Any observations about what we do and need to do defensively can be put in this thread. I'll start: Dame is a very good on the ball defender. I'm happier with his man taking the shot than with almost any other player guarding. However, the problem is when he's defending off the ball. He almost never helps on defense, afraid of leaving his man open. This can be corrected. When we play a Point-Guard-Centric team and Dame is guarding him we're in good shape. The next game is a good test for this hypothesis as we meet Luka Doncic's Mavs. Dame needs to not shy away from the challenge, not hide on a lesser player (as he's, as i said, a very poor help defender) but take the assignment of Luka on every possesion. It might not be enough but it'd give us a chance
Message to Dame: If Ant's player blows by him and you are the only player able to slide in time to stop him or take the charge then he's no longer Ant's player, he's your player, and being the player with the ball he is the first priority. It's then Ant's job to cover your man left open. Guard your player but also guard the ball, always guard the ball
Dame is definitely gonna see this and after 14 years of playing above high school ball, this is what made him finally realize what to do. Where were you during the last 14 years? He could have been doing this his freshman year!
Perimeter, perimeter, oh, and perimeter. You could have Gobert protecting the rim and it wouldn’t matter if the perimeter guys can’t keep anyone in front of them (see Utah playoff series vs Clippers last year when Gobert got lit up because of his teammates shit defense) We have too many guards that can’t guard. At least two of them not named Dame need to go, and since neither CJ or Powell are bench players, it’s gotta be them, preferably both. We’ll always be undersized and slacking defensively with both of them starting.
Yes but Nurkic is not Gobbert and is part of the problem, I'm tired of him coming back from the summer fat and out of shape. He's slow, he has no elevation, is getting absolutely burned in pick and rolls. I would add him to the list of players who at least need to move out of the starting lineup
Also, I'm getting pissed with the coach not wanting to hurt the feelings of players making millions by not benching them. Isn't it enough that we're paying Nurkic or Powell 20 million a year, now that's also a reason they HAVE to play? Bench these losers
I see not much to discuss here. The fanbase knows as much about defende as the players, apparently. Shitty moderator, close this thread
The Dame, CJ, Norm, Roco, Nurk combination has played 17 games together for 274 minutes. They show an offensive rating of 112.1 and a defensive rating of 111.2 The same combination played 21 games together for 370 minutes last year. They had an offensive rating of 118.1 and a defensive rating of 104.8 I think we can acknowledge that Stotts much maligned defensive scheme has been much better for the roster Portland had than the new and improved on paper, but not in reality scheme used this year. The numbers prove what I suspected for a while now - Stotts knew what he had to work with and came with a scheme that tried to maximize it. It was/is the roster. There is nothing too bad for trying a new scheme - but it is clear that this roster can not deal with it.
Chauncy needs fresh players in the last five minutes of the game. The players let opposing players shoot threes or blow by the defenders in the paint with no defensive blocks. They give up after the first defender fails.
