Finishing at the rim, driving and dishing, and defense are things I'd like to see Dame get better at. He's farther along that Wes was at this point, so that's good. Lawson scored 13 in the 1st half, and zero after the break when Stotts put Batum on him.
I'm just saying what I've been seeing recently. I saw a lot of lazy passes from Dame (including the kick balls from pick and pops). I have also been seeing a lot of "olay" defense, where the opposing guards just go right by him, which is weird because I know Dame is fast as hell. I don't care if they make the shots, but allowing the opposing guards to blow right by you and then have your bigs have to rotate sucks. All that does is lead to massive assists for the PG and easy dunks by the other teams bigs.
IMO, as a rule, our defensive set up should involve Batum on the PG, Lillard on the SG, and Matthews on the SF. Variations to that should be the exception.
Taking it to the Rim, and Defense are not his strengths but obvious weaknesses. That's okay though because basketball is a team sport, not to mention he's a hard worker and will improve in those areas. One reason I'm so stoked about C.J., he really can take it to the rack and has differing strengths from Dame.
So I look at that chart and the first thing that comes to mind is, "Hmmm, looks like Tony Parker is just about the best at the combo of drives vs precentage" And that is immediately followed by the thought that Parker is known for and excellent at .... the tear drop. It just confirms the thought that many of us have had that if Lillard develops that shot he would be nearly unstoppable offensively. And if Im not mistaken Lawson is also very good at the tear drop. Not hard to see the correlation here.
I would not call Lillards defense good but he is not struggling as much as some are suggesting. His man is only posting a .455 efg% well below league average, in addition his ISO FG% against is only 28%. Yes Lillard allows his man to get by him too often and yes that can lead to easy assists or layups but for the most part Lillard does his job. He jumps out to prevent three point shots and allows his man to get off mid range shots in which he does a decent job of getting a hand up on even if it is typically a little late. In fact his EFG% against is the best number on the team. Although his opponents PER is above the NBA average because Lillard's man generally takes a lot of shots and because he tends to give up a few to many rebounds and assists.
It's not that Lillard just gets "blown by" at all either. He gets beat in Pick and Roll situations. Fighting through picks is another weakness of his that he is going to have to shore up.
I'm not defending Lillard's defense AT ALL. But the P&R is one of the offensive attacks that most needs to be defended by the TEAM (ie, coach). I can't get too mad at Lillard when his man scores on a P&R, or makes an easy pass for a dunk. Yeah, Lillard could be better, but this is a failing of Stotts' "system". No PG can successfully defend a P&R without the help of the entire team.
A lot of those issues are forcing him to always fight over the top of picks and since Portland rarely switches on picks he is typically left trailing the play.
I'm not in favor of switching picks. But the Big should "show" to keep the PG from being able to cut down the lane right off the screen, and then fall back to his own man the moment the screener starts diving. Some of these guys don't recover very well, but this should be the primary defense against a P&R: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQks8ew-eGE
Steve Blake to the rack?? I think he did that all of 3 times during his tenure here. Damn Harden is a horrible defender.
Fighting under picks is what Portland should be doing a lot more of. The big man opens up and the guard has plenty of room to fight under so the big man can get back to his man. Fighting over or under the pick depends on what guard is handling the ball. Parker, fight under. Curry, fight over.
I think there's a glaring omission concerning this topic....Dame doesn't get calls driving the lane, gets smacked in the paint really often and has to get up and run down court to play D when he should be shooting free throws. I think it gets to him. Yeah, he can improve defensively, they all can. The team goes with the hot hand in any given game. Dame will be fine.
Just a note, the tag "Official Board" seems about as meaningless as it could be on a msg board. Especially when you read the comments. Official seems to mean, Blazer organization approved and I seriously doubt most of these threads are approved and hardly official. Is it me or are fans here starting to lose their sense of humor?
A lot of the time, Lillard isn't getting fouled, though, and he still goes down. Opponents are doing the Ropez/Freeland approach of jumping straight up, and Dame launches into them. I know he'll adjust, but he's literally the worst 'elite' PG in finishing at the rim in the NBA right now.
