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I made a post earlier today about how the Pels defense is broken, and I made this post on another board. Not sure if anyone cares enough to read it, but I figured I'd post it anyway.
I know some people have said this, but our defensive system is broken. I'm going to keep it simple, Monty is asking too much. Whether our players aren't smart enough to make the right rotations, or they aren't athletic or big enough to get back into the correct positions, I feel like this is on Monty.
I know some people have said this, but our defensive system is broken. I'm going to keep it simple, Monty is asking too much. Whether our players aren't smart enough to make the right rotations, or they aren't athletic or big enough to get back into the correct positions, I feel like this is on Monty.
Take this first example, I wish I knew how to do video, but the play starts with Bledsoe receiving a high pick and roll from Frye, and he drives to his left. This is where my first issue with our defense comes in, we seem to hedge on every screen with our bigs, as we do on this play, which gets Anthony Davis out of position. This leaves Stiemsma in the paint in front of his man (Plumlee) and a sagging Gordon to defend Frye on the roll, which leaves Gerald Green (a 36% career 3pt shooter and 52% on the season) without a defender within 20 ft of him. The ball travels faster through the air than a human does on his feet, that's elementary stuff.
The next image is the same deal. Bledsoe gets the screen from Markieff Morris, and once again Davis hedges on the screen. Morris rolls down the middle of the lane and Bledsoe finds him:
As you can see in the image above, we once again have two defenders on each side of the lane, though this time it's Smith and Evans instead of Stiemsma and Gordon. In each picture, you can see Davis trying to get back to his man. So now once again, we are left without a single defender within 20 feet of the 3pt shooter. This time it is Marcus Morris, who's only shooting 27% from three this season but shot 38% with Houston last season. Markieff makes a really easy pass to his brother, who drains the three.
Next we have a play that results in a Archie Goodwin three. This one is a little less likely and understanable, given Goodwin is not a good 3pt shooter, but I'm still not very keen on the idea of leaving a NBA player open from three. But I included this one because of Roberts poor defense.
As you can see, the Suns bring one of the Morris twins up again to screen for Bledsoe, but Bledsoe rejects the screen and completely turns Roberts around on a simple cross over dribble. By the time Roberts recovers, Bledsoe is at the 3pt line, and Morrow doesn't stand a chance at getting back to Goodwin.
I'll repeat what I said earlier, the ball travels faster than foot. Goodwin is one pass away and begins his shot before Morrow can effectively contest it.
And lastly, we go back to Gerald Green. There really isn't much explanation needed, because it's the same thing I've shown twice. Though this time it's only a slight hedge by Jason Smith on a screen set by Plumlee, but it's still enough to bring Gordon down into the paint. Gordon is successful in doing what Monty wants to do, and that's account for the screener, but this leaves about 23ft Gordon would have to cover to get back to Green. Which brings me back to what I said in the first paragraph of this post, Monty is asking too much.
