Dame's new found defense

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Strenuus said:
Cue the obligatory "he gave up on this team so he stopped playing defense" or some iteration.

I'm waiting...
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I swear it's like Terry was telling them not to worry about defense and we would just outscore our opponents.
 
tykendo said:
Dame has always had great moments, and periods of defense in the past. Many times on a player (Tatum) bigger than him. But rarely did he get credit, on Nat'l TV broadcast, or even here in S2, for it. Doesn't surprise me at all.
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Agreed. I've seen Dame make a ton of incredible defensive plays.

But you can't expect a guy his size to carry the load he does on offense as well as exert the effort required for a small player to be a great defender.

He needs help.
 
If he didn't have to worry about being the savior of the offense, he'd have more energy for defense.
 
Natebishop3 said:
Not sure if you guys saw Dame in the game against Spain, but his defense was stellar. A real massive improvement on what we have seen in the past.

4 steals tonight, one of them that led to this play
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Lillard is not a terrible defensive player and does put effort into it. He is also not is 6'6" tall with a 7'0" wingspan. He can be overmatched, but he has gotten stronger and in the last couple of years has been able to use that strength like Jrue Holiday or Chris Paul to muscle taller players away from the basket or prevent them from getting by him off the dribble.

Having said that, he also plays a lot of minutes and his style causes him to exert a lot of energy on offense, especially since he is the number 1 option on offense. Holiday and Paul aren't the number one options on their team, so they can focus on offense. A different style of offense that doesn't rely on isolating Dame so he can go one on one all the time will probably result in Dame's scoring going down, but his defense would improve.
 
Jax_Tiger said:
Lillard is not a terrible defensive player and does put effort into it. He is also not is 6'6" tall with a 7'0" wingspan. He can be overmatched, but he has gotten stronger and in the last couple of years has been able to use that strength like Jrue Holiday or Chris Paul to muscle taller players away from the basket or prevent them from getting by him off the dribble.

Having said that, he also plays a lot of minutes and his style causes him to exert a lot of energy on offense, especially since he is the number 1 option on offense. Holiday and Paul aren't the number one options on their team, so they can focus on offense. A different style of offense that doesn't rely on isolating Dame so he can go one on one all the time will probably result in Dame's scoring going down, but his defense would improve.
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I hope that Billups offense scheme isn't basically "get the ball to Dame, you guys sit at the corners" or "get the ball to CJ, and you guys do whatever you want, because he's going to shoot" or "Melo shoots" or "Dame bails us out".
 
I thought Dame looked great on defense yesterday, even posted about it in the game thread but...

That was a really old Spain team.
 
Natebishop3 said:
I swear it's like Terry was telling them not to worry about defense and we would just outscore our opponents.
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What motivation would any coach have to say such a thing?

Dame got attacked in the first two exhibition games, so maybe last night isn't the new norm.

Hopefully it was all Stotts and Dame will be an all-NBA defender next year, but I'm not holding my breath.
 
Tince said:
What motivation would any coach have to say such a thing?

Dame got attacked in the first two exhibition games, so maybe last night isn't the new norm.

Hopefully it was all Stotts and Dame will be an all-NBA defender next year, but I'm not holding my breath.
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dame got attacked all through the first half last night as well. they were targeting him on switches and going at him. rubio cooked him a few times as well.

something must have happened at halftime because he came out super physical in the third. refs let them play as well.
 
Mediocre Man said:
Is effort a muscle?
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Not saying CJ didn't work hard on his game, but the other stuff maybe not as much. Looks like CJ has adopted the Dame way of doing things. Cross Training Baby. Looks real good.
 
as several have said, a player will have a limited amount of energy to expend in a game, or a season, and Dame has been carrying one of the heaviest loads in the NBA for years. Being the #1 scoring option, especially in clutch time ("save us again, Dame!"), as well as the only player on the team consistently able to run the offense is a heavy burden. Dame has broad shoulders but they aren't broad enough to support him going all out on defense

it needs to be noted again that Portland's season turned around late in the Indiana game when Dame asked to guard Brogdon and shut him down. Dame has always been decent at guarding size. Even though they lost game 6 against Denver, remember that Porter was absolutely torching Powell's defense. He'd score 24 points, then Dame was switched on to him and Porter score 2 points after that. The problem was he didn't get much help, at either end of the floor from his teammates

I'd look for Dame to put about the same effort on defense next year he has in the past. But I'd anticipate there will be some better schemes on that end of the floor.
 
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