Breaking down Portland’s defense by play type would seem to indicate massive problems. It's dead last in points allowed per possession on both post-ups and isolation plays, per Synergy Sports. Dead stinking last! And it's 23rd in points allowed when the ball handler in a pick-and-roll takes a shot, which would seem like a problem, since the pick-and-roll is the foundation of almost every NBA offense.
But this is all by design, to some degree. Portland is playing the odds in a way that reveals the very close interaction between its analytics-oriented front office and its numbers-friendly coaching staff headed by Stotts, who regularly cites wonky stuff like effective field goal percentage and defensive efficiency in casual hoops conversation.
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He can generally stay in front of them, though, and the entire strategy is based upon Stotts’s comfort allowing midrange jumpers if doing so prevents more profitable shots. Only six teams have allowed more combined shots from the short midrange (i.e., the paint outside the restricted area) and the long midrange, and five of them play at a faster pace than the Blazers, thus yielding more overall shots, per NBA.com. No team has allowed fewer corner 3s — attempts or makes. Portland opponents have hit just 0.9 corner 3s per game, a remarkable early number. “Teams are shooting well from the midrange against us,” Stotts says, “but we try to keep the bigger picture in mind.”
Sitting back like this has also limited Portland’s fouling, and it has helped the team’s rebounding by keeping both bigs closer to the basket. Portland has allowed just 99.7 points per 100 possessions in the 266 minutes Lopez and Aldridge have shared the floor, equivalent to a top-five team mark, and it has rebounded 76.8 percent of opponent misses in those minutes. That would have led the league last season, a very encouraging sign given the preseason rebounding worries.
