Yes, I said that. Everything in the NBA requires effort, but effort is not sufficient. Lillard, like almost every player, loses focus from time to time but I don't think his defensive issues are largely effort-based. He just doesn't have the requisite defensive recognition and awareness. This is obvious when he gets screened--if you watch Stephen Curry (a player a lot of people like to, wrongly IMO, call a bad defender), he always has his head on a swivel, looking for the screen and repositioning as he sees the screener coming. Curry doesn't have Lillard's athletic gifts, but he has good awareness and recognition. Lillard runs full-blast into the screen, getting completely taken out of the play, because he doesn't see it coming and prepare for it. It's not lack of effort--with a lack of effort, he wouldn't be chasing hard enough to be crushed by the screen. It's effort without the proper awareness. NBA-caliber defensive recognition and awareness is talent, because the game moves too quickly at that level for rote learning to be enough.
Point guard has to be the hardest position in the league to defend right now. Bring back hand checking, imo.
Nobody complaining about his great offense game last night. But what we want him to pick up his defense that all. If he going to be leader show it on the court on both ends.
Chris Paul's too eh? Great defender...zero rings..Patrick Patterson and Marcus Smart, Tony Allen...no rings
Dame has beaten both those guys while being on our team....Dame is not all NBA defense..sure...but he's accomplished a hell of a lot in the west playing against the best in the game. Defense is a team skill more than an individual skill...our team defense is not consistent at all.....I'll give you that
Dame needs to step up his defense, period. No one expects him to be all defensive team. Maybe just not make the all nba no defense team. Twice
He lit us up once....second time when we game planned for him he did not light us up.....small sample size.
Our team defense outside of our guards should be great. Nurkic, Aminu, Harkless and even Crabbe are all good to adequate defenders. CJ at least puts some effort into it. Its Dame I see standing and watching. Its a league thing though, there's not much defense being played in the league outside of a handful of teams.
If CJ putting in effort on defense means his guy goes 3-4 shooting and has 11 points in the 4th quarter alone. I'm terrified to know the results of no effort.
On the other hand KCP (who was 5-12) is supposed to be a very long and effective defender.....and CJ torched him for 25 pts on 10-17 shooting. And that is with help from a center who many on this board would kill to have. (Myself included) Morris torched us for 37. The D on everyone else was fine.
During the game, Lillard took Nurkic aside and complained how Nurkic hadn't set up Lillard well enough to score on some play. Calabro noted it. It's the same as with Aldridge. Our star thinks only of scoring. I blame the head coach for being afraid of the star.
Oh I'm not saying CJ is solely to blame for the loss, I just see a double standard and it triggers me. CJ might have been 10-17, but factoring in the 6 turnovers he had... Means he was far from efficient. If Lillard put up CJ's line last night he would have got hammered on this board. Instead he is getting hammered for Smith/Jackson going a combined 9 of 25. All because he followed NBA defensive keys to go under the pick & roll on a player who has an EFG% under 45%. Rebounding and Turnovers cost Portland the game last night.
Or we should hold Olshey accountable for creating a roster of terrible defenders. That's the foundational problem. I'm not saying the players couldn't possibly have greater focus or coaches couldn't squeeze more out of them on that end, but all of that amounts to lipstick on a pig until the roster simply has more talented defenders on it. Ideally, defenders who can do something useful on the offensive end.
