Game Thread Game #20 - BLAZERS @ WARRIORS - NOVEMBER 26, 2021 - FRIDAY - 7:00 PM (PDT) ROOT SPORTS

I just saw this on The Athletic, a breakdown of the game (from a Bay Area writer):



I found this interesting since it pretty much hits on the things I was saying the past couple of years, when people kept saying, "Stotts plays a drop coverage, is he stupid? Does he not know the rules of basketball? Do fans know more about defensive coverages than he does?" And the answers to all those questions was no, he just had his hands tied by his personnel. Blitzing the pick and roll (as Billups does more often) isn't a magical panacea--if your big isn't quick enough to slide, if your screen target is prone to dying on the screen (as both Lillard and McCollum are and always have been), it's going to fail as surely as drop coverage is.

It was always silly to act like Stotts just hadn't heard of other pick and roll coverages or that he stuck with drop coverages out of spite. Any coverage you use requires smart, active, focused defenders with good awareness to succeed--the Blazers' roster has been largely barren of such players since around 2014.

Incidentally, Doc Rivers also employed a drop coverage against the Warriors last year. I remember reading, in the recap, him clearly responding to being asked about that and he said that of course a drop coverage isn't great against Curry and the Warriors but when they involve Embiid in the action, there aren't a lot of options. And that's Embiid, a more talented and athletic big than Nurkic.

 

great post

I thought it was well past time for a new coach when Stotts was fired. But a lot of people blamed Stotts for everything wrong with the Blazers. And you're right, a lot of posters here spent endless time trashing the defense that Stotts employed. "drop coverage" became code for 'stupid coach"

It was a bad defense to be sure, and if you're loopy enough to believe Olshey when he said it wasn't the roster, there's not much reason to discuss. Portland's defensive rankings:

2016-17: 24th
2017-18: 8th
2018-19: 16th
2019-20: 28th
2020-21: 29th
2021-22: 29th

all you have to do is look at those rankings, then look at each season's roster to see correlations. And it's almost certainly not a coincidence that Portland has dropped to the bottom as their players have become smaller and smaller. Portland has 240 minutes a game to dole out and they are doling out 129 of those minutes to players 6'3 and under. That's 54% of their minutes

 

I'm 6'-4" (with shoes on). Wonder if i can get a "Blevins" deal?

Certain i can can waive a towel better than him for sure. I'll even carry some bags if need be?

 

"Hustle" may be hard to measure - but I disagree that it is that hard to see.

 

An example of why I think Nurk's defense is over-rated by some fans. The modern NBA is best suited to defenders who are mobile and versatile. Neither Nurk nor Zeller fit that mold. And yes, Dame and CJ sure don't help matters.

 

Dame and CJ are more harmful on defense than Nurk or Zeller. A guard that can fight through screens, like let's say Davion Mitchell, would see mitigate a lot of Nurkic's defensive deficiencies. But obviously Dame and CJ (although I would argue against the latter) are more important overall to team success than Nurkic, so ideally you would replace Nurkic with a more mobile defender than replace Dame/CJ with a better defensive guard. That is why I've been an advocate of just playing Nance more than Nurkic. Or trying to get Simmons but play him as a center. The Kuzma for Nurkic deal that I proposed and was was so poo-pooed in the off-season would probably have us as a better team.

Dame/CJ/Norm/Kuzma/Nance is still not great defensively, but it is not as exploitable by the most common play in basketball.