2015-2016 Opp PTS/G: 104.3 (20th) Current Season: 114.3 (28th) League's lowest Opp PTS/G... the Utah Jazz. It is a modest place. A moral one. Aminu is out, but even with our best defender, we are not a good defensive team. Everyone is aware of a need for post scoring, but a dominant inside presence exists on both sides of the ball. We run our big men off the pick and roll in a perimeter offense. The player doesn't learn enough about obtaining position inside, what to defend, or how to rebound. Instead, we have big men defending the pick and roll on the perimeter, switching on defense, learning how to give up ground, how to avoid fouls, how to defend with their hands and not with position. If we win games with perimeter play, then we're probably too focused on perimeter defense. Watch the highlights from the Houston game. Why is Ed Davis guarding James Harden at the three point line? Look at how casually Harden sets to shoot because Davis is giving him too much space. We need a small quick defender to glue himself to a player like Harden, not someone who has to compensate for the dribble because he can't move his feet. And there is Lillard, casually watching the ball from a position guarding... Clint Capella. Suddenly I wish we were more focused on perimeter defense. The problem could be as vague as being too offensively focused, the problem of lazy, selfish play and stardom that we don't quite resent because it is fairly modest and well-behaved. 'Dame' is a better rapper than Shaq, or AI, but we still have a point guard with a rap album, and one wishes he was a bit less well-rounded and more focused and competitive on the court. He is punching the clock. He needs to make his money on defense. Same for CJ. Mason, Ed, Meyers—it blows my mind that players make it to the NBA before they have learned to play basketball. Oh, nevermind that, you're seven feet tall. Here is your ten-million dollar rookie contract. No, it doesn't really matter how you play the game. It only matters if we win or lose.
Newsflash. We weren't "good" on defense under McMillan either. This hasn't been a "good" defensive team since ... 2000-ish(?) The trouble is, now this team isn't even sniffing "respectable."
Their finishes in team Defensive Rating (which is normalized for pace) under McMillan: 2005-06: 28th 2006-07: 26th 2007-08: 17th 2008-09: 13th 2009-10: 15th 2010-11: 14th 2011-12: 23rd So they topped out at okay-to-mediocre. If you go by pure points-allowed, they probably look better since they were generally dead last in pace and slow games are lower scoring games. That's not the same as playing good defense, though. The McMillan years also didn't build around defensive stand-outs among the best players. Zach Randolph was an indifferent defender, especially back then, Roy was nothing special on defense, players like Outlaw and Fernandez were pretty poor. Aldridge eventually became solid, Miller was smart and had great technique but was already older when he became a Blazer and didn't have sufficient lateral quickness. Greg Oden would have made a significant difference, but, well. When your best players aren't good defenders, building a good defensive team is hard. The last time the Blazers' best players were good defenders was, as nik alluded to, around 2000 when Rasheed Wallace was a great defender and Scottie Pippen was still a defensive genius even if he had lost a step. Players like Brian Grant and Steve Smith were smart defenders. Sabonis wasn't very mobile, but he was smart, a strong post defender and good at the rim.
I get your point about the pace, but if you look at the opponents stats in this, it looks pretty good for Portland. http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/POR/2010.html
No, we didn't. Nate was awful. Here's our Def Rtg (and OppFG%) during his tenure. 28th (26th OppFG%) 26th (25th OppFG%) 17th (8th OppFG%) 13th (17th OppFG%) 15th (18th OppFG%) 14th (20th OppFG%) 23rd (26th OppFG%) There were a few years he had us as a middle-of-the-pack defensive team if you just look at Def Rtg (Joel, Oden, Camby?). But outside of one anomaly we were never good at keeping the other team from putting the ball through the hoop.
That Portland team looks pretty similar - numbers wise - to this Memphis team. http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/MEM/2015.html
Well if they're getting 2's instead of threes, and we're not letting them get any rebounds, and we steal the ball a lot, and get a lot of blocks, and they're not scoring a lot of points, I think the defense is pretty good. We also kept the other teams assists way down too.
Well you know what they say, "Sometimes the best defense, is a good (slow?) offense" lol idk. McMillan definitely wasn't a good offensive coach either, but somehow we averaged 113.5 points a game one year. Most in team history I think. I messed that up, I meant OffRtg
Yeah, it looked good, but it wasn't actually that good. That was the year they finished in the middle of the pack per 100 possessions. They just played at a slow enough pace (last in the league) that there weren't a lot of possessions. Taking this to an extreme just to make the point more obvious, if you slow the game down to 10 possessions each (assuming no shot clock, obviously) and give up a three on every opponent possession, the 30 PPG will look amazing, but obviously the defense was terrible.
Well yeah I know, but I don't think McMuffin had the team we have now, I was trying to keep it somewhat consistent.
New thing pretty much same as the old thing. Indifferent defenders of middling athleticism (by NBA standards). So Stotts is certainly culpable to some degree, but so is Olshey for the way he constructed this team, and guys not giving a whole lot of effort -- plenty of blame to go around on this one, not just Stotts.
