RealGM

Anybody else think we over do it?

In terms of interior defense, I can understand doubling a Duncan or KG in the post, but it seems like our guards love to double ANYBODY in the post... I mean, the other night we had Cuttino Mobley trying to post up AP, who has like 3 inches on him... and we kept doubling....Same thing with nearly every opposing player that tries to post up, regardless of their size and position... The player usually realizes this after a while and doesn't even try to score, but tries to suck in another defender and get a teammate a wide open shot....its just strange.. Sometimes you get more harm from doubling and giving them a wide open shot then simply letting them go one on one and seeing what happens.... I would like to see us stop relying on it so much...

Another thing is the way opposing guards can suck in two of our defenders with a simple dribble into the middle of the paint... I don't know if our players don't have the lateral quicks to keep up or not, but opposing guards can get by them easily, and this usually sucks in a second defender, leaving another player on the three point line wide open... If we had a good defensive rotation this would be fine, but we don't and somebody is always wide open behind the line... I think we should try a different strategy that a lot of teams use, where the other guard stays on his man, and help comes from the post first to stop the drive, then a second defender comes from the perimeter to guard the open big man... This takes more time off the clock and has a better chance of causing a turnover...
Maybe it would be dumb, but what we're using right now is not working at all... Ex--- Billups drives past Jose, AP comes to help, Hamilton sinks a wide open three..... Ex- Hamilton takes one dribble past AP, Jose comes to help, Billups is open for a wide open three.. This just happens way too often with our team, maybe the makeup of our team just won't allow us to handle these situations effectively...

I've noticed this with most teams in the league, and it just seems to be something that's ingrained into the brains of NBA players.

Our team is particularily bad at it though.. Even bad young teams like the Sixers and Bobcats seem to be able to scramble and rotate much quicker than we do... It just might be the lack of athleticism and lateral quicks or our perimeter players... Outside of TJ none of them can keep up their guy...

Totally agree, the double teaming is killing us with good shooting teams. Spurs got way to many points when a double team came and they swung the ball around to the open guy, often manu g. I would much rather see the team do the double teams about 1/2 as often and then have the defender be more responsible for playing better man to man d. I'm really not sure how these guys are supposed to improve defensively if never given the opportunity to actually play man to man d, because the double team comes (almost) every time.

I have a feeling that it's a matter of the players implementing the system that Mitchell wants in place. I realize that sounds a tad obvious, but I think it says something important about where Mitchell thinks the team is at. He obviously thinks the interior D is super weak or he wouldn't have everyone double. That constant doubling has to be a major factor in the Raps super porous perimeter D too (as mentioned above). SO if that's how Mitchell wants the perimeter guys to help, I really don't see how a better perimeter defender is supposed to upgrade the team D that much - he's going to have to double too, and that takes most of the impact away.

Unless Mitchell has a crazy scheme where the defensive paradigm is to deny the pass out of the post. But that's just silly. And the team isn't doing it anyway. I think the defensive system needs a serious overhaul anyway. I hate the distance the players have to close out on some plays and the rotations generally stink. The switching on every screen thing seems to have died out a little, but that's silly too, when it happens.

Our double teams are the weakest thing I've seen in basketball history.

Okay, I'm obviously over-exaggerating, but our double teams are horrible.

The first problem is that the player the Raps decide to double team never feels a lot of pressure. Even while he's being double teamed, he still passes the ball to the open guy fairly easily. They dont lose the ball, they dont throw up bad shots, they dont commit offensive fouls. They stay calm and easily pass the ball.

The second problem, and the bigger problem, is that the Raps rarely get to the open guy on time.

I know the Raps don't have the worst defence in the league, and statistically speaking, we're right about in the middle of the league. But I think the Raptors may give up the most open shots. There's always someone open.

Fenris-77 wrote:I have a feeling that it's a matter of the players implementing the system that Mitchell wants in place. I realize that sounds a tad obvious, but I think it says something important about where Mitchell thinks the team is at. He obviously thinks the interior D is super weak or he wouldn't have everyone double. That constant doubling has to be a major factor in the Raps super porous perimeter D too (as mentioned above). SO if that's how Mitchell wants the perimeter guys to help, I really don't see how a better perimeter defender is supposed to upgrade the team D that much - he's going to have to double too, and that takes most of the impact away.

Unless Mitchell has a crazy scheme where the defensive paradigm is to deny the pass out of the post. But that's just silly. And the team isn't doing it anyway. I think the defensive system needs a serious overhaul anyway. I hate the distance the players have to close out on some plays and the rotations generally stink. The switching on every screen thing seems to have died out a little, but that's silly too, when it happens.

+1

The system has to be completely rebuilt if we're going anywhere significant, I agree...But if we're going to do this constant doubling for now, then they do have to have faster rotations and quicker closeouts... How many times do we see Kapono, Moon, CB4, Jose completely lost and guarding nobody? CB4 is pretty bad at this, if you notice a couple of times each game he tends to float around the paint and watch Rasho or Bargs' guy, losing sight of his own cover.. Then somebody gets open and you see him pushing another player towards an open perimeter player, when it was his fault at the beginning...

Maybe we'll always be a terrible defensive team with Smitch at the helm.. Even though statistically we're not that terrible, we're still well below par for a team trying to reach the upper echelons of the East...