weird thing is he has by far the best defensive rebounding numbers of his career this season. So he has to be spending a lot of time close to the rim
https://www.nba.com/stats/players/defense-dash-lt6/ Contesting 5.4 per game compared to 6.4 last year. But the main difference is he's allowing 4% HIGHER shooting at the rim this year whereas it was -9% last year. So a 13% YoY difference. I'm not quite sure how to explain that besides him being in worse position to defend a shot (pretty sure these stats just take the vicinity of the player into account) or him suddenly turning into Enes Kanter at the rim. Or it could be laziness in his contests. I don't know.
I think you hit on one of the reasons with the energy he's using to hedge and recover. Also, the shots he's contesting are just simply happening in tougher situations. Most now are coming when he's behind the play recovering after a guard has rejected a screen or someone has gotten beat on a closeout on the weakside.
Yep, this is what I'm seeing. But of course my eyes see anecdotal evidence and I don't have data to back it up. In the past, he could be planted at the rim ready to contest someone running downhill. Consequently he would foul them more as well. Now he's chasing a ball hander or coming over on the weakside and he could go for a half ass contest or try for a full contest and probably end up with a foul. Either way, it just makes no sense to me some of the guys we are blitzing.
Nope, you're spot on. And to the defensive rebounding point made earlier in the thread, that has been one of the positive trade-offs with the blitz. Was worried about it initially, but Nurk has done a great job recovering and boxing out. Easier situation to defensive rebound in then when he's in that two-on-one in a drop if the guard doesn't handle the screen well.
At the end of the day the pick and roll is tough to guard whatever scheme you're in. When you don't execute a blitz properly you're giving up a dunk or a wide open three. In a drop it could still sometimes be a dunk or offensive rebound, but more often or not it's an off the dribble jumper or contested layup. You're willing to live with that trade off with most guys.
Good point, being worse at contesting the shot means he's actually in better position to rebound the misses. When he's in good contesting position it's usually the other guys that have to rebound since Nurk is jumping and doing the contest.
JDC hit on the key issue, IMO--drop coverage can theoretically be executed by the personnel the Blazers have on hand to try and force long or mid-range pull-ups. Are open mid-range or even long pull-ups ideal? No, but when you're forced to give up something (and with this defensive personnel, you are very much forced to give up something), that's the best shot diet you can force on the opposing offense. Of course, that required Lillard and McCollum to fight over screens and chase, preventing the open three and pushing the ball-handler off the three-point line and into the zone between the line and the drop defender. Instead, Lillard and McCollum die on screens constantly. It's similar to zone defense in football--when it's executed poorly, all fans see is open receivers making catches with no defender nearby and they wonder if the defensive coordinator even knows the rules of football. But properly executed, it doesn't require a Deion Sanders type of coverage talent and it can force offenses into the types of passes that they don't necessarily want. I think Stotts made a perfectly rational defensive decision based on who he had available. But ultimately, there's no scheme that papers over defenders who simply can't execute anything well.
Wow it’s almost like you shouldn’t replace your veteran coach with 9 years or experience with the roster with a rookie coach with 0 experience with any roster.
Yeah we should just roll with a coach that can't win a game outside of the second round until the dude drops dead. That makes a whole hell of a lot of sense. Stotts was mediocre and he needed to go. If you want to argue that the team should have hired a veteran head coach, then I can't really argue with that but keeping Stotts was not only the wrong move to make this last off season but it had been the wrong move that we made for a few seasons prior.
you must be new here. Stotts took the blazers farther in the playoffs than they had been in 20 years, after Aldridge abandoned the team and he built a roster from scratch. he had this mediocre roster set for a deep playoff runs again the next 2 years but the seasons were ruined by major injuries to Nurk, CJ, and others - not to mention covid. Billups is an alleged rapist / nobody who has never even coached a little league team. We lost last season because Lillard played like an entitled bum playing hero ball, hucking up 40 ft 3s and never involving Nurk or CJ, and he didn’t play any defense whatsoever. It’s not the coach’s fault when your star player plays like entitled garbage.
This season will give us much more information than last season. It will be interesting to see how we play with our roster. If coach has a style in mind and felt players didn’t fit to that, then we should wait and see about that. Coaches need time to develop too. He’s not Steve Kerr… whom is actually one of the best coaches of all time IMO. He knows the game well, definite champion and proof it wasn’t just Jordan; that team was stacked.
Chauncey will be a great coach...we got rid of the guys who he couldn't really coach and brought in dogs he can. Roco and CJ weren't Chauncey type players in my view. Hart and Winslow are..
I couldn't agree with this more. A sergeants’ abilities will only be as good as his soldiers are loyal. I fully believe roco, powell and CJ balked at the changes Chauncey wanted to instill. When three of your five starters don't buy into the program, how good can the coach actually be?
Really like the adjustments I'm seeing from Chauncey defensively in pick and roll. This is what I was hoping to see last year. Nurk more at the level of the screen and dropping rather than getting out on the floor in that hedge. If he is hedging it's more of a flat hedge which is a harder coverage for guards to split or turn the corner on. Allows the backside defenders to play more in the gaps and not have to completely sell out to stop the paint. Passing reads for the ball handlers aren't nearly as predictable. Makes the x outs in the weakside easier to execute with closeouts being shorter. Still would like to see a better game plan for when we switch with Nurk. Not seeing many attempts to switch out of those mismatches with our guards or front and give backside help. Too many times the guard is just on the big's back on an island. Boys need to watch some heat film to see how to execute a switch to a front with help coming from the baseline.
I like his demeanor on the sideline. He exudes confidence in this years line-up, and he displays accountability, in a quiet, yet unmistakable manner. I'm glad he was able to survive the front office and roster make over, and begin to display his coaching ability with players who are buying in. I'm seeing energy, excitement, and the determination to overcome. Honestly, I haven't felt like this as a Blazer fan in some time. I like how he gives young players chances, and expects them to contribute just like the guys who are sitting down. This is a team. That's coaching.
about 7 years of Olshey's tenure as GM were cringe-worthy. Look at what Cronin has been able to do in 8 months
We're a couple years away from a lot of things that aren't Billups fault, being put on him. That's just how a lot of casuals are on message boards. I prefer this honeymoon phase to what's coming.
