… and tell me if you still think Rudy can’t defend. I think his D has been more than adequate in the Olympics so far. His defensive style is more Allen Iverson than Bruce Bown— he’s not going to take the other team’s best player out of the game, but steals/deflections/being a pest is very valuable also.

Also, you are too general with some of your statements, for example:

“Blake can’t defend points.” I’d amend this to “Blake can’t defend the quickest of NBA PGs but does an adequate job on many other PGs.”

but being a solid individual defender is definitely important.

Bayless can’t defend 2’s

So what? I see bayless as a guy who defends “ones” all the time. All this talk of him possibly playing SG is ridiculous there is no time for him there. He will play the “PG” but Brandon will run the offense. Which is why I think he will be starter pretty quickly

I know you were just quoting other people so I’m just responding to people that say that

of an often changing defense. It does make it tough for opposing teams to come up with an offensive game plan. It could make us really tough to score on. A lot of our problem last season was that when Joel wasn’t in the game the middle seemed to open wide up, and easy buckets were plentiful for the bad guys. With Oden as the starter and Joel backing him up I bet we see a lot fewer of those easy buckets.

Do we have the veterans, experience, intelligence ala Boston to play effective team defense? Or are we too young right now? Not that age, or even veteranship, are really necessary to play this way. If you all get what I am trying to say.

I think that you have underestimated your ability to contribute here. Excellent topic, well presented and I agree with you and the points that you are making here. We Bedgers often make assertions about a players abilities based on our own perceptions of that player, and in many cases don’t realize how our biases and/or preconceived notions may be causing us to see only what we are expecting to see when we watch that given player.

BTW: I rec’ed your FanPost!

He is an unrestricted free agent formerly with the Clippers, and nobody seems interested in him, which I think is crazy. Yeah he is not Bruce Bowen, Shane Battier or Raja Bell, but the guy is an absolutely underrated defender. 6’6 shooting guard (who can also play some three, but we have Batum for that role), turned 27 in April, about 4 ppg throughout his career, has worked on hitting the three but isn’t a shooter by any stretch of the imagination. Yet he wouldn’t be on the team for his offense, but to shut down opposing players for some stretches. Don’t just take my word for it, here is DraftExpress’ current scouting report on him (“very long arms… moves feet extremely well… almost never turns the ball over… a tremendous defender who plays aggressively on the ball without fouling… won’t go after bad passes or reach”).

I know we also need to improve our SF position (my dream would still be to somehow pry Danny Granger away from Indiana) and hope the planned “two combo guards switching responsibilities” defense turns out well, but that would be a serious role player addition. Last season Ross played for $800,000, so we should be able to get him e.g. for the bi-annual veteran’s exception. If a greater deal comes up around the trade deadline that requires an additional roster spot, you could still try to move him for a pick or waive him (I highly doubt at this point they want to still bring PetKo over).

I love the notion that we should also focus on team defense instead of just on one-on-one defense (Rudy also is used to a lot of zone defense), but a defensive specialist wouldn’t hurt IMHO.

Others have already brought up how defense was a huge part of the 13 game streak. I am going to bring up a name that was a big part of our team defense last year that we will miss: Jarrett Jack. He wasn’t the greatest one-on-one defender but he was a coach on the floor in the zone defense and was fantastic at sending his man into help. Sometimes the help wasn’t there, usually Travis missing his assignment, but he would force his man where he wanted him to go.

Bayless looks like he might be a better one-on-one guy and Rudy might be a better steal guy but it may take a while for them, or anyone else, to match Jack’s intelligence on defense as well as his coaching on the floor.

I do envision the Blazers being a sound defensive team with Oden and LMA on the floor at the same time. They will make it more difficult for guards to finish inside. Also our second unit will be better with Joel anchoring the defense. Rebounding is also a huge part of playing defense. Last year we stopped teams once or twice but could never secure the offensive rebound to end the threat. With Oden or Joel on the floor at all times, we should be a lot better at the one and done trip down the floor for our opponents.

But Oden will definitely average 40 rebounds per game and 15 blocks. Without a doubt.

I’d argue that Brandon’s one defensive team vote was based on All-Star status more than actual, consistent defense. Not saying he is a bad defender, just saying he is getting All-Star treatment.

Webster is this team’s best perimeter defender and is rapidly improving. Notice how he was the only guy on the team guarding Lebron last year that actually made Lebron work?

Webster isn’t a “stopper” yet, but he is a lot closer to that role than Brandon and certainly Batum are currently.