Losing Aminu, Harkless, and Turner was a big blow to our defense. Those were our best defenders last year. I know Whiteside will give us some blocks and stuff, but I'm not all that excited about these wings. Bazermore, Mario, eh. Rodney is ok Nasir Little who knows Dame and CJ are average at best I'm not seeing names that can give us what those three did. This could get ugly, just sayin.
Bazemore is a better defender than Harkless and probably even Turner at this point. We're looking for Zach's defense to replace what we lost with Aminu since Aminu did play the 4. So our interior D is a rotation of Whiteside, Zach and Tolliver all of which are really good defenders. Our perimeter D is very similar to last season with Dame, CJ, and Hood starting, with a defensive stopper in Bazemore coming off the bench. I also look forward to seeing what Simons can bring off the bench. Overall I think this team is better defensively than the one we went to the WCF with.
Hood does a fine job on the perimeter, and his job will be to take that away, making opposing players drive towards not one, but two elite rim protectors. Our defense will be fine.
I think they’re overall defense could be better. Yes they’re best one on one defenders are gone but Zach's a much better rim protector and better in space than Aminu, and Whiteside/Zach is going to be better to be very good.
Yes, we are going to be pretty porous. But what people keeps stressing is that we were forced to play Aminu and Harkless far fewer minutes in the playoffs anyway, and there's no way our defense can be as bad as when we were playing Kanter big minutes, so... But I would certainly feel happier if we could somehow get Iguodala or maybe Kyle Anderson.
Defense is a team skill.....it's like synchronized swimming....the only thing a team needs to work out is that chemistry on a string...people keep pointing out defense as if an individual will change our defense when it's a coach that's probably going to do that in practice. We have plenty of capable defenders...it's how the Spurs keep making the playoff every season with mediocre offense. Nobody thought Rudy Gay or Patty Mills were great defenders....that team plays defense on a string. Pau is going to help us a lot with that as a smart defender who's been very well coached throughout his career.
Can they give us inconsistency and times when you don't even realize they're on the court? Or times when you wish they weren't on the court because they don't spread the offense at all, don't create for themselves, and only show up once in a while? Or times when they show great promise, and then nothing for the rest of the game? Because I won't miss that. Not that Bazemore is a sure fire thing, but at least he can create for himself better than those 3 can. Mario I know nothing about, so I won't comment. But as for defense, a big issue with the teams defense was lack of anyone big being able to play defense, outside of Nurk and when he wasn't getting cheap fouls called against him, Zach. The only thing Meyers could be depended on to play was flexing his muscles and looking like a doofus. For example, in 7 years he has 112 blocks. Zach in 2 seasons has 97. Adding Whiteside should positively help with their defense, more than losing Turner, Moe and Aminu will negatively impact the teams defense. Not saying their defense is better this year, it probably won't. But their offense should be. But I don't want to make any declarations until I actually see them play as a team. I know what Moe, Aminu and Turner brought to the team (negatives and positives). I don't know what the new players will bring this season. Btw, I totally had forgotten that they traded for Bazemore and signed Mario and Gasol.
Might not be as good as it was. But I highly doubt it'll be as poor as it was before the Nurk trade. So Portland should be fine.
I think the defense will be a bit worse. Portland loses size and length in Aminu, Harkless, and Turner. I think they lose some versatility as well. the hope is that the projected improved offensive consistency offsets the potential weakening of the defense (although I think Bazemore and Hood are being a bit overrated on offense around here). Whiteside should help quite a bit as well, and you shouldn't discount the value of defensive rebounding. Whiteside led the league last season, and was 2nd in 2017-18 Portland is betting heavy of Zach and Simons. Zach may really help the loss of Aminu and Harkless on defense, but he needs to come in stronger and stay away from foul trouble
it probably wont be as good, but it wont be dramatically terrible. we will probably miss some of the animu skillset, but considering what we gave up to have that, i think the trade is ok. Hood seems pretty solid and i think that we'll play better help D and maybe more by committee ?
The poster claimed " at best". As we have seen they both have shown improvement the last couple seasons so putting a ceiling of mediocre seems it might be premature. Lillard and McCollum to some of the same extent are always working to improve all facets of their game so it wouldn't shock me for them to continue to improve.
I can't speak for anyone else, but I interpret the phrase "average at best" as meaning, "the most optimistic reasonable evaluation of their overall competence in this area at this present moment in time would be to rate them as average". I think that's a fair way to evaluate Dame and CJ's defense going into this season.
Then I would disagree with your interpretation. Average at best insinuates to me the best they will ever be is average. As of right now we don't know what they are going to be defensively this year and riverman made a very good point that defense is more about the team rather than evaluating it individually. A team of average individual defenders that play attached could very well be a better defensive team than a team with a couple of elite type defenders but don't play as a team defensively. The key to a good defense is having an anchor and with Whiteside, Collins and Nurkic (when he returns) are pretty good anchors. Just by adding Nurkic, the same team became a top 10 defensive team.
Most defensive metrics would disagree with you. He may not be a shot blocker, but all evidence indicates he is a good space defender.
Not gonna take anything away from Harkless or Aminu on defense. Though it always seemed Mo had good games 1 out of 3 or 4 games. Replacing their defense has already been covered with posts about Zach and Bazemore , Hood and Whiteside. The biggest difference to me will be less Aminu breakdowns on offense that lead to breakaway dunks and missed open looks from both Harkless and Aminu that also lead to wide open looks on the other end. Getting back on defense is easier when the other team has to take the ball out from the baseline and getting set on defense creates better team defense. Then there are the opportunities for Dame and CJ to create better due to the fact that other teams will have to guard all five Blazers on the floor. In this case offense will help defense.
