barelyawake wrote:badinage wrote:It's easy to rail and rail and rail about the defense. But the fact is, it's more about acquiring a mindset as a team, and committing to executing a smart team D concept, than it is about trading and drafting "defenders." Boston proved that last year, and so did L.A. (for the most part) this year.
What are you talking about? You think you don't need good defenders to play good defense? Since when? When has that ever happened? In Boston? Let's see. Boston has perhaps the best defensive PG. They have All-defensive player KG. Pierce has always been a very good defensive player, when he needs/wants to be (key phrase). They have a bruiser in Perkins. They had two of the best vet defenders in the league in Posey and P.J. Brown. These are people we are comparing to Mike Miller and Foye? Man, I'm sorry, but I just view that as nuts. You must play defense to win championships. You must have good defensive minded players to play good defense. A coach alone cannot take the worst defensive team in the league; add two offensive players; and suddenly make them good defensively with a scheme. It doesn't happen.
And the trade sent Dom to the bench more than likely. So, cut him out of your equation. IMO there's no two ways about it. If we start and finish with M&M at the two, it's giving up on the post season before it even starts. For God's sakes, Ginobili had to ride the bench for the Spurs (a team with great defenders on it). This fantasy that we don't have to play defense, or that the "system" suddenly turns non-defenders into shutdown defenders, is Wonkavillian. It's Santa Claus-like thinking that needs to be properly clipped, so that management doesn't leave this team as is (because as is ain't good enough). Or so says me, Mr. Smiley, who trusts EG will fix things.
I didn't say we could match up with Boston defensively. i said that both Boston and LA (which you inconveniently left out of your remarks) committed to playing defense. LA doesn't have great defenders. Boston, yes, has two, and KG erases a lot of mistakes. But the guys around Rondo and KG are decent, at best. What Boston had, in its run, was a group of hungry, got-sumpin-to-prove guys that Thibodeau brought out the best in through schemes and rotations. LA just got tougher, not by acquiring toughness, but by playing harder and talking tougher and getting some guys (like Gasol) into the weightroom.
And you want to talk about fantasy? The idea of shutdown defenders, in this era, is a staggering fantasy. (It's also twisting my words to say that I'm suggesting the "system" is going to turn guys into great defenders.) There are maybe a couple in the league, and even they get burned by the top talents (see Battier, Shane).
Also, McGuire isn't being cut out of the equation. He'll be more effective in limited minutes until -- or unless -- he develops a J. Thirty minutes a game for him is far too much most nights. I see him playing 16-20, and I think that's just about right.
Final thought: We're not ready to compete for a championship. Grunfeld has recently said as much. The goal, this year, is to go deep into the playoffs; anything else is gravy.
But if you read his words, you'll see that he understands the team's limitations at this point. Now, if you were to add a skilled, crafty, defensive-minded postplayer through midseason trade (entirely possible), that'd put a good defender alongside Haywood and further close off the inside, which, in turn, might embolden some guys on the perimeter to play closer to their man, etc., etc.
Team D is easier with a great big man who protects the rim, it's true. But that's not to say this team can't improve without that. And Haywood is very underrated defensively, as we've all talked about on here. It can be done. I think it's perfectly realistic to think that this team can become an average to slightly above average D. And at this point in our evolution, I think that's fine.
Incidentally, speaking of team D ... a recent analysis of hockey goalies demonstrated that the play of the goalie was directly proportional to the play of the defensemen, etc.
