Woeful Defense, starts at the top.

I know everyone loves Monta and he is an above average scorer but he gives almost all of it back on the defensive end.

Yes I ranted about this last year but this year its gotten worse. Watch him nearly every time down, his first move is for the steal. Which then exposes the rest of them scrambling on a 4 on 5. Dreadful. In the Heat game, it was Wade down the lane while Monta was running the other way.

People say Monta's active because he's among the leaders at 2 steals/gm. There are approx. 100 defensive possessions, if you get 2, what about the other 98? To me, 2 steals? BFD.

Curry, my fav, is bad in another way, he's grabbing and giving away fouls when he's beat. He's trailing behind on almost every screen and never catches up. Its almost like he's given up on the play but is running to show that he's not given up.

Smart said he was going to emphasize D but its getting bad. Now, I do not see it. The commitment to D is not there and its not getting any better.

 

I think that's a pretty good assessment, you're virtually the same on defense, about 28th in the league per possession.

 

yeah, agreed. i've never really put too much weight into SPG to determine a player's defensive skill. him and curry definitely play way too aggressively on D...it's all or nothing. and what you said about steph applies to a bunch of players on the team, they all commit the most brainless fouls. just generally a low defensive IQ on the team.

also, the nice defensive rebounding we had going to start the season has vanished. i know that lee isn't 100%, but these second chance points we are giving up KILL us.

 

deron and (any jazz big guy) are murdering monta on the pick and roll...it's awful.

 

I think tonight's game was mainly sloppiness down the stretch. In order to beat the Jazz on the road we had to have played perfect. We had to take care of the ball and make the most of possessions. Then you have the missed free throws. Just awful.

 

In the two decades I have been watching the W's, I can't remember us ever having a good free-throw-shooting team... it's pretty pathetic. And our turnovers have been out of control lately. Both of these things are self-induced. Most of our turnovers are a result of our own incompetence, not exceptional defensive play by the opposing team.

 

This team has so many holes, but what can you really expect? The front office dumped huge contracts which essentially sacrificed depth. I know the defense wouldn't be much better with them, but Randolph/Turiaf/Beidrins playing minutes in place of Lee/Amundson/Biedrins makes a huge difference. Also, for all of their flaws, Magette/Buike/CJ all could get to the line to change the game up. Nobody on the current roster could can do that consistently. I'd still make those trades 9 times out of 10 in order to put us in a better place to make some real moves. I think the majority of people on this board called this season a throw-a-way (or more politically, a "transition year"). I guess I don't get very upset when I see the horrible defense, because we just don't have the pieces to play good D. I don't see anyone in the starting 5 with the desire to play solid D. The only exception may be Wright, but he isn't even a starter on an ideal roster. Maybe Curry may come around. You can afford to have Lee be your weak link. Curry has it in him to be a decent defender.
So that being said, I think you have to move Monta, "Reach in and don't move your feet" Beidrins, slide DWright to the 6th man role and get some pieces that do it on both ends. A perfect Lineup of young pieces that compliment each other would be something like:

Curry/Iguodala/Battier/Lee/M. Gasol (well, maybe there's not enough scoring power there either. But there are a combination of slashers, Defenders, and the proper Balance of size and roles) Then you get a bunch of veteran role players to fill out the bench. I don't think a similar roster is a fairly realistic goal. With that roster, I'd bring in a veteran coach who knows how to coach that team. A Larry Brown type of guy (not necessarily him). I would love to watch those guys play night in and night out.

 

Every coach will tell you, D is not about talent, its about desire. Why is it that someone who could have the quickest first step cannot stay in front of the guy he's guarding (hello AI)? Same for Monta. He's so quick offensively, there simply is no excuse for not being quick enough to go over the top of the screen before its set. Same for Curry. Its like they simply accept that a screen was set so therefore they have to fall back and chase.

 

Quickness is 1 part of it. The other part is strength. You go get pounded running through screens all day long. These guys just aren't built for that. I can't think of 1 undersized guard that's considered a good defender.

The only guy that comes to mind is Joe Dumars, back in the day...but he was much stronger, and the rules to the game were much different then.

 

I can't argue with Phil here. One thing to note, whether it's on Riley, Smart, or Lacob, you can't run out your starters for 40+ mins and expect consistent, great effort on D. I'd like to see a commitment to play the starters, especially Monta and Curry, around 36 mins. I don't want to hear excuses about the bench. They're there, use them. I feel the way the players are being used (or misused) is a big problem. Shoulda kept Nellie...

 

there is a huge gray area between being a "good defender" and being a defensive liability. i'm okay with monta and steph just being adequate defenders for the time being, because lately, they've looked more like liabilities. but yeah, i agree, their speed should be able to keep their heads above water...and the way they let a single pick shut them down is inexcusable.

 

Yeah, GS defense was atrocious against Utah. Another game where they are right there in the 1st half, in fact they were up by 3 at half-time. And then they fall apart in the 2nd half. The 2nd half is when the fouls start adding up, and when guys get a bit more tired and so it takes more effort to stay consistent on D. Their 2nd half defense last night sucked.

I agree 100% with Phil, yes Monta isn't overly strong, but he just let Deron Williams walk right by him several times to dice up the lane. Add to that the fact that Biedrins still hasn't learned how to avoid stupid fouls, Lee is playing in pain, and Dorell Wright is not close to meeting defensive expectations, and this is a disappointing year defensively. That's the only way they are going to start winning games.

And how about the BS last night with Williams giving a hard foul on Monta? Steinmetz said it perfectly after the game. First, the Monta hard foul, then Lee gets hard-fouled a minute later... And then CJ Miles comes down, waltzes through the lane, and dunks! While the Warriors just kind of get out of his way. Where's the favor returned? Where's the message that this team isn't going to lie down? Nowhere. There's no physicality on this team right now defensively. They're soft all around, and then they settle for jumpers, which means every night they are -10 on fouls called.

Last night, for once, somehow they actually were + in FT attempts... too bad they only made 20-31 for a whopping 65%.

 

Heh. Talking about bringing back Nelson and expecting consistent, great effort on D and not running your starters for 40+ mins. Non sequitur alert.

I am perfectly content with Nelson acting the part of a beached whale collecting his paycheck in Maui .

I think with Smart, it's the OFFENSE that is suffering and that's what you mean. But the GSW offense does start with the defense and that is the defensive rebound. You gotta get the ball first in order start the transition game. Also, it allows us to control the tempo. I think we improved in that area, but can get better with Lou and Udoh. Second, I don't have problems with the team playing passing lanes. A run and gun, get your offense set up in 7 seconds or less team plays the passing lanes. Monta and Curry are great at this and getting steals. I do expect them to hound people in the perimeter if the steal isn't there and that's where the problems comes in. We still need guys to hound people on the perimeter. That is usually done with an intimidating big man and a small, quick defender to strip the ball. AB hasn't filled that role. Maybe Udoh can. I'm not sure we'll ever have a team that will clog the paint and rotate with help defenders or set up one-on-one coverage that is tough to break with this group. Thus, I'm willing to settle for a guy like AB or Wright who can cover, block shots and make the outlet pass. AB needs to improve in this area. We don't need matador defense. It means the guy is tired and needs to get out of the game.

Smart's slow it down mentality is wreaking havoc with this team.

 

Hey, if we're not going to play defense under Smart anyway, I'd rather take the fat whale who knows how to run an offense. And excuse me if I'm wrong, but Nellie's rotations are superior to Smart's rotations because he actually gets something out of them.

Defensive rebounding doesn't equal defense. I'll argue against my earlier season self on this one. You need to make the other team miss and then get the rebound to make a difference. I'm glad the Warriors defensive rebounding rate is better (I'm assuming, I haven't checked), but you gotta make the other team miss. And since we can't do that, I prefer a team that can play offense.

 

He shoots just over 50% at the line for his career, but 20% the last two seasons...forget improving, how do you regress that much?? it's beyond me. I'm sure everybody in this forum could shoot 20%, and probably over 50%.

 

I'll take Smart over Nellie right now. I think Nellie was the better all-around coach, because of his craftiness and experience. But Smart needs time as a HC to get better. At least Smart plays two bigs together, something that Nellie drove me nuts with. If Nellie were here, Dorell would be the PF and Lee would be C and it would suck balls to watch, especially on defense.

GS is up by 3.5 rpg this year under Smart, just because of the bigger rotations. Monta is playing too many minutes but Nellie was king of that, playing Baron/Jack/Monta 45+... I like how Smart mixes it up with the bigs and gives them some leash. If Nellie were here, Udoh probably wouldn't see the hardwood for 2-3 years...

GS defense has gotten a bit better, but their offense has gotten worse. I honestly think the injuries, once again, have been a big factor. Curry with the hobbled ankle. Lee's elbow. Amundson's finger. Udoh's wrist was also a small factor, as he might be further ahead in development if he could've played summer league and pre-season, etc. And don't forget Brandan Wright's issues... GS was starting Radmonovic for a bit there, lol...

I think once Monta/Curry/Wright/Lee/Beans get fully healthy (if they ever do) and start mixing chemistry again, then the bench will be more solid now with Law/Williams/Amundson/Udoh/Gadz... even Radmonovic at the SF has started playing a bit better...

I think once they get healthy, and start gelling again, people will ease up on Smart.

 

Smart needs to go back to what he did for the first 9 games, but Smart is being tested by losing his star player and the fact all these new guys are coming back from injuries. The new guys don't know the system and they're rusty from being injured all offseason. That definitely has to hurt.

His bench was non-existent anyway. It was starters... and then the huge drop-off. Then Biedrins goes out. We don't have Gadz. Our backup floor general is a guy Memphis waived because we signed no experienced backup pg. What did we expect?

In a sense, Smart is being set up to fail probably because the management doesn't want to invest in him that much and the sale of the team wasn't finalized to allow us to go after players that can get things done. We have short contracts, very few keepers. The new ownership probably has designs to bring in their own head coach next season. Smart will probably be done once the ownership can find their own guy and guys like Robert Rowell will be gone too. The purge could be a good thing. This season has to be played perfectly if the W's were going to sneak into the 8th seed. They don't have much depth and haven't developed the chemistry or teamwork to win games right now.

 

Roger Mason is set to be released by NY. Shoots the three well. Was a nice piece for that Spurs team. Can he defend?