What's needed to Win?Defense!

by VinnyB on Jul 9, 2009 5:16 AM PDT

What's needed to win? Well we need to be in the top 5 in both Offense and Defense. Nate is a defensive minded coach but we have mostly offensive minded players.

Offensive players are : Roy, Aldridge, Outlaw, Webster, Bayless, Blake, Fernandez

Defensive players are: Przybilla, Oden, Batum

Both Oden and Batum are inexperienced. Both have the potential to be great defenders but will they improve quickly enough? Its bound to take them a couple of seasons to develop the necessary tricks to defend the league's premier players such as James, Wade and Bryant. By 'tricks' I mean all the uncalled-for holding and tripping that players like Bowen, Posey, Ariza and Battier do all the time. It takes time to establish a familiarity with the referees to pull off those obvious fouls and not get called for them. So if we want to win now, we need a 'veteran' defensive player to take the pressure off of Batum and Oden so they are free to develop their all around game. A veteran defensive player will also be able to help Batum and Oden learn the 'tricks'.

Where our team needs to improve defensively are in 1) Protecting the paint 2) Opposistion fg%3) Creating turnovers 4) Opposistion 3pt%

Last season we were pretty much awfull in all 4 categories. We won't win in the Playoffs, nevermind the title if we don't make it in at least the top 10 in those categories. I believe that the teams goal should be to finish the regular season in the top 5 in overall defense.

How to make it happen? It has been suggested that Houston would be a great trade partner what with having one of the best defensive players in the league. But I would really hate to not only give up our very own Vanilla Gorilla but to then see him at a rival Western Conference team. I am not sure giving up Joel for Battier is our best option. I'd rather offer them a 1st round pick but I know the Rockets are desperately in need of a Center. Perhaps a 3 team trade would be best.A sign and trade with Atlanta's Pachulia would be good for them. Personally I'd rather trade Rudy for Battier and a protected 1st round pick from Houston. Webster can shift over to back up Roy and Batum would backup Shane. We will never be able to keep Rudy for that long anyways, plus his trade value could go down if we don't trade him this summer.

The next move that I'd make would be to get Millsap to sign an offer sheet. Paul is already I really good defender and rebounder. His versatilaty allows him to defend not only Power Fowards but certain Centers(backups) and certain Small Forwards. Wouldn't it be nice to see Millsap guard Artest and Battier guarding Bryant? Roy wanted a physical team and with Battier and Millsap, we'd have one!

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Championships

Defense & Versatility wins championships.

Come playoff time, would you rather have Steve Blake, or Kirk Hinrich. Easy decision. Please do not bother mentioning Derek Fisher/Jordan Farmar. They have what seems to be one of the most versatile front courts over the last decade.

Would you rather have Travis Outlaw, or LaMar Odom backing up both forward spots? Easy decision. We don’t have anyone nearly as effective as Odom at that spot & it will hurt us again next year unless we do get a Millsap or Bass. But that puts ’Billa on shaky ground in some peoples eyes.

Would you rather have LaMarcus Aldridge or Pau Gasol as your Premier post player? Easy decision. Aldridge can’t slide to the 5 nearly as smoothly as Pau, although I hope he will be able to one day. It hurts us in terms of being able to sign someone like Bass or Millsap.

If we want a championship, in addition to our current core, we need a PG who can be a lock down defender, someone willing to backup both forward spots(and be able to rebound & defend) at a high level at both positions

Patience :)

by TheGreatDane17 on Jul 9, 2009 8:11 AM PDT reply actions

Nate's such a defensive minded coach that he pushed hard for Hedo.

I swear, there is such a huge gap around these parts between perception and reality.

by howlingfantods on Jul 9, 2009 11:08 AM PDT reply actions

The trouble is when you are trading Battier for Pryz, you are just trading an apple for an orange.

It is perimeter defense for inside D. All things being equal right now I would rather have some inside defense, and aquire some defense in the PG position.

Pryz is too important, having two defensive based bigs has so much value. Not to mention he slides right in the starting role in case of an Oden injury. If our starting SF went down, the gap between him and Martell is not nearly as big as Oden to whoever we sign to replace Pryz.

* Building a Greg Oden Fanboy Treehouse Clubhouse this summer...

by OdenFanBoy on Jul 10, 2009 3:07 AM PDT reply actions