Linsane defense. Analyzing our D versus Bucks(long gif fun).

[BBAL]

Warning: Not for light readers. Please do NOT quote this entire post. Copy and post portions if you must. Do NOT quote more than one gif. They're large! Thanks and so will everyone else.

OK so this is by no means official. Good or bad defense in every sport is often very subjective and can fool our eyes easily. But I went back and watched the full game versus the Bucks to see who was dropping the ball on defense and see who was defending efficiently. I tried to devise a number system and then come up with actual defensive efficiency rankings based on minutes played without giving up a basket. This way we don't just have to rely on the good ole' "I saw so and so do a good job on that one play so that must mean they're good". Some of the results are surprising.

Explanation: I basically counted buckets given up by each individual player, buckets given up to due fouls, transition/fast break buckets given up, and finally open shots by a particular player's attacker. If the opponent penetrated and attacked, and there were 2 players defending, I counted a half a bucket against each. I then decided to divide into the amount of minutes for each player. I did the best I could in being as accurate as possible, but don't kill me if I missed something because it does take a lot of time whenever you do it manually, and there's bound to be some errors. Use it more as a guide, rater than a bible.

Here are the results.

Minutes

Lin - 41 minutes
Fields - 37 minutes
Melo - 37 minutes
Stat - 37 minutes
Davis- 31 minutes
Novak - 21 minutes
JR - 18 minutes
Harrellson - 14 minutes

Man to man, contested baskets allowed(not counting transition/fast breaks, foul or undefended, wide open buckets allowed)

Stat - 6
Melo - 5.5
Fields - 5
Lin - 4.5
Davis - 4
Novak - 4
Harrellson - 4

1. Efficiency: Minutes played without giving up a man to man basket(higher the better).

Lin = 9.1 minutes
Davis = 7.8 minutes
Fields = 7.4 minutes
Melo = 6.7 minutes
Stat = 6.7 minutes
JR = 6 minutes
Novak = 5.3 minutes
Harrellson = 3.5 minutes

AVG = 1 basket every 6.6 minutes per player, or 5 baskets every 6.6 minutes per group of 5

The difference between Lin and Harrellson is crazy. In man to man defense, he gave up nearly 3 baskets in the same time span it takes Lin to give up 1. Bet you didn't expect that. I know I didn't expect Davis and Lin to top the list. Lin was incredibly efficient followed by Davis and Fields. The only time they got scored on was mainly on 3's which is sort of expected. However, they did try to take Lin to the basket quite a few times, and simply didn't succeed. They failed to get by him and deferred. Surprisingly, Harrellson was terrible and gave up the most points in the shortest amount of time. In general, the Bucks targeted our bench guys who were our weakest links, Harrellson, Novak, and JR.

I don't know how to compare these numbers to an average, because I don't have a real life average, but if we did, it would probably say that our defense against the Bucks was anything BUT efficient. So these numbers, are probably indicative of bad defense.

To get a rough idea, looking at just the AVG of the group, having 5 guys playing at that average on the court at the same time for 48 minutes we'd be allowing 5 buckets or 10-12 points every 6.6 minutes. We're looking at giving up between 73-88 points per game, not counting foul points, wide open shots, and fast break points. Sounds about right against the Bucks, so the numbers aren't far off. So let's take a look at a couple of examples.

Example 1:
Comparing worst to best, if we had 5 Harrellsons on the court at the same time, playing as bad as he did then we'd be giving up roughly 5 buckets or 10-12 points every 3.5 minutes or anywhere between 137 and 164 points per game! And that's still not counting foul, transition or wide open baskets allowed!

So what does a 1 bucket every 3.5 min Harrelson defense inefficiency look like? Lovely...

And what's Novak doing you might ask? Well kiddos, it's called the Fck-if-I-know maneuver. And yes that is the score at the end of the 1st quarter. Thankfully, neither one of these clowns played for more than half the quarter.

Defensive play strategic breakdown(how it all comes together):
1. Completely fail to stop any attacker and look terrible.
2. Repeat.

Harrellson: "I got him. I got him.....I ain't got him"
Novak: "Freeze!"
Luc Richard: "Novak, what the hell are you doing? He shooting it."
Novak: "Fck-if-I-know."
Shump: "Well, I know. I knew that one was gonna drop before he even pumped it. Yo Mike, put me back on the bench, please, man. Why you gotta put me in with these 2? I can't do nothing about this....."

Result: 1 bucket per player every 3.5 minutes. Usually, massive blowouts. Benching.

Example 2:
Ok but it wasn't all that bad the entire night. Or at least it didn't look that bad. Harrellson was at the bottom of the pile, and looked pretty incompetent, but if you were to take some of the middle of the line guys, and play them for 48 minutes, surely it's going to be an improvement. So let's find out what our middle of the line Knicks defense looks like.

Say, a Stat/JR combo defense inefficiency? This one's tricky. Observe...

You have to actually look like you're defending while having no intention of doing such thing. Notice JR's strategic, and aggressive, side-step away from the attacker, so as to clear a lane for him. Meanwhile Stat increases speed just before he gently helps support the scorer's back as he dunks the basketball...but not before. That part's very important. Like I said, tricky. Which is why it's called the "Ah, my bad". We better break this one down too, just to make sure we understand it thoroughly.

Defensive play strategic breakdown:
1. Initial defender, aggressively steps out of the attacker's way to clear a lane to the basket. Why, you ask? No one really knows.
2. Trailing defender casually tries to catch-up from behind, then speeds up at the last second.
3. These events confuse the closest defender in position to make a stop, freezing him too.
4. Play it off, by either checking in the ball quickly or checking the air pressure of the ball.

JR: "Learned this from Stat against the Spurs... first I side step, then..."Get'em Stat."
Stat: "I'm cooooooooooooooming....
Fields: "Oh snap...Stat's gonna block?"
Stat: "Naah man, I said I was just coming over here. Someone's gotta check the ball back in."
Fields: " But...you looked like you were gonna jump and block that. And it's half time Stat."
Stat: "Ah, my bad."

Result: 1 bucket per player every 6 minutes. Typically, a regular blowout. Job security. Max contract.

Example 3:
Fortunately it's not all so bad. If we didn't count fouls and fast break points and we had 5 Lins, we're looking at anywhere between 52 and 63 points per game. That's quite a difference. Unfortunately most of this tends to go to waste in making up for a lot of what goes on above, and no one ever notices. Nevertheless, it's worth taking a look at anyway.

So what is it that Lin does that's so different? It's pretty Linsane...

He defends. This is simply called, the Linsteal. We should really break this one down.

Defensive strategic breakdown:
1. Keep your eye on the ball and anticipate the pass.
2. Move swiftly to intercept the pass.
3. Use aggression and energy to wrestle the ball away out of the opponents arms.
4. Pass the ball to Stat, who's waiving his arms asking for the ball and fails to score.

Lin: "I'm going to steal that damn ball and try to tie this game up."

Result: Lin steals the ball. No bucket. Can result in tying or winning. Side effect: Linsanity, raises excitement among teammates. Can result in benching for making others look bad. Use with caution!

Example 4:
And finally, I'm sure now the next question you'll have is what happens when you mix Lin's defense efficiency and middle of the pack guys like Stat and Melo together, working in tandem to stop the opponent. Well let's just have a look.

Lin/Amare/Melo combo defense, a high pressure situation, just before the clock runs out...

When you take Linsane defense efficiency and you mix it with "Ah my bad" middle of the pack defense, you get a new combo defense and as you probably guessed, it's simply called the "Ah, my bad, Lin". The amazing thing about this little beauty of a play, is that whenever one guy does an amazing job working his ass off, the other two players that have little interest in participating, can often get off the hook as long as they carefully manage to get in each others' way.

Defensive strategic breakdown:
1. Lin, chases opponent around like a mad-man, aggressively blocking his penetration.
2. Everyone else.......watches.
3. Eventually Lin forces attacker to take a bad shot.
4. Instead of rebounding, let it slip through your fingers and watch the opponent rebound the ball and score.

Lin: "You ain't getting by me. I wanna tie this game up."
Everyone else: "He ain't get by Lin. Lin's gonna help us tie this game up."
Jennings: " Dammit Lin, I cant fcking get by you. I'm a take this bad shot now and chuck it up.
Amare: "He gonna take a bad shot"
Melo: "Let's get it."
Amare: "Let me get it."
Ilyasova: "Nah, I got it. I score. I Ilyasova.
Lin: "Explicit language"
Amare & Melo: "Ah, my bad, Lin".

Result: Bucket. Side effects: Cursing. Angry Lin. Game loss. Embarrassment. Blame.


Well, that concludes Part 1 of our analysis, but...while Jeremy Lin and Davis turned out pretty efficient in man to man, the numbers, while still good are not nearly as amazing and efficient when counting fast break/wide open buckets allowed which is why next time(maybe) we'll look over Part 2 that is if Part 1 goes as well as I had planned. And yes, the rest of the crew can and often do get even worse. To be continued....

PS: I really wish the NBA should really do something like this and keep track of defense and defense efficiency using numbers and a similar system. I had no idea it would take so much time, and it would be so much work when I started so I don't plan on doing this for any other game. Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed.

[howe070523]

Lol nice one

[Hodges4Three]

I'm seeing everyone say Lin can't defend, he's too slow laterally, etc.

That last play proves he is NOT slow laterally and is a great defender.

He simply looks bad because when he gets picked the big (usually Stat) never picks up his man and the guy ends up scoring, and people try to pin the blame on Lin.

They also think he should be able to muscle his way through 250lb dudes easily to stay with his man on the perimeter, and criticize him for going under the screen to block penetration when that is usually the smarter play.

At Golden State defense was considered one of his positive aspects, as he had a knack for being pesky/getting lots of steals in a short amount of time. Much like Shump does for the Knicks currently.

[BBAL]

Yeah more on that after I've had some rest in Part 2....the reason why Lin/Fields/Shump leave their man sometime wide open on the floor. It's called playing double team defense and apparently some have little idea what this means, preferring to wait around for the 6th player to pick up the open man. Suffice to say, the 6th man never comes...

[gavran]

How do you count it when a player plays tough defense, yet he still gets scored on? Shouldn't you take that into consideration? This is why D is hard to put into statistics, a player can play great D, and still allow 20-25 points depending on the offensive player.

[Loisl]

What's this supposed to be? A serious discussion? You're trying too hard being funny with those made-up dialogues.

That being said, you logic is flawed. Lin and Baron having high numbers on your so-called "efficiency" ranks is heavily affected from playing against guards. As you know, they are the ones handling the ball and creating plays. There is also a reason why bigs have higher FG%. Guards missing shots means not necessarily good D by our guards.
Besides, in a system where our team is forced to switch by this awful system, our bigs often end up facing guards and get exposed most of the time. Chandler and Stat would have looked as bad as Jorts on that play. Jeffreys may be be the only exception.

Bottom line, Knicks and Bucks played miserable defense. Team defense as well as man to man defense. There was no bright spot on neither team. No matter how hard you try to glorify Lin's D. This game was hard to watch from a defensive pov.

[floatingpig]

Informative post. lol at the Defensive Play Strategy Breakdown section.
How many hours have you spent counting all this? 4+?

@Loisl: If this were minutes per being-passed-by-opponents on D, different positions would make this comparison meaningless. However, if I am understanding it correctly, this is minutes per basket made after being passed by the scorer. The logic is good.

I went to watch the replay of that steal, didn't realize how good it was. Not sure how Gooden felt about that one
Correction: Lin passed it to Stat, who was then fouled by Dunleavy. Not Melo.

[Rasho Brezec]

So what you're saying is Jorts doesn't do well when he's forced to defend guards? You just blew everyone's mind. Maybe he'd do better if our guards cared enough to fight through picks.

[Falstaffxx]

So what you're saying is Jorts doesn't do well when he's forced to defend guards? You just blew everyone's mind. Maybe he'd do better if our guards cared enough to fight through picks.

That occurred to me too. Harrellson is a good post defender.

[matchman]

That's a good post and without all those made up dialogues it will be even better, B+

[No35]

I like those made up dialogues. It took a lot of effort breaking this down play by play.

Solid A.

[[GR]]

JR was in a tough spot there. I think he thought he Amare would have been back quicker, and didn't want to leave his man open

[prophet_of_rage]

These examples are horrible and with the aid of video you should be embarrassed to be supporting what is simply an agenda.

Video number one. We have steve Novak forcing the ball handler sideline baseline away from the basket. Ballhandler pump fakes. Novak bites on the fake and tries not to foul. He lands and the shooter makes a contested jump shot. No middle penetration. No rotation necessary by the defence. Breakdown in individual discipline by the defender to bite on the fake but a contested pull up isn't a bad shot to give up.


Video number 2. Are you guys crazy baming Stat for not getting back from 47 feet away when it was Fields who was supposed to step in off the double team and rotation. Watch the video. Stat is running back as soon as the ball is passed out of the double team. Smith ducks back to his man instead of stopping the ball so Stoudemire could help the helper.
It seems to me that there was clearly a double team on the ball to stop penetration on the pick and roll or at least an aggressive trap. The ball gets reversed Lin side to Gooden. JR Smith stands him up for a second then recovers. Meanwhile Amar'e is running back on a diagonal cut. Lin is out of the play standing above the line of the ball meaning he isn't doing anything defensively in that sequence. No way can amar'e travel 50 feet faster than Gooden can travel 16 feet. Fields stays with his man opening up the take off lane and Carmelo is actually out of the play behind his offensive rebounder. Smith needed to stay with his man a second longer to force him to make a decision to pass the ball. Lin being ball side should have dropped down to take away the opposite elbow in case Gooden drove left while Fields steps into the lane and Amar'e picks up Fields man in help of the helper. We are watching five players fail on a defensive possession.

Video 3 looks like Stoudemire and Davis double teaming on an inbounder forcing a difficult pass which gives Lin enough time to step into the passing lane and strip Gooden as Gooden turns basket side. If one wanted to pick on players then you could say that Lin got lucky that Gooden turned to go right and into him versus going fundamentally left where Lin would have been behind the play. Lin allows the catch and does not jump the lane to steal it clean. Either way the interception of the pass is created by the double team on the ball.

Video 4 Lin has the ballhandler at the 45 and does a good job forcing sideline baseline into he help defence of Anthony who has Ilyasova under the basket in a fronting position. Baron drops down to the foul line to protect the elbow and Fields is playing the weakside block. Gooden walks Amar'e down into a back screen on Anthony which Fields should call. Amar'e is fronting him the entire way. Lin fails to keep the ballhandler sideline baseline because he overcommits and steps on the baseline, allowing the live dribbler to go back middle and eliminate the help defence. Lin's man pulls up for the jump shot. While this is happening Amare fronts Gooden ball side and Illyasova curls off his back pick into the key. As the shot is taken Lin does not box out the shooter, watching the fight for the ball, Davis does not react to Illyasova in the middle of the key and Fields does not indicate anything. Because the ball is in flight Anthony abandons Illyasova and goes to cover the backside of the rim to trap Gooden as Amare is in front of him. The ball goes over the basket, taking Amar'e out of the play making the play between 6'10 Gooden and 6'7 Anthony. A tip of the ball goes to Illyasove with no other help defender reacting to the ball and Anthony and Amar'e trying to hold off Gooden down low. The result a putback by Illyasova with three Knicks watching two fight for the ball. As the ball goes through Lin jogs down to be in the rebounding mix but fails to actually touch Illyasova standing next to him in case the ball pops out the cylinder.

If you're going to breakdown tape actually break it down. Do not just watch it with an agenda.

[yaboynyp]

Is this the part when you guys try and convince us somebody on this team played good defense when we gave up 120 to the Bucks of all people???… Ok carry on..

[AMW BMW]

Kudos! One of the best posts I've seen in a lil while. Keep the dialogues! It's your touch and personalizes the post. I'd like to see a post like this after every game like a "keys to the game" post.

In another post someone included this gif:


STAT uses his left arm and pushes Duncan into Lin, then uses his right arm and leg like a swinging gate opening the lane for Parker while remaining at the foul line.

Landry stands there dumbfounded til the last second then takes a lazy swipe at the ball with his left arm, luckily he didn't get the foul called to make it a 3 pt play!?

Melo, on the weak side, doesn't commit to defend and bobs his neck like a chicken feinting as if Parker is going to stop the attack. No jump! No hands in the air! Hands at his knees.

Novak attempts to recover to Melo's man at the 3pt line while, keeping his eye on his own man that's also at the 3pt line.

Lin gets caught in the pick, moves around it and almost tries to get around STAT to defend the basket. He practically gets a concussion while rubbing his face in Duncan's shoulder, armpit and chest which reminds me of:


I'd like to see this kind of post for the last Celtics game including the ways Garnett and crew get away with ALL the holding and cheap shots.

Great Job. A+

[prophet_of_rage]

Kudos! One of the best posts I've seen in a lil while. Keep the dialogues! It's your touch and personalizes the post. I'd like to see a post like this after every game like a "keys to the game" post.

In another post someone included this gif:


STAT uses his left arm and pushes Duncan into Lin, then uses his right arm and leg like a swinging gate opening the lane for Parker while remaining at the foul line.

Landry stands there dumbfounded til the last second then takes a lazy swipe at the ball with his left arm, luckily he didn't get the foul called to make it a 3 pt play!?

Melo, on the weak side, doesn't commit to defend and bobs his neck like a chicken feinting as if Parker is going to stop the attack. No jump! No hands in the air! Hands at his knees.

Novak attempts to recover to Melo's man at the 3pt line while, keeping his eye on his own man that's also at the 3pt line.

Lin gets caught in the pick, moves around it and almost tries to get around STAT to defend the basket. He practically gets a concussion while rubbing his face in Duncan's shoulder, armpit and chest which reminds me of:


I'd like to see this kind of post for the last Celtics game including the ways Garnett and crew get away with ALL the holding and cheap shots.

Great Job. A+

Because this play ended up in Amar'e not being substituted and was repeated several times it has to be the defensive philosophy. Which means the problem is D'Anotni's defensive schemes.

[lloydj]

A great post . The only exception is this whole team displays the "Fck-if-I-know maneuver" on defense.
Fck-if-I-know why.

[Jan_Sobieski]

lol Amare does not know how to hedge off proper. Swoops . Gets blown by Tony. wtf

[BBAL]

How do you count it when a player plays tough defense, yet he still gets scored on? Shouldn't you take that into consideration? This is why D is hard to put into statistics, a player can play great D, and still allow 20-25 points depending on the offensive player.

Good point...



I guess when we decide to start doing that, we'll have to address that issue but other than a few plays that dilemma never came up when watching the Bucks game;)

[BBAL]

These examples are horrible and with the aid of video you should be embarrassed to be supporting what is simply an agenda.

Video number one. We have steve Novak forcing the ball handler sideline baseline away from the basket. Ballhandler pump fakes. Novak bites on the fake and tries not to foul. He lands and the shooter makes a contested jump shot. No middle penetration. No rotation necessary by the defence. Breakdown in individual discipline by the defender to bite on the fake but a contested pull up isn't a bad shot to give up.


Video number 2. Are you guys crazy baming Stat for not getting back from 47 feet away when it was Fields who was supposed to step in off the double team and rotation. Watch the video. Stat is running back as soon as the ball is passed out of the double team. Smith ducks back to his man instead of stopping the ball so Stoudemire could help the helper.
It seems to me that there was clearly a double team on the ball to stop penetration on the pick and roll or at least an aggressive trap. The ball gets reversed Lin side to Gooden. JR Smith stands him up for a second then recovers. Meanwhile Amar'e is running back on a diagonal cut. Lin is out of the play standing above the line of the ball meaning he isn't doing anything defensively in that sequence. No way can amar'e travel 50 feet faster than Gooden can travel 16 feet. Fields stays with his man opening up the take off lane and Carmelo is actually out of the play behind his offensive rebounder. Smith needed to stay with his man a second longer to force him to make a decision to pass the ball. Lin being ball side should have dropped down to take away the opposite elbow in case Gooden drove left while Fields steps into the lane and Amar'e picks up Fields man in help of the helper. We are watching five players fail on a defensive possession.

Video 3 looks like Stoudemire and Davis double teaming on an inbounder forcing a difficult pass which gives Lin enough time to step into the passing lane and strip Gooden as Gooden turns basket side. If one wanted to pick on players then you could say that Lin got lucky that Gooden turned to go right and into him versus going fundamentally left where Lin would have been behind the play. Lin allows the catch and does not jump the lane to steal it clean. Either way the interception of the pass is created by the double team on the ball.

Video 4 Lin has the ballhandler at the 45 and does a good job forcing sideline baseline into he help defence of Anthony who has Ilyasova under the basket in a fronting position. Baron drops down to the foul line to protect the elbow and Fields is playing the weakside block. Gooden walks Amar'e down into a back screen on Anthony which Fields should call. Amar'e is fronting him the entire way. Lin fails to keep the ballhandler sideline baseline because he overcommits and steps on the baseline, allowing the live dribbler to go back middle and eliminate the help defence. Lin's man pulls up for the jump shot. While this is happening Amare fronts Gooden ball side and Illyasova curls off his back pick into the key. As the shot is taken Lin does not box out the shooter, watching the fight for the ball, Davis does not react to Illyasova in the middle of the key and Fields does not indicate anything. Because the ball is in flight Anthony abandons Illyasova and goes to cover the backside of the rim to trap Gooden as Amare is in front of him. The ball goes over the basket, taking Amar'e out of the play making the play between 6'10 Gooden and 6'7 Anthony. A tip of the ball goes to Illyasove with no other help defender reacting to the ball and Anthony and Amar'e trying to hold off Gooden down low. The result a putback by Illyasova with three Knicks watching two fight for the ball. As the ball goes through Lin jogs down to be in the rebounding mix but fails to actually touch Illyasova standing next to him in case the ball pops out the cylinder.

If you're going to breakdown tape actually break it down. Do not just watch it with an agenda.

I do think your sense of humor is broken. The only one that actually comes close to me trying to break down a play seriously is Lin's steal. The rest of the breakdowns are...there are so many things wrong with what's going on on those plays, I really don't think they require an explanation. I think everyone gets there was no way in hell Amare was ever going to get back in time to stop that play unless that dude was going wait for him Watching him try and not even attempt a block...