Is our defense better?

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Shaboid said:
https://www.theringer.com/nba/2021/...sions-2021-22-season-damian-lillard-ja-morant

First paragraph is about our changes on defense.
Click to expand...

I think the part about Nurk not moving the same since the injury is 100% true. The Beast Nurk has been in hibernation for a while. Hell, the Bubble Nurk hasn't been around either.

We're getting the timid and soft Nurk. Part of me can't blame him, as that kind of injury HAS to have some kind of sports injury PTSD effect on him. It didn't happen to me and I cringe every single time he falls down (that's one game I wish I had never seen...that dangling foot still is burned into my brain).

I had a bad wrist injury that happened to me when I was in middle school. I was playing basketball and my "friend" tripped me as I was defending him (like you "sweep the leg" kinda trip) and I landed full weight on my right wrist, bending it completely back. How I didn't do any severe damage I credit all my years of whackin....er, I mean, just dumb luck. But my right arm was useless for about a month because of it.

Anyway, I was very anxious the next time I played basketball. Actually to this day, some 30+ years later, I still have fears of falling wrong and re-injuring it. Thankfully, I'm too old an lazy to play basketball anymore so it's not an issue, but I can totally notice I'm much more timid about doing things that potentially could cause that injury to re-occur. I'm heavier and far less flexible than I was as a 13 year old.

(go ahead @THE HCP , I give you permission to make that joke)
 
Orion Bailey said:
Thanks! Thats awesome.
The links and info i mean. Not the game stats. Lol.
I think we can turn this into a quality defensive team. It only takes one small mistake to make a possession look awful on D even if most of it was great.
I think there is a good chance we can be a top 15 defensive team aNd if we can stay in the top 5 offensively, we may just have a chance at a deep playoff run.
Trade Ben for cj:
Top 5 defensively, top 15 offensively. can be a contending team for a ring.
Click to expand...

While I do believe the Blazers need to improve defense to contend, trading Ben's D for CJ's O isn't the answer.

There is a reason NBA offensive players are valued much more than NBA defensive players. There is a reason defensive player of the year Gobert regularly loses in the playoffs.

Teams can instantly control who has the ball on offense, but on defense, they can't control who guards the ball.

If CJ has a great matchup the Blazers can give him the ball. They can make that change in the fraction of a second on any play with a pass.

If Simmons has a great defensive matchup the opponent can attack 4 other defenders every time down the court. The opponents offense can easily take Simmons defense out of the play with a quick pass in a way that an opponent cannot take an offensive player out of the play.

Simmons lack of shooting will significantly hurt the Blazers offense, with him next to Dame we won't be a top5 offense.

I'm not opposed to making trades or even trading CJ in the right deal, but it needs to be to either contend or rebuild. Getting Simmons at the cost of CJ accomplishes neither.
 
Shaboid said:
https://www.theringer.com/nba/2021/...sions-2021-22-season-damian-lillard-ja-morant

First paragraph is about our changes on defense.
Click to expand...
I saw this in there: "Starting center Jusuf Nurkic was an energetic bruiser before suffering a major leg injury in 2019. Now he moves like he’s lost. Whether he’s out of breath, physically limited, or unfamiliar with the scheme, Nurkic is not the same rim protector. Teams readily attack him, and he’s been outplayed by bigs like Ivica Zubac and Isaiah Hartenstein. Unless he can become that guy again, he should no longer be known as the Bosnian Beast."
 
WesleyMatthews said:
I'm not opposed to making trades or even trading CJ in the right deal, but it needs to be to either contend or rebuild. Getting Simmons at the cost of CJ accomplishes neither.
Click to expand...

I don't agree....that's just your theory, and the reality of your two examples doesn't fit well. Simmons is not the same player as Gobert, and CJ is not the same player as Dame or Curry or even Middleton

the problem is that both Simmons and CJ are flawed players, but their flaws aren't equal, nor is their talent. And when you gauge their flaws and their talent against those of the Blazers is when your theory beaks down. We know that CJ does not get Portland close to over the hump to contention; 6 years is more than enough evidence. We don't know the same for Simmons

again, absolute-peak CJ has been there for the starts of the last two seasons: 12 games last year and 3 games this year. Portland's record in those 15 games is 8-7. I'm convinced that absolute-peak Simmons would have given the Blazers a much better record over those 15 games
 
WesleyMatthews said:
While I do believe the Blazers need to improve defense to contend, trading Ben's D for CJ's O isn't the answer.

There is a reason NBA offensive players are valued much more than NBA defensive players. There is a reason defensive player of the year Gobert regularly loses in the playoffs.

Teams can instantly control who has the ball on offense, but on defense, they can't control who guards the ball.

If CJ has a great matchup the Blazers can give him the ball. They can make that change in the fraction of a second on any play with a pass.

If Simmons has a great defensive matchup the opponent can attack 4 other defenders every time down the court. The opponents offense can easily take Simmons defense out of the play with a quick pass in a way that an opponent cannot take an offensive player out of the play.

Simmons lack of shooting will significantly hurt the Blazers offense, with him next to Dame we won't be a top5 offense.

I'm not opposed to making trades or even trading CJ in the right deal, but it needs to be to either contend or rebuild. Getting Simmons at the cost of CJ accomplishes neither.
Click to expand...
The best defensive teams lower their opponents’ scoring below the average by as much as the best offensive teams score above the average. So I think they are about equally important.

Also on offense you can easily have duplication of roles. For example Steph, Klay, Durant had low duplication as two of them could create and all three could catch and shoot lights out. Whereas say Lebron and Wade were a huge duplication of value as both needed the one ball to be most effective and neither was ideal to shoot off the others’ creative ability.

On defense there is little duplication. The more defenders the better. I guess on defense though it helps to not have even one weak link in the chain.

All in all I think it’s a wash. So I think defense is routinely underrated.
 
I haven't look at the data, but I would assume the players we brought in this off-season have been historically better defenders than the ones who left. I would expect a slight uptick in defense for that reason alone. It will be interesting to see if Billups can make us into a top 10-15 defense like some of felt we should be all along.
 
UKRAINEFAN said:
I saw this in there: "Starting center Jusuf Nurkic was an energetic bruiser before suffering a major leg injury in 2019. Now he moves like he’s lost. Whether he’s out of breath, physically limited, or unfamiliar with the scheme, Nurkic is not the same rim protector. Teams readily attack him, and he’s been outplayed by bigs like Ivica Zubac and Isaiah Hartenstein. Unless he can become that guy again, he should no longer be known as the Bosnian Beast."
Click to expand...

I don’t buy it. Excluding this year, Nurk’s blocked shots, steals, rebounds are pretty much the same since his injury as before. This year his blocked shots are way down but it’s only three games and it may be the scheme not the injury.
 
Tince said:
I haven't look at the data, but I would assume the players we brought in this off-season have been historically better defenders than the ones who left. I would expect a slight uptick in defense for that reason alone. It will be interesting to see if Billups can make us into a top 10-15 defense like some of felt we should be all along.
Click to expand...

They are better according to the data. But Nas is rated horribly defensively by advanced stats so that (if true) may offset some of our gains.
 
it will be interesting to see how much this one game moves Portland's net rating. Prior to this game:

upload_2021-10-27_23-18-3.png
upload_2021-10-27_23-18-39.png

Blazers ranked 19th at -1.3

I'd think they will be well into + tomorrow

Dame is still cold, but he played some real good defense tonight
 
wizenheimer said:
it will be interesting to see how much this one game moves Portland's net rating. Prior to this game:

View attachment 41360
View attachment 41361

Blazers ranked 19th at -1.3

I'd think they will be well into + tomorrow

Dame is still cold, but he played some real good defense tonight
Click to expand...
After this game, they should be +4.0. It will place them somewhere between ~10-15. This early in the season, a single game has a huge impact.
 
After game 4, per 100 possessions Blazers this season vs last year;

10th in net rating (+3.8) vs 12th (+1.8)
9th in offense (109.6) vs 2nd (117.8)
15th in defense (105.8) vs 29th (116.0)

Been ecstatic with the defense thus far!
 
92 points allowed is very encouraging.

After 5:

PPG 113.6 - 4th in WC
PPGA 106.6 - 6th in WC
+7 - 2nd in WC
 
Do birds fly?
Do crocodiles bite?

This thread seems like a fun chance to answer the thread title with another question!
 
Mr. Robot said:
who is our best defender in these 4 games
Click to expand...
nurk overall given all his responsibilities.

zeller is next for me. so solid. seriously, he never makes mistakes.

then nance.

then CJ & Dame (!!!!)

roco needs to get with the program. before tonight, he was our most clueless dude out there.
 
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