Warriors ZONE DEFENSE................Yuk!

[Mylie10]

Anyone else think we should only use this defense sparingly?

I can't stand much more of it. Our guys don't play it well and it leaves people to wide open.

Stick to man to man, we're fine with it.

We have challenge guys. Jax, Baron, and Barnes are guys who play better D when they are challenged. It fuels their intensity.

Shelf the Zone!

[ILOVEIT]

The zone sucks with small guys....There's just too much space open when guys like Pieturs and Monta are at the top....

I noticed that as soon as Wright was back there...with his reach...the zone can be affective....

With Barnes and Jackson at the top.....with AB and Write in there...length definitely helps.

[Twinkie defense]

When the backups were in there against Portland, the Warriors were running mostly a zone... and that's when they were able to make a little run.

You don't want to go with it every time, but I like the zone defense because it gives the opposing offense a different look to deal with, most NBA players are not that experienced dealing with zones, and to beat most zones you have to be able to hit your open jumpers... and NBA talent these days is much more about one-on-one isolation and penetration than consistently hitting outside shots.

[Mayor Baron]

i agree with the previous posts...zone is advantageous only when there is a big man like Wright or Beans in the middle of it.

while the zone is a better way to keep some of our guys out of further foul trouble... i want to see nellie mix it up to confuse the opposition, like zone zone and suddenly man...or vice versa.

[FNQ]

Only Baron, Monta and Biedrins have executed the zone well this season. Jax has too, but lately, he's taken a complete nose dive.

Players like Harrington and Barnes will forever struggle just because of their tweener status, but Harrington has shown understanding of his limitations and has improved a ton with the mental aspect.

The rest of the team has little to no idea what our defense is about. Drive and dig is one of the more complicated, high energy defenses around, and we do not have the personnel to really get it done. Well actually we do, we just don't want to give one person (Wright) a chance to do well in it, as a long quick guy is exactly what you need at the bottom corners.

For this team, I'd consider an old high school move, and go with either the box n 1 or the diamond and 1... probably the diamond, considering our personnel... Have Baron / Jax playing man, Monta at the top, the 2 other F on the sides w/Biedrins in the center... collapsing would be much easier for the SG/SF, as would closing out for the point and F positions...

We've made zero adjustments on defense this season... Nellie has no idea what to do.

[Mylie10]

Always loved the box and 1.

[Souvlaki]

You'd think our player could handle the zone better since we've been playing it for awhile and pretty heavily. I agree, we should go to man to man, because guys who might be ok defenders, like Monta and Pietrus are pretty lost in the zone and get abused nightly.

[Sleepy51]

The most imporatant thing we can do to improve the defense is either in zone or man: put Jack back on perimeter assignments. No more playing in the bottom of the zone, or matching up on legit PF's.
The serious PF' are beating Jack even worse than they would beat our larger PF choices, AND more importantly it wastes our best defender on an assignment where he can't be a gamechanger.

Nellie has totally misread Jack's ability to confound Dirk, and whatever tweener he D's up in practice. I know, I know, Jack manhandles Dirk . . . but Dirk is not a true PF. He's a face up scorer who happens to be 7 feet. Over the years he's learned to defend at that position, and he is now willing to put his back to the basket, but he's niether natural nor comfortable there. Jack is effective in that matchup because under diress, Dirk goes to what's natural, which is facing up, and in that scenario, Jack is too fast for Dirk to get by him, and long enough to bother shots. Even though Dirk is the PF on their lineup chart, he is not a PF on the offensive end.

Jack needs to be in charge of destroying the opponent's best PERIMETER player. When the other team as a true back to the basket post threat at PF, no one smaller than Barnes should be playing PF.

[FNQ]

Problem with using Jack up at the small forward or PF spots is that we'd have to have Al Harrington on the court, and thats just ridiculous

[FNQ]

Always loved the box and 1.

I do too... if we actually used POB/Biedrins, I'd love it. It requires two people who can play help defense and are quick enough to recover and guard the rim. But then the problem would be the wings - unless it was Jax and Monta at the top, the only two who can actually cover enough ground to make it work. So there would be a pretty defined lineup for the Box+1, whereas with the diamond+1, we can have Baron or Monta on the top, Biedrins at the bottom, and the sides are pretty much well aided by the top... hell, we wouldn't even have to stop the old drive 'n' dig... even though it hasn't forced any TOs the past few weeks.

A big sign of fatigue... these Warriors didn't play with much energy until around January or so, and early on in the season, we had a lot of players just busting ass all night. We went on our run, much like last season, and we started to crap out again... same old story w/Nellie teams, same result, same future...

[Sleepy51]

Problem with using Jack up at the small forward or PF spots is that we'd have to have Al Harrington on the court, and thats just ridiculous

You sir, are a poon.

[FNQ]

-= original quote snipped =-



You sir, are a poon.

Should see the MEM thread... I was a regular Al praising machine last night