so, who wants to talk about our defense?

[og15]

I don't think the bench is going to allow the team to be #2 in Ortg. If we look at those lineups again, the starters have a 114.7 Ortg, but the main bench unit has a 99.5 Ortg. The starters Ortg is 4th among lineups with 100+ minutes, and 1st among lineups with 200+ minutes. Yes, beating GS's starters.

The bench unit with Pierce barely has a better Ortg (102.6) but has been worse on defense (109.6) they have a smaller sample size, but the eye test also does not give them much hope.

[LACtdom]

Do i think Austin should be in the NBA? Yes. There are a lot worse players than him. However his contract is ludicrous and makes me wonder if he really did get other offers or that's just a Rivers lie.

I have been pleading for new defensive schemes for the past few years. Some people say that there isn't much we can do because of our roster but I think the fact that we lack a defensive roster means that it is even more important that we solidify our structures and schemes. Our purple patch of form coincided with us forcing a lot of turnovers and converting them into points. My pet hate is our inability to secure rebounds. I guess I'm more in Thibs camp where I prefer to secure the rebound and play half court offense instead of having players not box out and sprint up the floor.

The team changed the schemes, totally new way of guarding the pick and roll last season, hence last seasons very good result on defense. They also decided to stunt and shade less on defense and stick with shooters. A big problem this season though is that they started switching a lot. Now the switch is fine, but when you overdo it, you create constant mismatches and the Clippers have been getting hurt by all that mismatch situations they create by switching too much.

Yes I do like the changes our team has made defensively. I can even live with us abusing the 'switch' mainly because players like Jamal cannot fight through a screen if their life depended on it. My biggest concerns are boxing out and our help defense is poor. rarely do I see someone rotate to the open man. I realise in the heat of a game it's hard to keep track of all the players but our scramble defense leaves a lot to be desired. I personally don't like double teaming. I think we over did it against the Pistons. Sure Morris was hot but I would have been satisfied with just a single player guarding him and contesting the shot. I'm not sure how you improve boxing out because it's kind of an effort thing but there is no excuse letting a team take 3 field goal attempts in a single possession.

[LACtdom]

If Luc continue to make his corner 3PT shots and drive hard to the rim, it might not be terrible if teams play off him as long as he can take advantage of it. He would need to increase his 3PTA rate in that situation though, at least double, so from 2.3 3PA/36 to about 5 3PA/36. It would be great for example for him to get hot in a series and go of on some team(s) like Ariza in the 2008 playoffs I believe it was. Guy as hot, but Ariza has a much quicker shot and can get it off more often than Luc can.

I know Luc has struggled some games this year offensively but his consistent D makes up for that. We're going to need Luc on players like Lebron, KD, Leonard, etc. If he can master his corner 3 and do the occasional drive to the rim then he will be the best option by far for us to slot in at the SF. Playing anyone else against the star SFs will result in a thrashing or forcing us to double.

[og15]

Last 11 games. Bench offense has been even worse, 88.9 Ortg. The offense has been so bad that their fairly good defense vs other benches isn't enough to make up for it.

The other two attempted bench units:
+Bass: 121.6 Ortg / 129.4 Drtg

+Pierce: 96.7 Ortg / 110.3 Drtg

Pierce is just not playable, Doc can't be oblivious to this reality. Also another lingering thing that is starting to get old is the fact that Doc preaches ball movement and all this, but since coming to the team in 13-14 and telling Crawford to "play his game" early in that season has basically abandoned any idea of a system offensively with the bench.

[og15]

I've been using the reference point of before the Memphis game vs after the Memphis game, so I will continue with that and also look at the last 5 games. This is using NBA.com's numbers.

First 11 games:

93.0 Drtg
1st ranked defense
Starters | 84.1 Drtg
Bench | 91.1 Drtg

From Memphis game on (14 games):

107.2 Drtg
21st ranked defense
Starters | 106.5 Drtg
Bench w.Johnson | 95.3 Drtg
Bench w.Pierce | 110.3 Drtg

Last 5 games:

109.2 Drtg
19th ranked defense
Starters | 110.3 Drtg
Bench w.Pierce | 118.5 Drtg

Total:

101.1 Drtg
4th ranked defense

I love a nice coating of sugar, but the defense has looked bad for longer than it has looked good. The team is still 4th, but that's because when it looked good, it looked incredibly good. If this teams defense starts to creep back to the top 10, but 7-9 range while just being a good, but not best in the league level offense, I'm not sure that is a very promising situation.

[nickhx2]

yeah was thinking the same thing. team's defense has been skewed because of the first many very good games. since then it's been considerably worse

[og15]

Let's bring this back up because we need to talk about the defense again, but in a different way.

What happened? Is CP really that critical to the defense?

[nickhx2]

oh, boy

yeah it sure seems so.

i mean not just from a player standpoint but from a leadership standpoint, he really is that much of a big deal.

[TucsonClip]

Let's bring this back up because we need to talk about the defense again, but in a different way.

What happened? Is CP really that critical to the defense?

100% that critical. They havent been playing good defense in a while, but missing Chris makes everything far worse. Hes really, really good on the ball.