Just an 'Effort' Problem? No Way

by teamd on Dec 4, 2009 5:14 PM EST

For all those who believe the Raptor D problems are just about "effort" and "earnestness" and a bunch players who allegedly just happen the worst in the history of mankind...take a look at slo-mo of a bunch of plays of the Celtics vs the Raptors on D.

The Celtics have smooth rotations where everyone knows where they're going and what they're supposed to be doing so when the opponent finally gets a shot its one of the shots the Celtics wanted them to have, often a lower probability chance or off-balance or whatever.

A lot of this stuff with the Celtics is not happening because of Garnett quality defending (even from Garnett) but because they're rotating to the right places at the right times and always positioned properly in relation to the basket and the other team. They know their assignments and they execute. A lot of the time it's pretty mundane, not highight reel defensive stuff. But man it works.

Even when things break down because of particularly good stuff from the opposition, they know how they're supposed to react to the breakdown - they know where to go positionally and what to do.

NBA basketball offense is about getting players out of position to create high probability chances...If you can't get players on the D out of position consistently then you're playing low probability ball - that's what the Celtics force teams to play and it wears you down.

The Raptors on the other hand look like the keystone cops in slo mo - running around smacking into one another off screens - they have no clue where they're supposed to be or what they're supposed to be doing - they rotate improperly and they are always being caught out of position. It's a joke. Look at it yourselves - I'd say it happens on the majority of plays - someone screws up and leaves a high probability chance - sometimes the opposition hits, sometimes they don't - but there's always a screw up.

They EITHER don't know what to do (i.e. the coaching system sucks) OR they know what to do and the coaches are not holding them accountable for screwing up. Either problem are the coaches fault. It sounds like it's both based on what the players are saying.

Man, some of this stuff is so obvious any high school coach could probably do a better job...

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Comments

Perhaps...but the problem lies much deeper

I wish it was as easy as saying its an effort problem or just that there are too many new players and they arent’t used to each (thus missing their assignments) but the reality is that the current starting five just don’t fit together and their individual weakness put the team in a bad situation possession after possession.

Start with Calderon. He’s not going to win any defensive awards but each any every play, he getting beaten by his man…and it doesn’t matter who the opposing guard is, more than half of the possession, he’s get caught behind his man. This in turn forces Andrea or Chris to leave their man, either resulting in a cheap foul or worst..an offensive board and an easy put it. And the reality is what Jose gives us as a point guard is good, but his defensive mistakes really put the other 4 in a bad positions. On the other, if Jose was playing alongside Wright or another good defensive player, it would make Jose play at defense a lot more tolerable. This is not a knock against DeRozan but considering that he’s a rookie in the league, he’s not going to get the benefit of the call in the majority of the plays.

The other part of the starting five that simply just can’t work together is a combination of Andrea, Chris and Turkoglu. Two of the three simply can’t play defense and it puts a guy like Chris in either foul trouble or spend too much energy playing defense. Splitting at least 2 of the 3, ideally Turkoglu…and put in another defensive minded player such as Evans when he returns or Nestrovic would be more helpful short term and long term. It would help Andrea with learning to play the 5 position down the road and let him play 3/4 position till then. And then you have a combination of Turk/DeRozan/Jack/Belenelli coming off the bench with 2/4 knowing how the play defense while the other 2 can flat out score.

The other issue with this team is that the current starting five just don’t care about winning. That’s a bold statement but every team need at least 1 or 2 guys who keep the remaining players on the team accountable. It would help even more if at least one of them is in the starting five. A combination of Wright or Jack in the starting five will give you exactly that.

by Ilyas on Dec 5, 2009 4:09 PM EST reply actions