I agree with you, I don't. I don't think there is a strategy that allows us to effectively defend LeBron and Davis with this roster. Hope they miss threes and hope we make ours, that's the strategy.
Please timestamp the video on your page that details the gameplan that will defeat the Lakers 4 times series. And us giving up 3's to their role players and our players making their 3's can't be part of it.
So either there's a magical gameplan that'll beat the Lakers in 4 easily, or there's nothing we can do? We have to switch up looks. Cant give LeBron the same look all game. Drop scheme might be the worst scheme to run against them. Cant let Lebron get a head of steam downhill, and we'll be screwed if Lebron and AD are in 2v1 situations within 15 feet of the hoop. If the extent of our gameplanning is "Hope we make shots and hope they miss", we've already lost.
There isn't any one system. But there are 3 or 4 different looks on defense that could scramble them.
Yeah I think we have to double them more than Stotts has ever doubled an opponent. Other years we had Aminu, Harkless, Ed Davis, etc to defend. Nurkic and Whiteside don't have the speed to defend 1vs1 against Lebron or Davis. I agree with Kjironman and Bones... we should try to vary a few different looks and not do exactly the same look 100% of the time... I just think all togheter it will need to be more double teaming and open 3 point shooters than we've ever done.
I don't think with the shooters they have that we can double two guys at once, not two guys that mobile who are both offensive triple threats even if they're not always efficient at all three. I don't think you can double team two guys who play at the same time extensively against any team's other supporting three in the NBA. That can't be sustainable at all. Running double teams at both of them whenever they touch the ball would not only leave us too vulnerable elsewhere and cause chaos for our defense it would also exhaust a team that already lacked depth and now is missing two guys to injury.
Were not saying double too at once. You would need to double the one without the ball. You wouldnt need to double AD at the 3pt line. You might not double LeBron at all if hes struggling to shoot because then you could go under screens.
Right, I said that we would double whichever of them would have the ball any time they had the ball and that would create far too much chaos and far too much fatigue for a team with such a limited amount of effective players. If you double team both guys there are going to be even more open threes than we were already giving up and a lot more gimmes under the hoop and that's while the team is still fresh, eventually it will lead to almost no defense and a ton of fouls. Remember one of the guys that you are doubling is probably the best passer in basketball and the other is a damn good passer especially out of double teams (just watch the series in which NOLA swept us two playoffs ago).
Huh? This team would be "too fatigued" to trap? Ot run a different scheme? So we should be resigned to giving up 130 a game because otherwise we'd be too tired? In the playoffs?!
I agree all the things you listed would be ideal. Not sure we have one good look to give them, let alone multiple looks, but maybe I'm wrong. If we're not going to drop on the PnR, I'm assuming you want us to hedge outside the 3pt line in hopes LBJ can't make the right read? Maybe I'm the negative Nancy, but I don't see this thing getting past 5 games under the current circumstances. Hopefully I'm wrong!
If you don't double at all its going to be a layup drill for LeBron and AD. Giving up open 3's is much better than that. It's not like there is some magical way we will play good sound straight up defense... our defense is going to suck. Giving up open threes is probably the least sucky of all the options. Kuzma is shooting 31% this year and shot 30% last year, leave him open until he proves he can make a bunch of them.
I agree we most likely lose in 5 games. Turning this into a wild 3pt shootout is the only chance we got and even then it will be difficult.
I'm not sure what you mean by "shooters they have"... the Lakers have one of the worst if not the worst shooting team in the playoffs. As Bones said you would never double team two guys at once... You'd double very often when they get near the free throw line and begin to drive, make them kick it outside to Kuzma who shoots 3's worse than Aminu or Harkless ever did in Portland.
Four "bad looks" is better than one "bad look". Even if LeBron makes the right read on a trap or a hedge, I'd rather live with their others beating us, and if we rotate properly it shouldn't give them a clean look. That's much better than LeBron with ahead of steam in a 2v1 with Davis against Nurk. Cant give LeBron the same reads all game, let alone all series. You dont want him to know our exact defensive setup every time he comes off a pick.
This is what i'm saying. Lebron is way too smart on the court. You give him the same look over and over again you are gonna be in for a very long night. Even changing it up a few times will at least keep him thinking for the split second it takes to get in better position to close out on the guy that gets the kick out pass. This league is full of stunting. They need to change the look consistently. Also i don't care if Trent is smaller. His hands are active and he is fearless. You get him on Lebron as much as humanly possible.
The great thing is zach is out. He the worst defender I have ever seen and offers nothing on offense. I have never seen some one take 10 steps foward in development. I hope he stays injured il take Gabriel anyday over sorry ass zach
I agree LeBron is way too smart for us. The thought that going from our best (bad) defensive option to an even worse option and that will confuse LeBron also seems highly unlikely to me. It actually seems that switching between multiple schemes is more likely to confuse Whiteside and Wenyen more than LeBron and Anthony Davis. Maybe I'm overrating Lebron and underrating Garbriel though.
Okay. I’ll bite. If Stotts has not worked on 4 different looks that have as many as 3 or 4 different changes in defensive looks then he needs to go. Now personally I know he has and I have seem all of them. Where the problems come is when he doesn’t use them and or when he doesn’t play the players that can accommodate those defenses. Why he does those things is beyond me.
