Season in Statistics:  Defense

what, exactly, can we do to improve our defense? Roy and Aldridge were mediocre defenders for most of the season. Przybilla was incredible at center, as Oden will hopefully be next year. Batum showed flashes of defensive potential, but suffered from rookie mistakes at times…

Our biggest defensive deficiency was the pick and roll. I still have nightmares of Barea and Bass doing their best Stockton and Malone impression on Christmas day, slicing through the Blazer defense for countless dunks.

I really feel that if we improved the point guard defense, and thus the pick and roll defense, we would be a completely different team. Teams were allowed to run their sets with very little defensive pressure… it’s why I advocate acquiring Kirk Hinrich. Roy and Aldridge are here to stay, and Batum and Oden should be solid defensively for the next ten years. We need point guard defense.

as far as the houston series went, it was a nightmare having to deal with Yao, as we ended up doubling and that left Houston perimeter shooters even MORE open.

Ultimately, I’d like to see

1) Lamarcus playing better help defense
2) Nic continuing his growth into a lock-down defender
3) Joel keep barking out orders on defense
4) Roy take more of a leadership role on defense like he does on offense, especially when Przy isn’t on the court
5) Oden to not foul away from the ball as much. He needs to pick his spots better.
6) Have Rudy add to his quick hands that get in the passing lanes some quick feet. Less “herding” of players into the middle and more staying in front of them.
7) Outlaw work his butt off on defense 100% of the time instead of playing just enough to not end up on the pine.
8) Bayless to tone down his aggressiveness just a hair. He seems to pick up too many fouls while attacking other PGs when he’s in.

As for Blake, I’m really not sure how much he’s going to change. He’s an older guy and I think his defense is just what you’re always going to see from him. If you don’t like it, find someone else. Steve will always be Steve. WYSIWYG

Sergio has lackluster defense, and after hearing Quick/reading online articles from Marca (the Spanish website he talks to), I honestly don’t know if he’s even going to be around.

For Webster, it will be nice just to have him back in uniform. Hard to evaluate what he can do when we haven’t seen him play in so long.

As far as team defense goes, we basically just need to see more execution. I think Nate and the coaching staff comes up with relatively solid defensive schemes, although it does seem we rely on our zone too much on the road. I could be crazy, but it seems like we pull it out and the home team shoots the lights out on us. There’s nothing that gets the home crowd pumping like a three pointer, as we all know from seeing Rudy at the Rose Garden. You can’t play a loose zone on the road and give up those threes. I’d like to see Nate make the guys play man as much as possible and keep those shooters covered.

Overall though, I liked what I saw this season. I’m trusting that our team will continue its development and we’ll see even more of a matador-style D next year.

I want to see more fingers in the passing lanes. We have some wingspan that can be used without risky steal attempts.

That is the big question for me. The Blazers’ defensive 3-pt % went up this year and all year long there has been much discussion about our weak perimeter defense. We really do need help out there and I don’t see Blake’s or Brandon’s defense improving enough on their own to make the difference we need to see. Nic’s continued development will help, but for solid improvement we either trade for more help or…

Will Martell’s seeming defensive improvements last preseason carry over to make enough impact next year? Here’s hoping so.

The three areas I’d like to see improve the most are:

(1) A high level perimeter stopper on the wing — either through an acquisition, or if somebody like Batum can develop into one — I think the defense is going to continue having problems until this player is found.

(2) Greg Oden and LaMarcus Aldridge playing better defense away from the rim, and off the ball (more Aldridge there). Both players have to step up their pick and roll defense in a big way.

(3) Some defense off the bench — too much onus on offensive players, especially on the perimeter, off the bench. Their needs to be more grit and defensive ability from the backups.

Of course, there is room for improvement. But at the half way mark of the season, we hovered around 20th for defensive efficiency. To improve to 10th is pretty good, I would think. Let’s hope they get it in their head to try for 1st.

As far as PG defense, who would you say is a good PG defender in this league? I can’t think of anyone of the top of my head. Handchecking rules have made PG defense nearly impossible, especially on quicker point guards. Does anyone else have any ideas who would be considered an elite defender at that position?

…. I think we are going to see increased focus on the defensive end. As already pointed out here, it appeared as if that was already happening during the 2nd have of this season.

Maybe Nate McMillan needs to bring in an assistant coach to focus on the defense, like Tom Thibodeau in Boston. McMillan’s teams in Seattle were very good offensively, (and did a good job shooting 3’s, which sounds familiar) but were not very good defensively. I always thought that McMillan would end up being a good defensive coach, but an average offensive coach as that was the kind of player he was. It is easy to believe that if you don’t use pace-adjusted statistics. Now I think we need to evaluate McMillan for what he is. He is an elite offensive coach and an excellent developer of young players, but his teams have been consistantly below average defensively. We shouldn’t let McMillan’s abilities as a player cloud our judgements of him as a coach. If we could get a good defensive assistant coach, I think that with the players we have now, the Blazers could be a top 10 defensive team.

Greg Oden needs to hip-check guards right in front of referees more. That way they get so used to seeing it they don’t call it anymore.

Think about it. Last year, we zoned up half the time, and got laughed at (rightly so). Use of excessive zones are sign of a Bad Defensive Team (throwing the occasional zone into the mix is another matter).

This year, we spent much of the season debating the finer points of the pick-and-roll, with lots of grousing that we switched or went under way too often, exposing the basket and/or leaving shooters open.

By the end of the season, that was no longer an issue. (Or at least less of one, the gripe-o-sphere had moved on to other reasons why Nate sucked…)

Bottom line—the team is learning. So many people like to discount inexperience, but harp about more abstract qualities such as “toughness”, as if our problem is that we don’t stare and foul hard enough. Much of what goes into toughness, though, is experience.