Author Topic: We are actually a better defensive team!!!  (Read 7978 times)

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Re: We are actually a better defensive team!!!
« Reply #15 on: September 11, 2017, 04:58:04 PM »

Offline drogbagarnett

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I'm not worried about our defense either but don't pretend/forget that if it were not for the defense of AB we still lose in the first round, he shut Butler down when he defended him, without question, Butler got his points on other players. He also put the clamps on Wall, don't let the counting stats fool you. When AB went down in the first game Wall started to destroy us (IT4), if we lost that game, we lose that series, AB came back and put the clamps on him again and we won. Furthermore, great offense will beat great defense, these are some of the best offenders in the world, even the undisputed best defenders have no chance against the best. People always bring up what Kyrie did to us but fail to mention that he completely destroyed the best defense left in the playoffs (probably best period), who had Klay, a guy people routinely called a better defender than AB. He beat on GSW like he was out there alone most of the time.

Now we hope Kyrie destroys the league for us, let's get it! It's about to go down!!!!

I hear you!

My point is with Bradley shutting down Butler we were still 0-2 about to lose the series until we made a CLEARLY offensive-minded adjustment to bring one of our WORST defenders into the line up to create a threat that actually got us back into the series!!! Offensive threat is more powerful than defensive threat!! And that Bulls series was a proof of that!

As for Washington, I agree Bradley defended Wall well but he still got his to the point of scoring the winning clutch shot on Bradley's face to extend the series. If not for yet again some offensive OUTBURST from Kelly Olynyk, we could have lost that series as well!

For all the great defense we are supposed to be losing in those trades, we were extremely close to having a playoff run cut short a third time in a row with those great defenders in our team if it wasn't for some offensive adjustments and outbursts....

We are a better defensive team!! Haters will soon realize that!
or maybe it was when the Bulls best defender got hurt that Boston got back into the series.  Acting like Gerald Green being inserted into the starting lineup is why Boston won is just silly nonsense.  Of course that has nothing to do with Boston being a better defensive team.  In fact, very little of what you posted has anything to do with defense. 

It seems to me you are focusing on the offense being better which will make Boston a better team overall, but that certainly doesn't make Boston a better defensive team.

Can't deny Rondo injury helped.
However, the ONE adjustment we made was not on the defensive end to stop Chicago from scoring!!! That one adjustment was to space the floor offensively so we could score more easily.
Say whatever you want but this is the truth. We made a clear OFFENSIVE adjustment not a defensive one for that series! My point is a better offense got us through that series!!
If you take the time to read my original post you will understand my THIRD point stating that having a better offense DOES HELP make us better defensively... you can argue on those 3 points I listed to support such an assertion but dont comment like you haven't read the first post... :-)

Re: We are actually a better defensive team!!!
« Reply #16 on: September 11, 2017, 04:59:20 PM »

Offline ImShakHeIsShaq

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I'm not worried about our defense either but don't pretend/forget that if it were not for the defense of AB we still lose in the first round, he shut Butler down when he defended him, without question, Butler got his points on other players. He also put the clamps on Wall, don't let the counting stats fool you. When AB went down in the first game Wall started to destroy us (IT4), if we lost that game, we lose that series, AB came back and put the clamps on him again and we won. Furthermore, great offense will beat great defense, these are some of the best offenders in the world, even the undisputed best defenders have no chance against the best. People always bring up what Kyrie did to us but fail to mention that he completely destroyed the best defense left in the playoffs (probably best period), who had Klay, a guy people routinely called a better defender than AB. He beat on GSW like he was out there alone most of the time.

Now we hope Kyrie destroys the league for us, let's get it! It's about to go down!!!!

I hear you!

My point is with Bradley shutting down Butler we were still 0-2 about to lose the series until we made a CLEARLY offensive-minded adjustment to bring one of our WORST defenders into the line up to create a threat that actually got us back into the series!!! Offensive threat is more powerful than defensive threat!! And that Bulls series was a proof of that!

As for Washington, I agree Bradley defended Wall well but he still got his to the point of scoring the winning clutch shot on Bradley's face to extend the series. If not for yet again some offensive OUTBURST from Kelly Olynyk, we could have lost that series as well!

For all the great defense we are supposed to be losing in those trades, we were extremely close to having a playoff run cut short a third time in a row with those great defenders in our team if it wasn't for some offensive adjustments and outbursts....

We are a better defensive team!! Haters will soon realize that!

AB wasn't Butler's primary defender until game 3 though, Jae was. AB had Wade. We were able to switch because IT4 could be put on their PGs when RR went down. We couldn't put AB on RR because IT4 couldn't guard anyone else out there (Wade/Butler). The problem was IT4 even though people want to gloss over that. Losing RR was a major part of us winning but also how we could defend when we didn't have to worry about someone destroying IT4 all game.
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Re: We are actually a better defensive team!!!
« Reply #17 on: September 11, 2017, 05:05:18 PM »

Offline drogbagarnett

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I am in agreement with Moranis and Roy. Your article has little to do with why our defense will be better but is more about how our offense will be better. And as Roy stated, we probably aren't better in the areas we struggled in last year. Also, my guess is the areas we were good at last year, like perimeter defense, could be worse. I just don't see us being better defensively. As good as last year with a better offense...yeah, that I could see. But not better defensively.
Except that I took the time to list for you guys all the player to player comparisons so you could see that overall we might be more potent defensively than last year. Only Crowder > Semi and Bradley > Hayward could justify us being worst (and I explained why I thought those two comparison were closer than we might imagine...)
I also mention HOW a better offensive help us be better defensively.
And I also stated that we could be adding a Tony Allen (improved perimeter defense) or a Bogut (improved interior defense) with that open roster we currently have...
Finally, we can argue but I think we are longer, more athletic, have better low post defense and our young studs (Smart, Brown, Rozier) are 1 year older and wiser defensively.
Would all these count for something or you just want to hand on to your believe and simply discard my arguments as non-existent...??

Re: We are actually a better defensive team!!!
« Reply #18 on: September 11, 2017, 05:09:36 PM »

Offline drogbagarnett

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Hmm.... regardless of what you might think of individual defenders, the fact is, in the Bull's series, we won the three games in which we held them to under 100 points.

Of course, sometimes, the best way to help your defense is to simply make your baskets on your offensive possessions.   That's something I think we'll be better at this year, with the addition of Hayward, giving us more than just one elite scoring weapon.

That's my point!!
And to be frank, we can all agree that adding Gerald Green to the line up is not a tactical adjustment to keep your opponent under 100 points!!! It's an adjustment to space the floor and score more!!! Which in returns, just as I explained it, make you defense better!!!

We will be better defensively! I could bet on that!

Re: We are actually a better defensive team!!!
« Reply #19 on: September 11, 2017, 05:14:19 PM »

Offline drogbagarnett

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Our big weaknesses were defensive rebounding, forcing turnovers, and fouling too much.

I'm not sure if we got better in those areas.

Frankly, I'm not sure either but at least i can say :
- we are longer and more athletic (which can help with rebounding and forcing turnovers)
- we now have a low post defender (no more getting bullied and having to foul those centers)

Might not mean much but at least I feel slightly more confident.

Again, my biggest bet is on Semi performing at a high level defensively. I still believe he will be playing more min than most would think... If does that and knock down his 3s at a 40% rate we will all forget about Crowder very fast....

More important than having more length & athleticism on the roster will be whether Brad makes use of that length and athleticism.

Last year Brad played a lot of lineups featuring three 'smalls' and the defensive ratings of those lineups dragged down the overall team defensive rating pretty significantly.

Given our current roster, I see no reason for him to repeat that emphasis.  We have a lot of depth at wing this year and I hope to see more '3-wing' lineups than 3-small lineups.   If we do that, then I agree, that we should improve on defense.

thank you!

Length and athleticism will improve and help our defense already, but if those come with bigger, longer more athletic BALL HANDLERS who can attack the weak side of a defense than we will see less and less 3 PG line ups and our defense will improve drastically while the offense will still be running at a high level!!

We will be better defensively! Trust me!!

Re: We are actually a better defensive team!!!
« Reply #20 on: September 11, 2017, 05:21:55 PM »

Offline drogbagarnett

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I'm not worried about our defense either but don't pretend/forget that if it were not for the defense of AB we still lose in the first round, he shut Butler down when he defended him, without question, Butler got his points on other players. He also put the clamps on Wall, don't let the counting stats fool you. When AB went down in the first game Wall started to destroy us (IT4), if we lost that game, we lose that series, AB came back and put the clamps on him again and we won. Furthermore, great offense will beat great defense, these are some of the best offenders in the world, even the undisputed best defenders have no chance against the best. People always bring up what Kyrie did to us but fail to mention that he completely destroyed the best defense left in the playoffs (probably best period), who had Klay, a guy people routinely called a better defender than AB. He beat on GSW like he was out there alone most of the time.

Now we hope Kyrie destroys the league for us, let's get it! It's about to go down!!!!

I hear you!

My point is with Bradley shutting down Butler we were still 0-2 about to lose the series until we made a CLEARLY offensive-minded adjustment to bring one of our WORST defenders into the line up to create a threat that actually got us back into the series!!! Offensive threat is more powerful than defensive threat!! And that Bulls series was a proof of that!

As for Washington, I agree Bradley defended Wall well but he still got his to the point of scoring the winning clutch shot on Bradley's face to extend the series. If not for yet again some offensive OUTBURST from Kelly Olynyk, we could have lost that series as well!

For all the great defense we are supposed to be losing in those trades, we were extremely close to having a playoff run cut short a third time in a row with those great defenders in our team if it wasn't for some offensive adjustments and outbursts....

We are a better defensive team!! Haters will soon realize that!

AB wasn't Butler's primary defender until game 3 though, Jae was. AB had Wade. We were able to switch because IT4 could be put on their PGs when RR went down. We couldn't put AB on RR because IT4 couldn't guard anyone else out there (Wade/Butler). The problem was IT4 even though people want to gloss over that. Losing RR was a major part of us winning but also how we could defend when we didn't have to worry about someone destroying IT4 all game.

I agree the lost of Rondo helped us tremendously.

But if that is the reason why we won then it also prove my point that, if it wasnt for a freak injury, our team (with defensive aces like Crowder and Bradley) last year might have been swept by the 8th seed and losing a 3rd year in a row in the first round of the play off despite being that supposedly good defense with all those great defenders (we just lost and people can stop crying over it) that are supposed to get us wins in the playoff!!!

Wihtout Rondo's freak injury, our team was being swept by the Bulls.

Wouldn't you trade all those great defenders that get us eliminated in the first round every year and try something else if you were a GM armed with all those assets...??

Improving Offensively with multiple go-to scorers with length and athleticism will turn out to be our best defensive strategy!

Re: We are actually a better defensive team!!!
« Reply #21 on: September 11, 2017, 05:49:20 PM »

Online Roy H.

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I am in agreement with Moranis and Roy. Your article has little to do with why our defense will be better but is more about how our offense will be better. And as Roy stated, we probably aren't better in the areas we struggled in last year. Also, my guess is the areas we were good at last year, like perimeter defense, could be worse. I just don't see us being better defensively. As good as last year with a better offense...yeah, that I could see. But not better defensively.
Except that I took the time to list for you guys all the player to player comparisons so you could see that overall we might be more potent defensively than last year. Only Crowder > Semi and Bradley > Hayward could justify us being worst (and I explained why I thought those two comparison were closer than we might imagine...)
I also mention HOW a better offensive help us be better defensively.
And I also stated that we could be adding a Tony Allen (improved perimeter defense) or a Bogut (improved interior defense) with that open roster we currently have...
Finally, we can argue but I think we are longer, more athletic, have better low post defense and our young studs (Smart, Brown, Rozier) are 1 year older and wiser defensively.
Would all these count for something or you just want to hand on to your believe and simply discard my arguments as non-existent...??

It's hard to know how to compare the lineups, but here's one shot at it:

Big 1: Horford '18 vs. Horford '17

Essentially a wash. Horford is a year older, but he's got another year in a similar system. He will also be playing some more cent r, which helps.

Big 2: Morris vs. Amir.  Amir gets the edge against traditional lineups. Morris is more suited to the role of small ball big, the role Jae would have played.

Wing 1: Hayward vs. Jae. Jae ended the year as a slightly better defender, but both were above average.

Wing 2: Jaylen vs. Avery. Avery wins this hands down right now, but if Jaylen reaches his potential, he could be a Reggie Lewis-like defender. It's a solid step backward for now, but give it 2 years.

Ball Handler:  Kyrie vs. Thomas. These guys are both bottom-5 defenders at their position. Both need to be hidden.

As for the bench, both teams have Smart and Rozier. Baynes vs. KO is probably the only matchup of consequence. Baynes can help if Brad uses him, but KO was quite decent as a team defender.

So, right now I don't see an immediate upgrade. The defense should take a step back as guys learn their roles and gel.


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Re: We are actually a better defensive team!!!
« Reply #22 on: September 11, 2017, 06:00:06 PM »

Offline ImShakHeIsShaq

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I'm not worried about our defense either but don't pretend/forget that if it were not for the defense of AB we still lose in the first round, he shut Butler down when he defended him, without question, Butler got his points on other players. He also put the clamps on Wall, don't let the counting stats fool you. When AB went down in the first game Wall started to destroy us (IT4), if we lost that game, we lose that series, AB came back and put the clamps on him again and we won. Furthermore, great offense will beat great defense, these are some of the best offenders in the world, even the undisputed best defenders have no chance against the best. People always bring up what Kyrie did to us but fail to mention that he completely destroyed the best defense left in the playoffs (probably best period), who had Klay, a guy people routinely called a better defender than AB. He beat on GSW like he was out there alone most of the time.

Now we hope Kyrie destroys the league for us, let's get it! It's about to go down!!!!

I hear you!

My point is with Bradley shutting down Butler we were still 0-2 about to lose the series until we made a CLEARLY offensive-minded adjustment to bring one of our WORST defenders into the line up to create a threat that actually got us back into the series!!! Offensive threat is more powerful than defensive threat!! And that Bulls series was a proof of that!

As for Washington, I agree Bradley defended Wall well but he still got his to the point of scoring the winning clutch shot on Bradley's face to extend the series. If not for yet again some offensive OUTBURST from Kelly Olynyk, we could have lost that series as well!

For all the great defense we are supposed to be losing in those trades, we were extremely close to having a playoff run cut short a third time in a row with those great defenders in our team if it wasn't for some offensive adjustments and outbursts....

We are a better defensive team!! Haters will soon realize that!

AB wasn't Butler's primary defender until game 3 though, Jae was. AB had Wade. We were able to switch because IT4 could be put on their PGs when RR went down. We couldn't put AB on RR because IT4 couldn't guard anyone else out there (Wade/Butler). The problem was IT4 even though people want to gloss over that. Losing RR was a major part of us winning but also how we could defend when we didn't have to worry about someone destroying IT4 all game.

I agree the lost of Rondo helped us tremendously.

But if that is the reason why we won then it also prove my point that, if it wasnt for a freak injury, our team (with defensive aces like Crowder and Bradley) last year might have been swept by the 8th seed and losing a 3rd year in a row in the first round of the play off despite being that supposedly good defense with all those great defenders (we just lost and people can stop crying over it) that are supposed to get us wins in the playoff!!!

Wihtout Rondo's freak injury, our team was being swept by the Bulls.

Wouldn't you trade all those great defenders that get us eliminated in the first round every year and try something else if you were a GM armed with all those assets...??

Improving Offensively with multiple go-to scorers with length and athleticism will turn out to be our best defensive strategy!

No one is saying offense isn't important, you don't need to argue that. The fact is you need to do both things well to win the chip. It's not a coincidence that everyone and their mother, including Danny, talked about Kyrie needing to be better defensively. The best players do both at a high level (PGs get away with being bad these days). How many times have you seen mediocre defensive teams win the chip? Crap defense sends you home when it counts. Even Curry had to step up his defense.

No, we need more than guys who can get their own offensively, that's exactly why the only player we picked up that is known as a bad defender is Kyrie and DA said he has to be better! Brown wasn't talking about Fultz D for no reason.

Phoenix (Nash peak years), could score with the best of them but they couldn't win in the playoffs because of defense. You have to be able to put up great resistance or be done.
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Re: We are actually a better defensive team!!!
« Reply #23 on: September 11, 2017, 06:20:51 PM »

Offline Jon

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I love these uniltateral declaration posts before the season begins.

Re: We are actually a better defensive team!!!
« Reply #24 on: September 11, 2017, 07:47:20 PM »

Offline drogbagarnett

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Quote from: Roy H. link=topic=93529.msg2386799#msg2386799

It's hard to know how to compare the lineups, but here's one shot at it:

Big 1: Horford '18 vs. Horford '17

Essentially a wash. Horford is a year older, but he's got another year in a similar system. He will also be playing some more cent r, which helps.

Big 2: Morris vs. Amir.  Amir gets the edge against traditional lineups. Morris is more suited to the role of small ball big, the role Jae would have played.

Wing 1: Hayward vs. Jae. Jae ended the year as a slightly better defender, but both were above average.

Wing 2: Jaylen vs. Avery. Avery wins this hands down right now, but if Jaylen reaches his potential, he could be a Reggie Lewis-like defender. It's a solid step backward for now, but give it 2 years.

Ball Handler:  Kyrie vs. Thomas. These guys are both bottom-5 defenders at their position. Both need to be hidden.

As for the bench, both teams have Smart and Rozier. Baynes vs. KO is probably the only matchup of consequence. Baynes can help if Brad uses him, but KO was quite decent as a team defender.

So, right now I don't see an immediate upgrade. The defense should take a step back as guys learn their roles and gel.
I see your point.
Thanks for taking the time to spell out a thoughtful argumentation.
I tend to disagree with you on certain points but most of your arguments here are somewhat valid.
I still think that low post defense, no IT,  length and athleticism help push this year team over last year's defensively...

Re: We are actually a better defensive team!!!
« Reply #25 on: September 11, 2017, 07:47:57 PM »

Offline drogbagarnett

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I love these uniltateral declaration posts before the season begins.

Yeah that's true... Lol. Should have added on paper... :-)

Re: We are actually a better defensive team!!!
« Reply #26 on: September 11, 2017, 08:03:39 PM »

Offline drogbagarnett

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No one is saying offense isn't important, you don't need to argue that. The fact is you need to do both things well to win the chip. It's not a coincidence that everyone and their mother, including Danny, talked about Kyrie needing to be better defensively. The best players do both at a high level (PGs get away with being bad these days). How many times have you seen mediocre defensive teams win the chip? Crap defense sends you home when it counts. Even Curry had to step up his defense.

No, we need more than guys who can get their own offensively, that's exactly why the only player we picked up that is known as a bad defender is Kyrie and DA said he has to be better! Brown wasn't talking about Fultz D for no reason.

Phoenix (Nash peak years), could score with the best of them but they couldn't win in the playoffs because of defense. You have to be able to put up great resistance or be done.

Not sure what we are arguing here anymore...
I'm not saying offense is important, of course we all know both offense and defense are important!!!
I'm arguing that we are a better defensive team than last year and that a better offense does help improve the defense as well. (And vice versa actually).

My argument is :
It's true great defense is important but not as much as great offense and we have an improved defensive team thanks to :
- more length
- more athleticism
- less hidding IT
- better low post defense
- improved young studs 1 year older and wiser
- AND IMPROVED OFFENSE that will make our defense better

Now let's argue those points instead of Steve Nash's Suns playoff runs... we will be a more balanced, better defensive team than those suns... let's get the focus back on the main points

Re: We are actually a better defensive team!!!
« Reply #27 on: September 11, 2017, 09:33:40 PM »

Offline ImShakHeIsShaq

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No one is saying offense isn't important, you don't need to argue that. The fact is you need to do both things well to win the chip. It's not a coincidence that everyone and their mother, including Danny, talked about Kyrie needing to be better defensively. The best players do both at a high level (PGs get away with being bad these days). How many times have you seen mediocre defensive teams win the chip? Crap defense sends you home when it counts. Even Curry had to step up his defense.

No, we need more than guys who can get their own offensively, that's exactly why the only player we picked up that is known as a bad defender is Kyrie and DA said he has to be better! Brown wasn't talking about Fultz D for no reason.

Phoenix (Nash peak years), could score with the best of them but they couldn't win in the playoffs because of defense. You have to be able to put up great resistance or be done.

Not sure what we are arguing here anymore...
I'm not saying offense is important, of course we all know both offense and defense are important!!!
I'm arguing that we are a better defensive team than last year and that a better offense does help improve the defense as well. (And vice versa actually).

My argument is :
It's true great defense is important but not as much as great offense and we have an improved defensive team thanks to :
- more length
- more athleticism
- less hidding IT
- better low post defense
- improved young studs 1 year older and wiser
- AND IMPROVED OFFENSE that will make our defense better

Now let's argue those points instead of Steve Nash's Suns playoff runs... we will be a more balanced, better defensive team than those suns... let's get the focus back on the main points


No, I responded to your assertion that we were down 0-2 with AB shutting down Butler because that wasn't how it went down. AB didn't take him until game 3. AB was allowed to do his thing because IT4 wasn't out there getting our team destroyed by RR, they had guys that we could hide him on (barely).

I already said I wasn't worried about this defense, I already know most of the new guys are good defenders.

Then you asked if I wanted more iso scores over defenders and I said that they needed to do both, so no I don't want more guys who can score but stress out our D even more. That's why I said Kyrie is the only guy known to be like that and even DA said he has to be better. I brought up PHX (not Nash, he was the reference to specify which PHX iteration) because they had all the scoring you could ask for but they didn't have the other end when they need it and you were the one saying scoring is the defense.
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Re: We are actually a better defensive team!!!
« Reply #28 on: September 11, 2017, 09:49:52 PM »

Offline nickagneta

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Quote from: Roy H. link=topic=93529.msg2386799#msg2386799

It's hard to know how to compare the lineups, but here's one shot at it:

Big 1: Horford '18 vs. Horford '17

Essentially a wash. Horford is a year older, but he's got another year in a similar system. He will also be playing some more cent r, which helps.

Big 2: Morris vs. Amir.  Amir gets the edge against traditional lineups. Morris is more suited to the role of small ball big, the role Jae would have played.

Wing 1: Hayward vs. Jae. Jae ended the year as a slightly better defender, but both were above average.

Wing 2: Jaylen vs. Avery. Avery wins this hands down right now, but if Jaylen reaches his potential, he could be a Reggie Lewis-like defender. It's a solid step backward for now, but give it 2 years.

Ball Handler:  Kyrie vs. Thomas. These guys are both bottom-5 defenders at their position. Both need to be hidden.

As for the bench, both teams have Smart and Rozier. Baynes vs. KO is probably the only matchup of consequence. Baynes can help if Brad uses him, but KO was quite decent as a team defender.

So, right now I don't see an immediate upgrade. The defense should take a step back as guys learn their roles and gel.
I see your point.
Thanks for taking the time to spell out a thoughtful argumentation.
I tend to disagree with you on certain points but most of your arguments here are somewhat valid.
I still think that low post defense, no IT,  length and athleticism help push this year team over last year's defensively...
I don't see how our low post defense is better. Al is Al. Amir is a better low post defender than Morris. And Baynes and KO are about the same with me giving the edge to KO.  Our rebounding on the defensive end in the low post is still awful.

Also, I don't care if IT is 5'10" and Kyrie is 6'3", they are both horrible defensively and need to be hidden. By most defensive metrics Irving is actually a worse defender than Thomas.

And length and athleticism is great but if you don't know how to use it, what good is it. The list of long, athletic guys that are bad defenders is too long to list. Heck when it comes to defense and rebounding its all about desire. Bradley was one of the best rebounders on the team last year but was one of the smallest guys on the court. KO was a guy with awful length and athleticism but turned himself into a good defender.

I think we will have a defense that ranks similar to last year...middle of the pack.

Re: We are actually a better defensive team!!!
« Reply #29 on: September 11, 2017, 10:31:00 PM »

Offline crimson_stallion

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To the OP, in response to your points.

1. We overcame the Bulls largely due to a series-ending injury to Rajon Rondo (who had been killing us in that series) in addition to the elite defensive job Avery Bradley did on Jimmy Butler -  Bradley is now gone.

2. We barely overcame the Wizards in a 7 game series because the team played with no heart and no energy in half of those games.  They basically laid down and said "do what you want with me, I won't fight it".  There was a lack of effort on both ends of the court in the games we lost - and the blowout margins were proof of that.

3. We got destroyed by the Cavs because of terrible rebounding (which has gotten worse this year) and because, as with the Washington series, we played with no heart and no effort to start the series.  When IT went down the team seemed to play motivated again (as if they wanted to play harder for him, or were making up for the loss)  and after actually playing with some effort and heart for the first time in the series, Boston actually took a game. 

4. The Cavs do have a poor defence, you are right.  But they also had Kyrie Irving (one of the best closers in the game) and Lebron James (the best player in the game), and the duo of Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson (one of the best rebounding frontcourts in the NBA).  When you have three offensive superstars on your team who are capable of scoring 70 PPG on their own,  combined with two three frontcourt players who are capable of pulling down around 30 RPG between them, then you can kinda make up for a lack of great defence. 

Unfortunately our top 3 scorers only averaged 60 PPG last year between them, our top 3 rebounding starters only averaged around 17 RPG between them, and our bench is made up almost entirely of young prospects - many of whom have yet to play a single NBA game.  So we cannot get by with a bad defence quite so easily as Cleveland could last year.

5.  You take a Kyrie three over Steph in the finals over any AB defence?  That's interesting, because without AB's defense against Jimmy Butler in Chicago we probably wouldn't make it out of the first round, I which case your Kyrie 3PT in the finals becomes nothing but a pipe dream. 

6. Our defense is not better then last year, don't make me laugh.  Our top six defenders last year were (not in any order) Avery Bradley, Jae Crowder, Al Horford, Marcus Smart, Amir Johnson, Kelly Olynyk.   We lost four of those six guys.  In return we gained two above average defenders (Morris and Baynes), one average defender (Hayward) and one terrible defender (Kyrie).  The only consolation here is that Kyrie replaces Thomas, who was an even worse defender.  Other then that we are worse on defence - way worse.  Unless Brown and Tatum shock us that is.