FIX YOUR EFFIN DEFENSE TERRY!

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I think if they really wanted to fix the defense they have to get rid of CJ. A guy like Tobias Harris operates at the same level of offensive efficiency as CJ and can serve as an outlet for isolation plays, but won't get massacred on the defensive end every game.
 
B-Roy said:
I think if they really wanted to fix the defense they have to get rid of CJ. A guy like Tobias Harris operates at the same level of offensive efficiency as CJ and can serve as an outlet for isolation plays, but won't get massacred on the defensive end every game.
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What about CJ for Harris and Kurkmaz?
 
WesleyMatthews said:
Is it Terry or the roster?
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From my vantage point, it's the scheme.

Terry Stotts coaches defense like it is 2018. Unfortunately, the game has revolutionized a ton over the past two seasons. Teams are going small at the 4, the floor is littered with knock-down shooters, and the floor has never been more spaced.

Our defense is the equivalent of a prevent defense in football. We put no pressure on the opposition, offer up no resistance if they want an open look, and 2-3 passes usually results in a wide open look from three or at the rim. Most importantly (or detrimental) it is predictable. Teams know we don't switch up the defense. Our coaching staff is too afraid to take the ball out of a hot hand and force others to beat us. Also, can we not switch the pick and roll every single time? It's not fair to Hassan or Nurkic to defend a quick guard with handles and range on an island out on the perimeter.

Except the Houston Rockets.

This is where I am bewildered by the coaching staff. The Blazers implemented a "Diamond Defense" surrounding James Harden and we did it all four matchups this season, which resulted in not only a 3-1 season series win but a 102 point output for the Rockets in the seeding games -- by far the fewest points the Blazers allowed. Speaking of that seeding game, the Blazers utilized that strategy 37 times, resulting in a .86 PPP.

So why do they adapt and adjust only against the Rockets?

Lastly, there is some blame on the players. Portland does not know how to defend without fouling, especially the bigs who LOVE to reach and fall for pump fakes. And, aside from Gary Trent Jr., I don't see many players fight through screens. It gets really bad when the bench (not-named Gary) checks in. There are communication mishaps galore with the second unit.

It is a mixture of both, but I do believe with this roster, we should not be as awful on defense as we are. Just how poor did we perform on that end of the floor over these eight seeding games? Take a look for yourself:

  • Blazers Defense in the Bubble:
    • Allowing: 123.4 PPG
    • That’s 5 PPG worse than the 30th rated Defense from the regular season (Atlanta Hawks 119.7)
    • 49.4 FG% (346-700)
    • 48.5 3Pt % (128-264)
Overall, I think the coaching staff needs to be more flexible in their adjustments. If that means some games Zach starts and some games he comes off the bench (allowing Gary to start), so be it. Another poster mentioned this but Zach's defense is not where it needs to be as a 4 going up against small ball 4's. And even if his defense isn't where it needs to be, he's not making the opposition pay on the offensive end for going small, which in lies the biggest issue. We're trying to go big against smaller teams, and, aside from the Rockets, we can't seem to make them pay on the offensive end.

I think Ariza and Hoodie would help but, to be honest, even if we had a team full of Kawhi's on defense, we would never be elite on that end playing such a conservative strategy.
 
HolyBackboard said:
From my vantage point, it's the scheme.

Terry Stotts coaches defense like it is 2018. Unfortunately, the game has revolutionized a ton over the past two seasons. Teams are going small at the 4, the floor is littered with knock-down shooters, and the floor has never been more spaced.

Our defense is the equivalent of a prevent defense in football. We put no pressure on the opposition, offer up no resistance if they want an open look, and 2-3 passes usually results in a wide open look from three or at the rim. Most importantly (or detrimental) it is predictable. Teams know we don't switch up the defense. Our coaching staff is too afraid to take the ball out of a hot hand and force others to beat us. Also, can we not switch the pick and roll every single time? It's not fair to Hassan or Nurkic to defend a quick guard with handles and range on an island out on the perimeter.

Except the Houston Rockets.

This is where I am bewildered by the coaching staff. The Blazers implemented a "Diamond Defense" surrounding James Harden and we did it all four matchups this season, which resulted in not only a 3-1 season series win but a 102 point output for the Rockets in the seeding games -- by far the fewest points the Blazers allowed. Speaking of that seeding game, the Blazers utilized that strategy 37 times, resulting in a .86 PPP.

So why do they adapt and adjust only against the Rockets?

Lastly, there is some blame on the players. Portland does not know how to defend without fouling, especially the bigs who LOVE to reach and fall for pump fakes. And, aside from Gary Trent Jr., I don't see many players fight through screens. It gets really bad when the bench (not-named Gary) checks in. There are communication mishaps galore with the second unit.

It is a mixture of both, but I do believe with this roster, we should not be as awful on defense as we are. Just how poor did we perform on that end of the floor over these eight seeding games? Take a look for yourself:

  • Blazers Defense in the Bubble:
    • Allowing: 123.4 PPG
    • That’s 5 PPG worse than the 30th rated Defense from the regular season (Atlanta Hawks 119.7)
    • 49.4 FG% (346-700)
    • 48.5 3Pt % (128-264)
Overall, I think the coaching staff needs to be more flexible in their adjustments. If that means some games Zach starts and some games he comes off the bench (allowing Gary to start), so be it. Another poster mentioned this but Zach's defense is not where it needs to be as a 4 going up against small ball 4's. And even if his defense isn't where it needs to be, he's not making the opposition pay on the offensive end for going small, which in lies the biggest issue. We're trying to go big against smaller teams, and, aside from the Rockets, we can't seem to make them pay on the offensive end.

I think Ariza and Hoodie would help but, to be honest, even if we had a team full of Kawhi's on defense, we would never be elite on that end playing such a conservative strategy.
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absolutely nailed it with the conservative scheme. But talent is also an issue.
 
julius said:
I think of instead of "fix" it's "actually coach" defense
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Yeah the guy doesn't give a shit about defense. He won't let players play that are only good for defense. He doesn't make rotation adjustments based on defense. He hasn't realized at all how to hide our bad defenders. He lets this team get lit up from three and allows way too much penetration, I realize personnel isn't ideal but we could be so much better defensively if it was more of a priority. Telling the guys good job but try harder isn't getting it done. We need defense to be our number one priority because we have so many gifted offensive players and players with defensive deficits.

Chris Craig said:
Its playing CJ on defense against opponent leading scorers. Good thing that last shot missed
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CJ playing on ball defense with little to no help on any player in the league is fucking stupid. CJ being put on the best player of the other team, who has been lighting him up the whole game and hasn't been checked effectively by anyone else is so goddamn crazy it boggles my mind. Why LeVert didn't blow by CJ and take his chances against our rim protection is beyond me, he took the worst shot possible and I thank him for that but CJ gets no credit from me and shouldn't from anyone else... he's probably the worst defender starting in the NBA.
 
Tince said:
Someone please draw up a scheme where you can hide 4 or 5 below average perimeter defenders on the floor at the same time. If you don't have guys that can defend in space (I'm not counting Trent), you're toast.
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The personnel excuse is so used up.

LeVert loves playing against drop coverage. Dame himself said he doesnt understand why coaches run drop coverage. All Terry does is run drop coverage or switch into constant mismatches. After terrible runs of defense he doesnt try anything difference.

The only team we switch it up for is Houston and it works. If it was our personnel then are defense wouldnt be better against Houston when we switched things up.

The one time we hedged hard on LeVert in the 2nd half he almost fumbled away the ball then threw it to no one. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. If Terry tried a bunch of things and tried to do the best thing when taking into account specific situations, nobody would be blaming him. But people ignore all this and say personnel because it's easy and Terry is a nice guy so a lot of fans just want to like his coaching.

Terry's a terrible defensive coach.
 
B-Roy said:
I think if they really wanted to fix the defense they have to get rid of CJ. A guy like Tobias Harris operates at the same level of offensive efficiency as CJ and can serve as an outlet for isolation plays, but won't get massacred on the defensive end every game.
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I know you love to bash C.J. but he's not the reason our defense is so bad. He's not a good defender but theres so many overall scheme issues that replacing C.J. with Tobias Harris wouldn't adjust. We'd also have no one other than Dame who could consistently create buckets at the end of games.
 
Tince said:
Players who can defend 1-4 have real value in this league. We often roll our 3 players who can't defend 1-5 and two bigs that can only defend the 5.
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The problem against Brooklyn wasn't individual defense, it was pick n roll defense.
 
wizenheimer said:
to start with...Zach's defense is significantly overrated. CJ's is non-existent..he has to be one of the biggest net-negative defenders in the league. Dame's a lot better than he used to be, and his ability to decently defend bigger players means he's about a net neutral on defense at best. Melo plays decent defense on about 3 possessions a game; the rest of the time he's poor. That's 4 of 5 starters. Nurk is good of course, but that's in the paint. Trent comes in and while he's intense and tenacious and disruptive, he also loses track defensively quite a bit and needs improved fundamentals. The price of playing young.

Whiteside is good defensively off the bench.

and that's basically it...a team with a couple of good defenders in the paint, but no lock-down defender on the perimeter. Ariza is a good defender, but not if he's on a beach somewhere

so Stotts has a half-full/half-empty defensive toolbox. And he's not a good defensive coach. That's an irritating combo
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Collins is average at worst.

You're underrating C.J.

Melo has been surprisingly solid at SF. I was wrong about how effective hed be defensively.

What I see is a coach running the worst pick n roll coverage (drop scheme) against players who love to play against it, without making adjustment. And if he's not running drop scheme, he's switching everything with a lineup that features two 7-footers and two guards.

If the personnel was as bad as you claim, we wouldnt play so well against the one team we decide not to do those things against.
 
As bad as the defense has been and as tired as they have looked at times with what is really a 7 man rotation with scraps for Mario, I'd like to see Wenyen get a little run. He is probably the most versatile defender on the Blazer roster now.
With all the guys who want to shoot, not sure how he can't get a few minutes a game with as poor as our D is.
 
CupWizier said:
McCollum played good defense on that last play. Give credit where credit is due. We win a huge game and all some of you posters can do is complain. That's why this forum can be such a downer at times.
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I was more pissed off more at the negativity than the way the game was going. Not used to giving up so easily on a team in the second third quarter. Sure one can be disappointed and bothered but to cry about every play gets old. Must have never played any team sports.
 
TBpup said:
As bad as the defense has been and as tired as they have looked at times with what is really a 7 man rotation with scraps for Mario, I'd like to see Wenyen get a little run. He is probably the most versatile defender on the Blazer roster now.
With all the guys who want to shoot, not sure how he can't get a few minutes a game with as poor as our D is.
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I have wondered the same thing about Wayne.
 
Between Bones and Holybackboard how could anyone still defend Terry? Those two posts are all the evidence you need. God I would love to see this team with a different coach.
 
We finished the season 27th in defense-- the worst during Terry's 8 yrs here. And 3rd on offense-- the best during Terry's tenure, matching last yea and 2014.

Historically, we have been the 17th best defense and the 8th best offense during his time as coach.

Even if we were in the middle of the pack on defense, we'd be considered a much better team with how good our offense has been.

His lack of flexibility notwithstanding, this year specifically, I think it has more to do with personnel. Having a rangy wing who can switch up and down a position is a must in today's NBA, and we have no one like that.
 
I think the defense was def. a problem, but Brooklyn was shooting lights out all night. What was it over 50%? Yes some of that was because shots were incredibly good looks but Levert made plenty of tough shots. Portland, on the other hand, had a terrible shooting 3rd. And between Nurk and Zach they must have blown >5 layups.

Guys like Ariza, and even Hood, would have helped. Wenyen and Nas need minutes. Why not have them pick up a few fouls in 5 minutes? Better that than multiple starters playing with 5 down the stretch. Fouling is a major issue too. Dumb fouls, a lot of them. Why give Levert an and-one on a layup with time running out? Give him the fucking two and move on.
 
BonesJones said:
Collins is average at worst.

You're underrating C.J.

Melo has been surprisingly solid at SF. I was wrong about how effective hed be defensively.

What I see is a coach running the worst pick n roll coverage (drop scheme) against players who love to play against it, without making adjustment. And if he's not running drop scheme, he's switching everything with a lineup that features two 7-footers and two guards.

If the personnel was as bad as you claim, we wouldnt play so well against the one team we decide not to do those things against.
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We can drop on Morant tomorrow though, right? He hasn't been shooting well from 3 (9/40 in the seeding games). Make him beat us there instead of giving him a chance to run to the rim.
 
Shaboid said:
We can drop on Morant tomorrow though, right? He hasn't been shooting well from 3 (9/40 in the seeding games). Make him beat us there instead of giving him a chance to run to the rim.
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Funny you say that:

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/pa...l-porter-jr-zion-williamson-power-rising-east

6. Ja Morant against switches
The 29 other head coaches must have organized a Zoom meeting and agreed to treat Morant like Ben Simmons. Teams in Orlando are ducking several feet under picks for Morant, walling off the paint, begging him to launch 3s.

It's working. Only about 39% of Morant's shots have come at the basket in Orlando, down from 51% before, per Cleaning The Glass. He's 9-of-40 on 3s.

The Grizzlies counter the go-under strategy by rescreening for Morant; it's hard to duck two or three screens without falling behind. Defenses resort to switching, and in what looms as a more troubling sign, Morant has struggled horribly against switches.

Big men back away, inviting Morant to hoist jumpers or dribble right into them. Morant does not want those 3s; he often steps in for long contested 2s. He's athletic enough to rev up and finish through some big men, but that is tough sledding against good defenders.
The Grizzlies have scored a putrid 0.799 points per possession when Morant shoots against a switch, or passes to a teammate who fires right away -- 114th among 129 ball handlers who have faced at least 50 switches this season, per Second Spectrum. Opponents in the bubble are switching against Morant on about 10 screens per 100 possessions, up from 6.2 before.

This is the scouting report now. Morant will solve it -- maybe soon. He was shooting 37% on 3s before the hiatus. His form looks fine.
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CJ was not the only player that was covering LeVert last night. He took Trent into the paint and finished just as easy. He did the same to Nurk. LeVert did have 6 TO's last night and CJ did have 3 steals.

No doubt that CJ is not an elite defender and that Ariza would have been a good option to throw at him late in the game especially when CJ approached the 44-minute mark. But as Dame alluded to in the post-game interview, the game plan was to let him go one on one and take away the 3 ball options for the other players. Not that really worked either.
 
BonesJones said:
The problem against Brooklyn wasn't individual defense, it was pick n roll defense.
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As you know, all defense starts with players ability to defend 1:1. If you have 5 players who can defend 1:1 you have a lot of schemes that can be successful. If you have 0 who can defend 1:1, you'll have zero schemes that will be effective long term.

I know you think talent isn't that big of the deal and coaching makes up 90% of every outcome and I respect your opinion, I just don't agree with it.
 
Tince said:
As you know, all defense starts with players ability to defend 1:1. If you have 5 players who can defend 1:1 you have a lot of schemes that can be successful. If you have 0 who can defend 1:1, you'll have zero schemes that will be effective long term.

I know you think talent isn't that big of the deal and coaching makes up 90% of every outcome and I respect your opinion, I just don't agree with it.
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I agree. Wing defense is getting hammered because of who we have at those positions, not because Terry and his staff don’t know how to coach. CJ is who he is, an offensive talent and a defensive liability (with a broken back). You can cover for one poor defensive wing, but not two. If Terry has Hood and Ariza available to him instead of Melo and Hezonja, Terry is suddenly a much better defensive coach.
 
BonesJones said:
Collins is average at worst.

You're underrating C.J.

Melo has been surprisingly solid at SF. I was wrong about how effective hed be defensively.

What I see is a coach running the worst pick n roll coverage (drop scheme) against players who love to play against it, without making adjustment. And if he's not running drop scheme, he's switching everything with a lineup that features two 7-footers and two guards.

If the personnel was as bad as you claim, we wouldnt play so well against the one team we decide not to do those things against.
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DBPM:

Jusuf Nurkić 0.8
Hassan Whiteside 0.7
Trevor Ariza 0.5
Kent Bazemore 0.4
Skal Labissière 0.3
Mario Hezonja 0.2
Caleb Swanigan 0.0
Wenyen Gabriel -0.3
Rodney Hood -0.5
Gary Trent -0.6
Nassir Little -0.6
Damian Lillard -0.8
Anthony Tolliver -0.9
Zach Collins -1.6
CJ McCollum -1.8
Carmelo Anthony -1.8
Anfernee Simons -1.9

yeah, I know..."sample size"....still, this matches the eye test for this season quite well. I'll give Zach a bit of a pass. Last season, he matched Skal's 0,3 this season, and that seems about right as far as where his defensive level is right now. But then, I never said Zach was a bad defender, just that his defense has been overrated by many around here.

CJ has always struggled at defense and was always toward the bottom of this ranking. And of course you may be able to argue that the injuries and trades this year bollixed any kind of continuity the Blazers needed to establish...and that's reflected in those numbers. Obviously you have to gauge how much time each player spends guarding 1st unit and 2nd unit players. So then, Hezonja's mark may need downgrading vs CJ's. The good thing for CJ is with Simons on the team, CJ isn't the worst perimeter defender any more

and by the way, I think the argument for Stotts being a poor defensive coach is pretty easy to make. You don't have to inflate the defensive ability of certain Blazers in order to make Stotts look worse. He does that on his own
 
e_blazer said:
I agree. Wing defense is getting hammered because of who we have at those positions, not because Terry and his staff don’t know how to coach. CJ is who he is, an offensive talent and a defensive liability (with a broken back). You can cover for one poor defensive wing, but not two. If Terry has Hood and Ariza available to him instead of Melo and Hezonja, Terry is suddenly a much better defensive coach.
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true, to a degree. I mean, Stotts is still the same coach

but his perimeter defense was better when he had Matthews and Batum. And better when he had Harkless & Aminu. However, that passive hybrid kinda-ICE PnR defense he used back then, and still does much of the time, drove me bonkers. It gave up the soft mid-range zone and did not force the opponent into difficult mid-range shots like he preached. Further, that passivity conceded initiative to the opposing offense. Portland's defense has never attacked an opposing offense under Stotts. It's the basketball version of 'bend-but-don't-break' but it ends up breaking far too often, and there are too many zone on the floor when it bends into high efficiency shots for the opponent
 
CupWizier said:
McCollum played good defense on that last play. Give credit where credit is due. We win a huge game and all some of you posters can do is complain. That's why this forum can be such a downer at times.
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Not complaining. Just pointing out it probably isn't the best idea to have CJ with a broken back, who is already not a great defender, defending the opponents leading scorer all game and especially on the last possession. Very happy LeVert missed.

CJ had a great game on the other end. It is really something that he is literally playing with a broken back to help the Blazers win. Very grateful!
 
wizenheimer said:
DBPM:

Jusuf Nurkić 0.8
Hassan Whiteside 0.7
Trevor Ariza 0.5
Kent Bazemore 0.4
Skal Labissière 0.3
Mario Hezonja 0.2
Caleb Swanigan 0.0
Wenyen Gabriel -0.3
Rodney Hood -0.5
Gary Trent -0.6
Nassir Little -0.6
Damian Lillard -0.8
Anthony Tolliver -0.9
Zach Collins -1.6
CJ McCollum -1.8
Carmelo Anthony -1.8
Anfernee Simons -1.9

yeah, I know..."sample size"....still, this matches the eye test for this season quite well. I'll give Zach a bit of a pass. Last season, he matched Skal's 0,3 this season, and that seems about right as far as where his defensive level is right now. But then, I never said Zach was a bad defender, just that his defense has been overrated by many around here.

CJ has always struggled at defense and was always toward the bottom of this ranking. And of course you may be able to argue that the injuries and trades this year bollixed any kind of continuity the Blazers needed to establish...and that's reflected in those numbers. Obviously you have to gauge how much time each player spends guarding 1st unit and 2nd unit players. So then, Hezonja's mark may need downgrading vs CJ's. The good thing for CJ is with Simons on the team, CJ isn't the worst perimeter defender any more

and by the way, I think the argument for Stotts being a poor defensive coach is pretty easy to make. You don't have to inflate the defensive ability of certain Blazers in order to make Stotts look worse. He does that on his own
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Terry’s coaching style is based on having a top-5 offense and a mid-level defense. That’s where the Blazers were last year and probably would be this year if they'd had Nurk and Collins from the start. Is that style good enough to win a championship? I'd say that the offense would have to tick up to top 3 and the defense had better get closer to top 10.
 
Chris Craig said:
Not complaining. Just pointing out it probably isn't the best idea to have CJ with a broken back, who is already not a great defender, defending the opponents leading scorer all game and especially on the last possession. Very happy LeVert missed.

CJ had a great game on the other end. It is really something that he is literally playing with a broken back to help the Blazers win. Very grateful!
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And Mc Collum played good defense and forced him into a lower percentage shot.
 
Have not been a fan of how Zach has looked mobility wise as he's added weight. Doesn't have the same pop around the rim as rim protector either.

And not sure if he's that healthy right now. Been on the bike the majority of the time he's not in the game and just watching him run up and down the floor I don't think he's close to being 100% right.
 
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