WT: Less DREB, More D?

[tsherkin]

There's a wiretap article up about San Antonio following Boston's model, focusing a little less on defensive rebounding and more on for in turnovers while experiencing an improvement in overall D a a result.

What do you guys think?

[co_laper]

Personally, there's a few things there that I don't agree with. At the same time, I'm not the expert. It just doesn't pass my eye test.

For example.

I don't quite understand how us not focusing more on defensive rebounds means we're contesting shots better. I just don't get the correlation between the two. Was the article trying to say that we didn't contest shots better because we were trying to get a rebound even before the ball was shot? It just makes no sense to me. Someone please explain that part of the article to me.

Another is that the article said we force more turnovers compared to last year going from 26th to 15th this year. The biggest reason for that is one person. Kawhi Leonard. Looking at statistics, the usual guys don't have an uptick in steals rate as if it's some team emphasis. Even when you watch the games, the one who always gets a hand on the ball and come up with steals or knocking it loose is Kawhi. ALL THE TIME. So to say that the team placed greater emphasis on creating turnovers? I just don't quite agree with that. If anything, nobody makes gambles on this team other than Kawhi and Manu (who gambles often through out his career).

And then he says Tiago is the "key ingredient" for this turnaround defensively. Again, I don't agree. Yes, Tiago has given us better size and defense compared to our past bigs such as Matt Bonner, Boris Diaw, and Dejuan Blair. It still doesn't mean Tiago is the biggest reason for this. No matter how you slice it, Tim Duncan's resurgance defensively and Kawhi's improved defense are the two biggest reason we're a better defensive team. I'll even list Danny Green's defense as the third reason because he often takes the opposing star PG during important moments. Splitter can make an argument for the 3rd reason, but he's certainly doesn't deserve more credit than Kawhi or Duncan for this turnaround.

[Nolan]

I don't quite understand how us not focusing more on defensive rebounds means we're contesting shots better. I just don't get the correlation between the two. Was the article trying to say that we didn't contest shots better because we were trying to get a rebound even before the ball was shot? It just makes no sense to me. Someone please explain that part of the article to me.

No matter how you slice it, Tim Duncan's resurgance defensively and Kawhi's improved defense are the two biggest reason we're a better defensive team. I'll even list Danny Green's defense as the third reason because he often takes the opposing star PG during important moments.

There is a connection between the two. What he was trying to say is that last year our off the ball defenders were more focused on getting into position to rebound rather than trying to get into position to contest the shot if the primary defender gets beat and this year we've been doing exactly that. Rather than trying to make for our lack of size by packing the paint we're using our speed to create turnovers and contest every shot. I mean there's really no point of trying to get into better rebounding position if it means your going to give up an open so shot. So essentially we've decided that giving up an open shot is worse than giving up a offensive board and so far its worked well for us.

But I do agree with you that Duncan's resurgence and Kawhi's improvements have been huge for us. Without those two we wouldn't be able to play this style.

Also another note on Schuhmann article. I hate how everyone keeps giving Boston credit for creating this style of play, Shaka Smart the head coach of VCU is really the dude that made this style of swarming defense successful.