I think there's more to it than a lack of a good defensive center. We're just not getting good defensive coaching in my opinion. This team plays the worst defense of any Blazer team I've ever seen!
They have a poor defensive coach, and they aren't held accountable (because the "stars" realistically can't be held accountable).
Outside of what julius mentioned, I'll add the lack of effort. We don't really have anything to play for and the players know it. It was better even a few weeks ago when we were clinging to playoff hope
It starts at the top. The head coach has to make it more of a priority. Maybe he felt they could only focus on so much at a time and offense was the focus for the first year. Bottom line this is the worst defense team I have seen in Portland in a while. There is no one answer. A shot blocking center will help but will also be on the bench in foul trouble if they continue to play this way. They need to start from day one in fall camp and commit to playing D.
In all honesty, I think it's a combination of a few things. 1. A lot of youth' 2. Poor defensive coordinator 3. Leonard and Hickson are horrible interior defenders
They just seem to be in such poor position so often. Teams consistently send a cutter to the basket and nobody is there to defend them.
Matthews and Batum should not be 35 mpg players that are relied on for their offense. If you want to play them that much and hope for them to be effective on the defensive end, you need more offensive talent around them. Or else you play them less. Of course we can't because our bench sucks. So, basically, our defense sucks because: 1. Our center doesn't defend 2. Our bench sucks, forcing other guys to play more minutes and play roles they aren't really naturally made for 3. Our PG's preparation for guarding Chris Paul and Russ Westbrook was covering no-names from Idaho State and Montana last year
I just don't think it works like football where the defensive coordinator is in control of the defensive scheme and adjustments on every play. Canales may in deed need to be replaced, but if this is on the coaches, then it is on the whole staff, not one guy. And as I posted it starts at the top.
I was going to point out something similar. Blazers starting five isn't young, but they are forced to play a lot of minutes. So much of defense is about effort. Hard to sell out on defense and play Stotts offense for 40 mins a game, night in and night out. I don't think it is a matter of the coach not getting the team to play hard, I think the starters are being asked to do too much . . . because the bench is so weak.
It's not the players. There are teams with much worse talent that is far better defensively. Our coaching has dropped the ball in this regard. We shouldn't be this bad! With the talent we have already; we should be middle of the pack. With a defensive center; we could be elite!
We have average talent, but as been mentioned above, it's young talent. Young players don't defend. That's not to say our coaching deserves a free pass either.
I'm kind of surprised at how bad Leonard is at defense. He makes the kind of mistakes that high school kids on the playground make, and yet he had several years of coaching at the college level.
You can say we are a "young talent"; but the starters are fairly seasoned; with the exception of Lillard. Then you factor that our starters play the majority of minutes; you can put a lot of blame on the coaching.
