Is the problem OFFENSE? or DEFENSE?

[Moranis]

There is no problem, this is just what Boston is i.e. a mediocre team.

[Roy H.]

It's both.

We're 10th in defensive efficiency, and 21st in offense.

The offense is terrible, and is unacceptable for a team as talented as we are.

The defense isn't necessarily bad, but it's a long way from elite.  If we don't have an elite defense, we're not going to contend.

We can be competitive with an elite defense and a bad offense, but we're not going to be true contenders until the defense is elite *and* the offense is at least above-average.

[Who]

It's both.

We're 10th in defensive efficiency, and 21st in offense.

A lot of that number comes from offensive rebounding. If you don't count an offensive rebound as a continuation of the same possession and instead consider it an extra possession (my preference) ...

I have Boston 8th in offensive efficiency and 13th in defensive efficiency.

[cman88]

the defense should improve with avery bradley coming back.

and hopefully that will lead to better offense, as we can get alot of easy buckets from turnovers. If you arent getting defensive stops you have to play halfcourt offense

which the C's are doing right now.

[Clench123]

Sad with the expectations coming into the season that Rondo will be able to "run" with all these young guns Lee Jeff Green etc and get us easy baskets pshhh

I've said it all along, Rondo is not an elite player.  When the torch got passed to him, this team had nowhere to go but down.  So the big 3 wins a title with Rondo being a side piece.  Then all of a sudden when they get older and the team isn't winning it's because Rondo has nobody to run with.  Now he's got some horses and what happened?  How many more excuses do we have for this guy?  I don't think Rondo is a terrible player by any means.  But he is nowhere near the pedestal the C's fans have put him on.

That is ridiculous at best.  I don't even know where to begin. 

I guess it's ok to bag on Rondo now when the chips are down and say he's not elite.  Puuullleeesssee...

[BudweiserCeltic]

I think main problem is offense, mainly because it's fixable and needs some philosophical changes from how we go about it.

From a defensive standpoint, I think most of our problems have come from how we handle our unit rotations, often putting together ineffective big man units, and starting Terry does us no favors particularly when playing alongside Rondo who likes to gamble frequently.

When Terry is paired up with Lee, he gets the PG defense assignment, which is usually a much better situation for him.

It's for this reason why I think Bradley will have a very good impact on our defense. Not only is he an elite defender, but it'll put our players in better situations to succeed from a rotation standpoint.

[dark_lord]

I say its offense. We'd be a better defensive team if we were better offensively. For one thing, there'd be fewer fast break baskets. For another, our stars (Pierce, Rondo, and KG) could focus more on defense.

I think we need to make a trade for a great offensive player so that the older players can focus on defense. Pierce is 9th in the league in scoring right now. ...he needs help.

it isn't offense or defense alone....its consistency on both ends.

[Birdman]

BOTH!!!!

[mctyson]

Defense