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was it worrying so far in preseason?

I don't think so, tbh.

Somewhat. One of the major problems defensively, not just for Drummond but the whole team, is that they play terrible angles and go for steals way too often. I put both of those on Cheeks btw. If they can correct those things and play more fundamental defense than they will be fine.

I just don't think they go all out in Pre-Season like they will during regular season. Hence, the extra effort to block lanes may not be their first prerogative. Coach should be on them and they will probably pick it up as the season moves along.

I think dre played alot of help defense which put him out of position because of others not being where they should or just getting beat.He will be fine.

team defense is the problem, not drummond. Everything is out of sorts as they are still learning each other, as well as learning a new system.

if you really want to single out drummond and his matchups, what have opposing centers done against him thus far?

Bosh had a big game, but it was all perimeter shots, and he's a PF anyways, who plays like a SF. Can't fault dre for not being able to guard jumpshooters. Other than that, he's faced Lopez, Noah, and Varejao, 3 top centers, and none of them really did anything against us. So based on that id say his individual defense has been good. Its the team defense that needs work.

Q00 wrote:team defense is the problem, not drummond. Everything is out of sorts as they are still learning each other, as well as learning a new system.

if you really want to single out drummond and his matchups, what have opposing centers done against him thus far?

Bosh had a big game, but it was all perimeter shots, and he's a PF anyways, who plays like a SF. Can't fault dre for not being able to guard jumpshooters. Other than that, he's faced Lopez, Noah, and Varejao, 3 top centers, and none of them really did anything against us. So based on that id say his individual defense has been good. Its the team defense that needs work.

Noah and Varejao was pretty good. and he should defend jumpshooters too.

That will come with time, but the guy that was hitting open jumpers yesterday isn't a guy who will be a rotation player come season time. Dre can't possibly know everybody's game...he'll eventually learn how to defend different players in this league.

pistontr wrote:

Q00 wrote:team defense is the problem, not drummond. Everything is out of sorts as they are still learning each other, as well as learning a new system.

if you really want to single out drummond and his matchups, what have opposing centers done against him thus far?

Bosh had a big game, but it was all perimeter shots, and he's a PF anyways, who plays like a SF. Can't fault dre for not being able to guard jumpshooters. Other than that, he's faced Lopez, Noah, and Varejao, 3 top centers, and none of them really did anything against us. So based on that id say his individual defense has been good. Its the team defense that needs work.

Noah and Varejao was pretty good. and he should defend jumpshooters too.

Noah had 2 points on 0-3 FG. Varejao had 10 points on 4-8 FG. Lopez had 8 points on 3-7 FG. I'm not seeing a reason to worry about his individual defense off those numbers.

If you want him to defend jumpshooters in Bosh's case, then he's leaving the paint open and his interior defense suffers. It can't always be both ways. That's why Bosh was so open on those shots, not because Dre's defense was bad. He was choosing to stay home and guard the basket instead of going and contesting Bosh. I'd rather have him stay home and protect the paint, personally. Eventually those jumpshots stop going in.

Q00 wrote:

pistontr wrote:

Q00 wrote:team defense is the problem, not drummond. Everything is out of sorts as they are still learning each other, as well as learning a new system.

if you really want to single out drummond and his matchups, what have opposing centers done against him thus far?

Bosh had a big game, but it was all perimeter shots, and he's a PF anyways, who plays like a SF. Can't fault dre for not being able to guard jumpshooters. Other than that, he's faced Lopez, Noah, and Varejao, 3 top centers, and none of them really did anything against us. So based on that id say his individual defense has been good. Its the team defense that needs work.

Noah and Varejao was pretty good. and he should defend jumpshooters too.

Noah had 2 points on 0-3 FG. Varejao had 10 points on 4-8 FG. Lopez had 8 points on 3-7 FG. I'm not seeing a reason to worry about his individual defense off those numbers.

If you want him to defend jumpshooters in Bosh's case, then he's leaving the paint open and his interior defense suffers. It can't always be both ways. That's why Bosh was so open on those shots, not because Dre's defense was bad. He was choosing to stay home and guard the basket instead of going and contesting Bosh. I'd rather have him stay home and protect the paint, personally. Eventually those jumpshots stop going in.

Yeah, letting them take those long 2s is always better than letting then get efficient points in the paint. Dre did his job as a center not to get caught up on man to man. Bosh isn't a center, period.

Some of the problems I saw was too much emphasis on help defense which caught them out of position from a pass away. That led to the D for the Pistons being so open a lot of times. And as someone mentioned, we gamble too much with steals.

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how has the Drummond-smith duo looked help-defense wise?


also you can't expect team defense to hit the ground running, especially a team with so many new parts.

ahhh, Preseason overreactions, gotta love 'em

I haven't really been able to catch any of the preseason games, but after watching a majority of the games he played in last year im not too worried about his D. I think he has the size/athleticism and IQ/mentality to be one of the top D anchors in the league going forward, no doubt.

Dre D is the least of our concerns... team IQ is near the top

PREASEASON! DOESN'T MATTER

Dre's D has looked a lot like last year. He's got incredible AA and speed on the perimeter and great size in the paint. He's going to make a lot of plays based on those gifts.

However, he's still making stupid plays. He's gambling on the perimeter and getting out of position. He's been OK on help defense, but he's doing it with athleticism, not anticipation. He's still reacting to plays vs seeing them develop.

On the plus side, he looks to have taken some strides in defensive rebounding. When he's going up strong, he may as well be the only one on the court. He stays wide to take up space and the explodes off the floor. If he keeps his focus there, he can be dominant.

One thing I noticed about Dre's defense that bothered me was, he wasn't making any body contact with the offensive player. His man was catching the ball deep and shooting fadeaways or just turning and shooting and Drummond barely left the ground. He seemed more interested in hoping for a miss to chase down a rebound. His man to man defense has to get tighter and he needs to use his size to deny position to the offensive player. He can't just "play the middle", he has to guard a man. It also appears that he's using his athleticism to play defense more than knowing where to position himself. His rotations were very late on many of his block attempts and it lead to many easy layups for the other team.

hes trying to learn his second system, with a lot of new players, in his second year in the league. if this was his second year in Franks system, playing with guys hes more familiar with, and he was making a lot of mental errors I might be a little more worried. he has all the physical tools, and he seems like a pretty intelligent/hard working kid, barring injuries I think hes going to figure it out.

joseph mamah wrote:hes trying to learn his second system, with a lot of new players, in his second year in the league. if this was his second year in Franks system, playing with guys hes more familiar with, and he was making a lot of mental errors I might be a little more worried. he has all the physical tools, and he seems like a pretty intelligent/hard working kid, barring injuries I think hes going to figure it out.

I agree, I think he'll figure it out too, but what has made me most frustrated this preseason has been that there are a lot of basketball nuances that shouldn't need to be figured out. The most basic stuff, the simple things you learn from Day 1 that our team can't seem to do well. Like boxing out, like post entry passes, like putting a body on a man, like chasing down rebounds or hitting free throws. Those are basic basketball plays/skills. They don't require learning of a new system to get those things down. They require focus and not quitting on plays. They require due diligence to make a play, patience to make a play, intellect to make a play, not hours of repetition and hours of studying a new system. These are plays these guys should've been making over the last 10 years or more of their lives, since they picked up a basketball and decided that's what they have a passion to do.

Jackattaq wrote:

joseph mamah wrote:hes trying to learn his second system, with a lot of new players, in his second year in the league. if this was his second year in Franks system, playing with guys hes more familiar with, and he was making a lot of mental errors I might be a little more worried. he has all the physical tools, and he seems like a pretty intelligent/hard working kid, barring injuries I think hes going to figure it out.

I agree, I think he'll figure it out too, but what has made me most frustrated this preseason has been that there are a lot of basketball nuances that shouldn't need to be figured out. The most basic stuff, the simple things you learn from Day 1 that our team can't seem to do well. Like boxing out, like post entry passes, like putting a body on a man, like chasing down rebounds or hitting free throws. Those are basic basketball plays/skills. They don't require learning of a new system to get those things down. They require focus and not quitting on plays. They require due diligence to make a play, patience to make a play, intellect to make a play, not hours of repetition and hours of studying a new system. These are plays these guys should've been making over the last 10 years or more of their lives, since they picked up a basketball and decided that's what they have a passion to do.

yeah, this team as a whole doesn't have the highest bball iq.