Our Defense lately

[dream_catcher_9]

has been league average the past few weeks. It's no coincidence we play better D when Ibaka and Collison are in the game. We do a good job hiding our weakness as best as possible, but we do need a low post banger/rebounder if we want to win Championships. Hopefully we get on this off-season.

I know Ibaka is good at this but he is more of a 4, and great help defender. We need a great 1v1 defender, help defender and rebounder in the paint. He doesn't have to play 35 minutes either, with the way our rotations are he would be getting 25-30 minutes while Krstic and Collison get the other.

We have 2 late first rounders, 1 early 2nd rounder, and a couple low level prospects in Waver/White to trade to move up in the draft, or make a under the radar type of Presti trade.

A frontcourt of Durant-Ibaka-low post defender/rebounder would make this defense legit. Our guards wouldnt have to help as much and wouldn't have to suck down low as much, thus making our perimeter defense even better. and even if Presti keeps Green in to start, as long as Ibaka gets 25-30 minutes a game that's fine. Because Green would have a guy down low to protect him.

[Jimmy76]

I think what you mentioned is a necessary step towards improving our defense but part of it has just been a lack of attentiveness

[slick_watts]

I'm going to post something from another site's comments that I think really describes what's been going on lately, and why teams have been getting lots of open shots on us:

c. Attack the weakside post. This game was the epitome of what’s happened over the last month. The opponents sets screens or P&R, forces us to adjust, and then forces the weakside help defender – who is usually sloughing off a shooter to help down low — to decide. If he drops to the post, you reverse to an open wing on the perimeter. If he doesn’t — and we didn’t, at all, tonight — you zip a pass across the paint. Green was murdered on this repeatedly tonight, particularly in the first half — Kev, with all due respect, your numbers on him were off, maybe because the TV didn’t quite pick up on it very often. Collison got nailed too, as well, though – we just had too much cheating toward the ball. The point of our defense is supposed to be to create long, contested 2-point jumpers and the Jazz shot very, very few of those.

Our help defense, our close outs, have been slower and less decisive. We're getting killed with ball movement.