RealGM

First I want to refer to this post by justin russo. http://www.clipsnation.com/2015/11/17/9750908/film-room-los-angeles-clippers-defense-shows-up-in-second-half-against-detroit-pistons

It's a great breakdown of the team's defense in the comeback win over detroit. It might take you a bit so if you don't find x's and o's interesting or don't have time here are the main points:

- The team switched to a more aggressive defense to get back into the game, more reminiscent of last year's schemes
- The defense was allowed to be aggressive as it played off the backs of our best defenders. A lot of the guys played very intelligently.
- We actually have a lot of pretty good/athletic/smart defenders

I think so far we've seen that our current "big man drops back" defense hasn't done too well. And while I don't mind sticking to it on a more permanent basis, we have to be able to adjust on the fly for when we face teams with great shooters. I'm not so sure though that our team will ever get used to that (see deandre jordan constantly giving up space to curry in our game vs GS).

But thinking on it and seeing some of these snippets, we actually have a lot more defensive pieces than i realized, and perhaps enough to make for a really strong overall unit. Blake has improved tremendously. Austin has blossomed into maybe our best on ball defender. Lance, wes, luc, smith are all new dudes who can play solid to pretty good D. Then of course there's dj and cp3. A lot of these guys are very smart, and some of these guys range from having good to legendary athleticism.

But clearly it hasn't been great just yet. I'm not even sure it's trending the way we want, though that's hard to tell because of our injuries to key players. That said, I just get the feeling like we should be doing so much more. I just wonder: Is that because our scheme is holding us back? I think looking at the breakdown you can see that a lot of these guys did a great job with the small things like hedging/switches/trapping.



So the main question is: Would this team be better going back to last year's model given our personnel?



BTW I really hope at one point we see a second unit of smith/luc/austin/lance/not-jamal to see what they could do defensively. Would it tank in terms of offense? Potentially. But a lineup made for defensive chaos is bound to create offense in its own way. Not sure doc will ever try it out but I'd love to see him give it a shot.

That half against the Pistons really gave me hope but I've always disagreed with the people on this forum who say our defense sucks because of the roster. I don't think we need to change our defensive schemes drastically but the goal is to become at least an average defensive team which currently we are let down because of our bench unit's defense. It gets complicated when you try and implement different systems for different lineups but we really need to get our bench unit to the point where they aren't losing leads fast. Whether it's the player roster, lack of defensive IQ, or time to practice, whatever the reason, it isn't quite working out with our bench. Some things we have to accept, like losing the rebounding battle when we play Smith at C. This year, we finally have a roster who should be capable of defending at an acceptable level.

nickhx2 wrote:But clearly it hasn't been great just yet. I'm not even sure it's trending the way we want, though that's hard to tell because of our injuries to key players. That said, I just get the feeling like we should be doing so much more. I just wonder: Is that because our scheme is holding us back? I think looking at the breakdown you can see that a lot of these guys did a great job with the small things like hedging/switches/trapping.

So the main question is: Would this team be better going back to last year's model given our personnel?

Based on what I have seen, no, we should not be switching back.

The main reason we began trapping and hard hedging against the Pistons is because they have a nightmare PNR game with Drummond and Jackson. They dont just run one PNR and then attack, they have begun to run back to back PNRs.

Stan is a very good coach and this is one of the reasons why. He saw teams fading off the Drummond screen to protect the rim (something that is far more common place now than hard hedging), so he has Drummond set the screen and then re-screen to create problems.

To combat that adjustment, we began hard hedging because we needed to amp up the pressure on Jackson.

So would I suggest us returning to that strategy?

I wouldn't. We need Jordan to develop more as a rim protector and deploying him closer to the basket allows for that development. He certainly is quick enough to hedge and recover, but he needs to become a better rim protector for our defense to take the next jump.

How many times the last few years did you see our guys scrambling around the court off PNR coverages? That scheme is fine when you are the 2013 Miami Heat and have guys like Wade, LeBon, Chamlers and Bosh recovering and forcing action into their length to jump passing lanes. However, we have been relying on guys like Paul, Redick, Crawford, ect to quickly rotate around the floor and cut off driving/passing lanes.

It is still early in the season, but I see some improvements with the defense. However, it is going to take some time for Jordan to develop into the type of rim protector we need him to become (he hasnt been very good protecting the rim).

Also, this is why we brought in guys like Lance, Wes and re-signed Austin. Those guys can defend on the perimeter, which is our first line of defense, especially in this scheme.

Defense always has been, and always will be, about desire -- and that desire cannot be manufactured; you either want to play D, or you don't.

During the Lob City era, we have consistently filled our team with guys who don't want to play defense; so I'll never blame the player for slacking on D because we knew who they were before we signed them.

Looking at this roster, I'd say we have 2 guys that want to play D -- CP3 & DJ. Then we have guys like Lance, Austin, & Blake who are trying to establish themselves as defenders, but ultimately, they don't really want to play D and it shows when the game is on-the-line.

Josh Smith, Lance, & Mbah a Moute have the tools to be our defensive-stoppers...but if they don't want to do it, then guys like Harden/Curry/Westbrook/Durant are going to put-up 40 a night come playoff time...and we'll be going home early again.

DLaren wrote:Defense always has been, and always will be, about desire -- and that desire cannot be manufactured; you either want to play D, or you don't.

During the Lob City era, we have consistently filled our team with guys who don't want to play defense; so I'll never blame the player for slacking on D because we knew who they were before we signed them.

Looking at this roster, I'd say we have 2 guys that want to play D -- CP3 & DJ. Then we have guys like Lance, Austin, & Blake who are trying to establish themselves as defenders, but ultimately, they don't really want to play D and it shows when the game is on-the-line.

Josh Smith, Lance, & Mbah a Moute have the tools to be our defensive-stoppers...but if they don't want to do it, then guys like Harden/Curry/Westbrook/Durant are going to put-up 40 a night come playoff time...and we'll be going home early again.

This is pretty off base. Not sure where you're coming up with this narrative since austin's been great and blake has ranged from good to really good. I don't really even know how you can say dj wants to play defense and the others don't when he still stares at the ball instead of boxing out a little too often and his interior metrics are not even good for a rim protecting big. Or how how you can lump in lrmam as one of those guys when defense is literally the only reason he has a spot on the roster.

I'm with Tucson, no need to overreact to our overall scheme because of one game. Some games we'll have to hedge harder, some we'll be able to drop back more, but trying to convert DJ into a proper rim protector is the only chance this team has to be a good defensive team.

There's been enough instances of the aggressive trapping not working out one game (thinking Warriors game 1 in 2014), only for the exact same strategy to work magnificently next game. And we've played just 10 games yet, it's time to keep experimenting, no need to jump into conclusions based on performance.

In addition to what the clipsnation article says, it's worth noticing that we're switching the P&R coverage more than we ever did, specially when it's Blake involved, and he's been inconsistent but looks mostly well doing it. And I actually like it when they try to feed a big man post up because Paul is guarding him after a switch, would love to see numbers but Paul always does very well on those situations. Wes and Lance also do ok, but Austin and JJ can't switch into bigs at all (neither can Jamal and Pablo obvs).

According to Vantage Sports we've switched on 21.8% of the P&R's we've defended this year, 3rd most in the league and would be most last year. According to Synergy we're exactly average defending the P&R when it's the ball handler finishing, allowing 0.78 PPP, but we're 6th worst in the league when it's the roll man finishing, allowing 1.11 PPP. It's worth noticing that, because of the emphasis in switching and having DJ drop back, we've changed things enough for numbers after 10 games not to mean anything though.

To answer to the topic, no, I don't think this roster has the tools to be an elite defense no matter how you use them, but with work and hopefully some development of key players (cough*DJ*cough) it can be a good (as in close to top 5) defense. It will take time in any case.

I wouldn't. We need Jordan to develop more as a rim protector and deploying him closer to the basket allows for that development. He certainly is quick enough to hedge and recover, but he needs to become a better rim protector for our defense to take the next jump.

QRich3 wrote:I'm with Tucson, no need to overreact to our overall scheme because of one game. Some games we'll have to hedge harder, some we'll be able to drop back more, but trying to convert DJ into a proper rim protector is the only chance this team has to be a good defensive team.

I think you guys make some great points, especially with regards to this. As long as I can remember, dj's always been tasked with pressuring the ballhandler off of screens, so it makes a whole lot of sense that he's not wholly experienced in defending the paint the way other bigs are.

Theoretically forcing teams into long twos really does make the most sense, imo, and I was (am) really hoping it'd work out for us in the long run. But at the same time we're now in a type of developmental mode where there are going to be some growing pains while the team figures it all out. And at the same time I wonder if a different defensive schematic would enable some of these guys to play to different strengths. I suppose the good thing is that the west looks like a gigantic mess outside of GS, so if we're gonna play some ugly games in training mode, the time is now.

Dj has always had a problem defending the rim and impacting opposing player's shooting percentages.

DJ's OPFG% at the rim the last 3 years: 48.8 (this year), 48.5, 49.8.

Obviously, a lot more goes into that number than DJ just standing there and defending the rim. He has had to compensate for our scrambling rotations the last two years, forcing him to play 2 on 1 and rotating out of position and then back to help at the rim. A lot of that can be put on the guards not defending the perimeter.

However, and we are still seeing it this year, DJ routinely chases blocks and over emphasizes his "rim protection". He has the athletic ability to stay down, slide into position and go up for a block while contesting a shot. He jumps too much, chases weakside/helpside blocks and in return leaves half the lane open for easy dump offs or pump fakes for fouls, dunks, layups.

No

The zone up defense is a better defense overall, both in terms of it's effectiveness and the energy required.

I don't mind the switching against a team like the Warriors, but in general, I'm not a fan of the idea of switching too much in most situations as it can also put yourself in a scramble and the defense in a bad position.

Remember that back in 11-12 Vinny used to switch, that was the Clippers worst defensive season. In 12-13 he changed to blitzing the pick and roll, and with his personnel, Paul, Bledsoe, Odom, Turiaf, etc, etc, this meant a lot of turnovers, and it was a better regular season strategy, but of course if is a hard defense when teams aren't turnover prone.

I don't want the Clippers to go back to a pick and roll defense that switches too much either.

Still, the team will have to play the better defensive players in order to perform better on defense, sooo...

I'm not saying switching as a general norm either, but some of the players we have are adept at it, and the league as a whole is trending that way too. I'm a fan of adapting the system to the personnel you have, and Blake is very good at guarding smaller players and moving laterally, at least compared to the rest of his defensive skills. Paul is great at using his low center of gravity when guarding bigger players too. Lance and Wes have the body type and skillset to pull it off as well.

But yeah, I agree it comes down to talent in the end.