Lillard on the defensive end

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BlazerMoneyMaker

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There's a reason we've been a bottom fodder defensively throughout his time here.
Occasionally he would have a possesion where he plays strong man on man defense (which is his forte) and show glimpses of what could have been.
But most of the time he is hidden on the back corner of our defense and if offenses look to expose him they simply have a field day. For most of the defensive possesions since we had Lillard we played 4 on 5 on defense. With CJ and Norman Powell we had 3 players to hide, that was simply painful, but even now and for as long as we hold on to Lillard we'd be near the bottom of the league defensively
 
I'm not saying this just as a knock on Lillard (whom I think we should trade) but even if we keep him and add say Pascal Siakam we'd have to surround them with defenders and hustle players. That's for example Josh Hart and Gary Payton junior that we traded for draft picks. It's definitely not Nurkic who is out of shape for most of the season but its also rating Watford and Winslow higher than Grant who is not a bad defender but not as good as Watford/Winslow.
I really think the idea of trading our entire future for a long shot at contending is dismal but if we decide to go that way we need to surround Lillard who is selfish offensively and lousy defensively with defenders
 
Lillard is old and small and doesn't play defense. But he's one of the rare NBA gems that more then makes up for it on the offensive end.

Blazers paired Dame with CJ, and McCollum is not a strong defender. CJ's defense actually improved in New Orleans. Better coaching? Better defenders around him?

Blazers then paired Lillard with Anfernee Simons, who is a small featherweight scorer. Ant compiled the worst defensive rating in the association this season.

Pair Damian with Sharpe at the 2 ??

Shaedon is a high jumping fledgling rookie. Asking him to play lock down NBA defense and start at the 2 next to Lillard is a big stretch, but it cannot possibly be worse defensively then pairing Lillard with Simons.

If Lillard had a strong, tough defender next to him at the 2 spot, like saaaay Jimmy Butler, Marcus Smart, Desmond Bane, *Josh Hart, you know... guys with muscles, it could alleviate some of the stress Lillard puts on the defensive end by being a small offense only PG.

Lillard has never started consistently next to a 2 guard that could D up. It would be interesting to see it happen, if it ever does.
 
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Whyachi said:
Lillard is old and small and doesn't play defense. But he's one of the rare NBA gems that more then makes up for it on the offensive end.

Blazers paired Dame with CJ, and McCollum is not a strong defender. CJ's defense actually improved in New Orleans. Better coaching? Bigger players around him?

Blazers then paired Lillard with Anfernee Simons, who is a small featherweight scorer. Ant compiled the worst defensive rating in the association this season.

Pair Damian with Sharpe at the 2, Thybulle at 3 ??
Billups ran this lineup once, Dame's last game of the season. Blazers beat a crummy Utah team, but that lineup actually worked.

Shaedon is a high jumping fledgling rookie. Asking him to play lock down NBA defense and start at the 2 next to Lillard is a big stretch, but it cannot possibly be worse defensively then pairing Lillard with Simons.

If Lillard had a strong, tough defender next to him at the 2 spot, like saaaay Jimmy Butler, Marcus Smart, Desmond Bane, *Josh Hart, you know... guys with muscles, it could alleviate some of the stress Lillard puts on the defensive end by being a small offense only PG.

Lillard has never started consistently next to a 2 guard that could D up. It would be interesting to see it happen, if it ever does.
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He started his career playing next to such a 2; Wes Matthews. The Blazers were actually good then. Of course having a very capable Aldridge and others added to the quality mix.

When that ended, NO tried replacing quality by doubling down on his boy CJ and dumpster diving for accessories.
 
GrandpaBlaze said:
He started his career playing next to such a 2; Wes Matthews. The Blazers were actually good then. Of course having a very capable Aldridge and others added to the quality mix.

When that ended, NO tried replacing quality by doubling down on his boy CJ and dumpster diving for accessories.
Click to expand...
baby Lillard! A fresh hot Batum getting stops.

THAT was a fun team
 
OH hey, did you guys hear? Damian isn't a good defender. I'm so surprised that we';re just NOW finding this out.
 
BlazerMoneyMaker said:
There's a reason we've been a bottom fodder defensively throughout his time here.
Occasionally he would have a possesion where he plays strong man on man defense (which is his forte) and show glimpses of what could have been.
But most of the time he is hidden on the back corner of our defense and if offenses look to expose him they simply have a field day. For most of the defensive possesions since we had Lillard we played 4 on 5 on defense. With CJ and Norman Powell we had 3 players to hide, that was simply painful, but even now and for as long as we hold on to Lillard we'd be near the bottom of the league defensively
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How long have you been a Knicks or Lakers fan? Nice try but Blazer fans actually know who Dame is. It was only a matter of time before big market teams started trying to pry Dame out of Portland again. Rebounds are defensive stats and Dame's rebounding is at a career high. He started rebounding like crazy when Hart was traded...Grant's rebounds also went up when Hart was traded.
 
GrandpaBlaze said:
He started his career playing next to such a 2; Wes Matthews. The Blazers were actually good then. Of course having a very capable Aldridge and others added to the quality mix.

When that ended, NO tried replacing quality by doubling down on his boy CJ and dumpster diving for accessories.
Click to expand...
That team was put together correctly

2 main scorers. One dominant down low, and one that could score on all 3 levels. Batum and Matthews valued defense over offense. Aldridge, like him or not, was the perfect second star. Rebounded well and scored down low. Lopez also rebounded well and valued defense.
ENOUGH with adding all these fucking scorers. We need one good scorer who can score down low and defenders
 
in 2017-18, with a Dame/CJ back court, Portland ranked 8th in the NBA in defensive rating. They were able to cover for 2 defensively poor starters by having at least average and better defenders in the rest of the rotation. They also had decent length for the one time in the post Aldridge era with Aminu-Harkless-Davis-Zach-Turner.

in other words, teams can cover for poor defenders with a well balanced roster. That year it was more accidental than intentional because it was fucking obvious that Olshey never valued defense like he should have. But the idea that the Blazers can't play good defense with Dame is bullshit
 
wizenheimer said:
in 2017-18, with a Dame/CJ back court, Portland ranked 8th in the NBA in defensive rating. They were able to cover for 2 defensively poor starters by having at least average and better defenders in the rest of the rotation. They also had decent length for the one time in the post Aldridge era with Aminu-Harkless-Davis-Zach-Turner.

in other words, teams can cover for poor defenders with a well balanced roster. That year it was more accidental than intentional because it was fucking obvious that Olshey never valued defense like he should have. But the idea that the Blazers can't play good defense with Dame is bullshit
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I feel like this gets brought up a lot, but then I like to bring up that the game has evolved A TON since then.

I wish I could find my post from years ago, when I actually took the time to look up the numbers, but the number of teams who are jacking up a metric shit ton of threes per game. Our defense was good when there was only a couple teams putting up 20+ threes per game. Now it's basically the entire league. It started with Houston and GSW. Now it's everyone. We have been absolutely horrible at defending the three, and unfortunately that's what everyone is doing now.
 
Natebishop3 said:
I feel like this gets brought up a lot, but then I like to bring up that the game has evolved A TON since then.

I wish I could find my post from years ago, when I actually took the time to look up the numbers, but the number of teams who are jacking up a metric shit ton of threes per game. Our defense was good when there was only a couple teams putting up 20+ threes per game. Now it's basically the entire league. It started with Houston and GSW. Now it's everyone. We have been absolutely horrible at defending the three, and unfortunately that's what everyone is doing now.
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The league average in that 17-18 season was 29 3PA per game, at 36.2%. It's currently at 34 3PAs, at 36.1%. The pace of the game has increased slightly.
Teams shot 36% against us then, 38% this past year from 3. Teams shot 40% on corner 3s against us then, 39% this year.
One big difference, that year we had a 79% DRB percentage. This past year, 75. We were better at limiting FTAs that season. Doesn't seem to simply be teams bombing from 3.
 
RR7 said:
The league average in that 17-18 season was 29 3PA per game, at 36.2%. It's currently at 34 3PAs, at 36.1%. The pace of the game has increased slightly.
Teams shot 36% against us then, 38% this past year from 3. Teams shot 40% on corner 3s against us then, 39% this year.
One big difference, that year we had a 79% DRB percentage. This past year, 75. We were better at limiting FTAs that season. Doesn't seem to simply be teams bombing from 3.
Click to expand...

I was going to go thru the effort so thanks for saving me from that effort and saving to forum from another one of my stats posts. That was only 5 seasons ago by the way

the point I was making was that the Blazers were able to field a solid defense while covering for 73 minutes/game from Dame/CJ. The game has evolved a little since then, but it would still be more than possible to cover for one bad defender like Dame if it wasn't a terrible defensive SG next to him. IIRC, even with Dame/Ant as the starters, the Blazers were around 20th with Hart as the starting SF; and Grant is average at best as a defender
 
RR7 said:
The league average in that 17-18 season was 29 3PA per game, at 36.2%. It's currently at 34 3PAs, at 36.1%. The pace of the game has increased slightly.
Teams shot 36% against us then, 38% this past year from 3. Teams shot 40% on corner 3s against us then, 39% this year.
One big difference, that year we had a 79% DRB percentage. This past year, 75. We were better at limiting FTAs that season. Doesn't seem to simply be teams bombing from 3.
Click to expand...
Yeah I think I was misremembering how far back the data I was pulling was. Now I'm curious if I can dig up that post.
 
RR7 said:
The league average in that 17-18 season was 29 3PA per game, at 36.2%. It's currently at 34 3PAs, at 36.1%. The pace of the game has increased slightly.
Teams shot 36% against us then, 38% this past year from 3. Teams shot 40% on corner 3s against us then, 39% this year.
One big difference, that year we had a 79% DRB percentage. This past year, 75. We were better at limiting FTAs that season. Doesn't seem to simply be teams bombing from 3.
Click to expand...

are the 2018 3PA's unbalanced? Was it just a few teams like Houston, GSW, jacking up soo many 3's, it actually altered the total NBA tally ??

All teams nowadays are launching more 3 pointers. Not simply the handful of teams that are actually good at them. Even the teams that can usually knock them down, seem to refuse to stop shooting them when they have off nights.

shooting 3's is an easier way to play basketball
It's a more effective way to score points
It can be a more efficient way to tilt the game

But shooting tons of three's that miss, takes a lot away from the entertaining athleticism of NBA players.

It's an adjustment period for NBA fans, every team is now looking for Rodney Rodgers, Robert Horry's, Sean Elliott's, Rashard Lewis type players. The coveted 3&D wings will begin piling up in the NBA, and a rise in 3PA's will only keep growing towards epic proportions.

Will Denver become a blueprint for future success? Will teams decide to build a team with strong NBA players that can get the ball inside for easier shots and win a championship?

Something tells me no .... too many teams have committed to smaller lineups that can jack up triples like nobody's business.
 
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