their good defense led to good offense? In other words, stating that good offense leads to good defense is saying the same thing as good defense leads to good offense. There isn't a difference!

Now that we're done with that lesson in logic......I'm not sure how well either axiom applies.

We were a top 10 offense this past season, yet were near the bottom of the barrel defensively. Leave it to the Wolves to prove any axiom (new or old) wrong. Denver is another team with very good offense, but crappy defense. Then you have Atlanta and Detroit, which had very good defenses, but poor offenses.

The bottom line is that being good on both sides helps with the other side, but only up to a point.

Q - lol. Thank you Mr. Spock. Your logic doesn't hold up, but your central point that both, offense and defense, are important holds up. The old cliches that "it starts with defense" or "our defense generates our offense," etc. are silly. And it would be equally silly to reverse those cliches.

Bottom line is that you need to score more points than you give up to win. The more you do that, the more games you win. That's a cliche, but it's factually indisputable. Two playoff teams in the West gave up more points per game than the Wolves and one of them, Houston, might end up in the Western Conference Finals. Golden State probably would have still ended up with the best record in the West even if they had given up as many points per game as the Wolves (106.7 instead of 104.3). The best team in the East, Cleveland, gave up more points per game than the Wolves as did the Washington Wizards. On the flip side, 3 of the 8 Western playoff teams scored fewer points per game than the Wolves. When the dust settles, the NBA finals will probably be a contest between a team that averaged 116 points per game (Warriors) and a team that scored 110.3 points per game. What does all this mean? Not much other than underscoring the obvious -- you need to score more than you opponents to win.

My main take-away from looking at these numbers and watching a lot of games this season and post-season is the same as Cool's. It's very hard to defend in today's NBA. Therefore, you generally have to generate a lot of offense to be a top team in today's NBA. As Cool noted, you can play 20-23 seconds of great defense and give up a 2 or 3 point shot near the end of the shot clock. The key to being a winning team is hitting those shots even when you're well-defended and hitting open shots when you're not so well defended. That's what I've observed in recent years and especially in the playoffs this year from the better teams. And yes, you need to be able to bear down in stretches and really make it tough for your opponent to score.

What's the relevance of all this to the Wolves? We talk a lot about the need for defensive improvement from the Wolves. I agree. But I'm convinced that the Wolves, given who makes up our young core, are going to have to score a lot more than 105.6 points per game to be a playoff team and eventual championship contender. This is not a team that's likely to eventually hold opponents to 100 PPG like the Spurs or Jazz. This team is built to score and it has to score more than it did last season even as they hopefully improve defensively. Part of the answer offensively is to add another 3-point shooter to the rotation. That seems to be Thibs' top priority. Continued 3-point improvement from Andrew will be important as will Zach's return to health and Ricky taking that next step that Thibs referred to in his post-hearing press conference. But in addition, perhaps it's time for Thibs to loosen the reins on his offense (not calling every play and directing every offensive possession from the bench) and maybe even turn the offense over to a new lead assistant adept at coaching a high octane more creative offense. Thibs seem to "get it." So I'm hopeful that he's going to take steps to turn up our offensive production next season.

Just some thoughts. There are no definitive answers.

[Coolbreeze44]

If one is true (good offense leads to good defense), isn't the opposite true (bad offense leads to bad defense)? And if bad offense leads to bad defense for a team, doesn't that mean for their opponent that their good defense led to good offense? In other words, stating that good offense leads to good defense is saying the same thing as good defense leads to good offense. There isn't a difference!

Now that we're done with that lesson in logic......I'm not sure how well either axiom applies.

We were a top 10 offense this past season, yet were near the bottom of the barrel defensively. Leave it to the Wolves to prove any axiom (new or old) wrong. Denver is another team with very good offense, but crappy defense. Then you have Atlanta and Detroit, which had very good defenses, but poor offenses.

The bottom line is that being good on both sides helps with the other side, but only up to a point.

What's the relevance of all this to the Wolves? We talk a lot about the need for defensive improvement from the Wolves. I agree. But I'm convinced that the Wolves, given who makes up our young core, are going to have to score a lot more than 105.6 points per game to be a playoff team and eventual championship contender. This is not a team that's likely to eventually hold opponents to 100 PPG like the Spurs or Jazz. This team is built to score and it has to score more than it did last season even as they hopefully improve defensively. Part of the answer offensively is to add another 3-point shooter to the rotation. That seems to be Thibs' top priority. Continued 3-point improvement from Andrew will be important as will Zach's return to health and Ricky taking that next step that Thibs referred to in his post-hearing press conference. But in addition, perhaps it's time for Thibs to loosen the reins on his offense (not calling every play and directing every offensive possession from the bench) and maybe even turn the offense over to a new lead assistant adept at coaching a high octane more creative offense. Thibs seem to "get it." So I'm hopeful that he's going to take steps to turn up our offensive production next season.

Just some thoughts. There are no definitive answers.

I like your thought in bold Lip. If nothing else, just from the standpoint that your players are eventually going to tune you out when you're THAT controlling. But I also agree that our offense can be better. We score so easily when Thibs lets us, and our pace still doesn't suit our abilities. I hope we open things up next year. Nothing wrong with improving on both ends of the floor.