Hornets Defense

[yosemiteben]

Alright, let's have a stand-alone thread on this. WTF is the deal with our defense?

Here's a random theory - do we just suck on the road?

[amcoolio]

Those numbers at home would still be bottom of the league.

I really think we need to bring in a defensive associate head coach, with a completely new philosophy. Too late this year, team is barely practicing. Is Clifford available?

I would say its 30% lack of an interior presence, 50% lack of effort by all the players, 20% lack of ability by the players

Effort = coaching problem. If we are just average in defense, we are 19-13 or better

[fatlever]

we are 29th in drtg at home - 111.9, 29th on the road 116.5

i'd guess that almost all teams are slightly better at home. in our case we are awful at both. our home rating would still 25th when compared to everyone else's road rating.

[amcoolio]

I would also like to but blame on Mitch Kupchak as there were several young bigs available the last few years and the team decided to stick with Biyombo, Zeller and Plumlee...maybe he got Matt Rhule'd and the bigs decided not to come here like the quarterbacks decided not to either but I doubt it

[fatlever]

rating by quarter 30, 29, 21, 14

[MPM]

The nasty cocktail;

- A front office that knows there’s a glaring hole in the middle and hasn’t done anything about it. It’s telling that every GB thread in Real GM about a big on the market is met with a chorus of ‘ the Hornets could use him.’ I still recall Kupchak shrugging when asked about our void in the interior – he said something along the lines of ‘we just need to be more aggressive.’

- This lack of interior presence has put an undue burden on our perimeter D and forced us into chaotic zone/switching defensive schemes that often leave shooters wide open.

- It also has us in the bottom of the league in second chance points allowed.

- Borrego is not a great defensive coach.

- Players no longer seem to be locked into our chicken-with-its-head-cut-off, if we can’t guard them, confuse them defense. They seemed tuned out - lackadaisical

- The team doesn’t really have a bona fide defensive stopper we can attach to opposing go-to's. Martin and Thor are likely our two best defenders and Thor doesn't even play.

[fatlever]

29th in opponents points in paint
29th in allowing 2nd chance points
28th in def rebounding %
29th in def fg%
25th in % of shots that are 3pt
26th in fg% allowed on shot less than 5ft
22nd in allowing shots less than 5ft
29th in allowing wide open shots (defender more than 6ft)

[MPM]

29th in opponents points in paint
29th in allowing 2nd chance points
28th in def rebounding %
29th in def fg%
25th in % of shots that are 3pt
26th in fg% allowed on shot less than 5ft
22nd in allowing shots less than 5ft
29th in allowing wide open shots (defender more than 6ft)

FUGLY.

[fatlever]

my gut tells me the biggest issue is our guards and wings seem completely incapable or unwilling to keep anyone in front of them. this main problem is compounded by lack of a true rim protector. melo, rozier and oubre are complete turnstiles on perimeter. our front court guys are severely lacking in the fundamentals of rotating.

if i was jb, id strongly consider a martin for rozier swap for starting lineup. hopefully terry would not make it an issue.

[MPM]

my gut tells me the biggest issue is our guards and wings seem completely incapable or unwilling to keep anyone in front of them. this main problem is compounded by lack of a true rim protector. melo, rozier and oubre are complete turnstiles on perimeter. our front court guys are severely lacking in the fundamentals of rotating.

if i was jb, id strongly consider a martin for rozier swap for starting lineup. hopefully terry would not make it an issue.

This almost needs to happen. With zero interior D, we need at least one plus perimeter defender on the court to counter opposing starters.

[amcoolio]

Or just trade Terry when he comes up for just anyone who can guard, at any position. With Martin's emergence and Bouk waiting on the wings do we really need Terry? LaMelo has hit some big shots at the end of games recently too. Someone like Okoro, Thybulle, Dort, OG, Royce O'Neale, KCP, obviously we probably don't have enough for any of those guys unless OKC decides to sell high on Dort but that mold of player

[yosemiteben]

It's truly remarkable how bad we are on D. It really doesn't seem like it should be possible to be this bad.

I do think a Terry for Cody starting lineup switch makes a lot of sense. I actually like the length and defensive energy we get from Cody, McDaniels, and Thor and I'd get all three in the rotation.

[luciano-davidwesley]

my gut tells me the biggest issue is our guards and wings seem completely incapable or unwilling to keep anyone in front of them. this main problem is compounded by lack of a true rim protector. melo, rozier and oubre are complete turnstiles on perimeter. our front court guys are severely lacking in the fundamentals of rotating.

if i was jb, id strongly consider a martin for rozier swap for starting lineup. hopefully terry would not make it an issue.

This has been happening for years. This is not isolated to this season. If Rozier has an issue with this I say we help him pack his bags.

I'd LOVE to see either Hayward or Rozier shipped for a decent 5 or a wing/stretch that can actually defend. We've got enough firepower without one or both of those guys depending on who we get back in a trade. It would also help to keep us well away from the luxury tax if we take on shorter deals. I'm happy for most of Hayward's money to be given to Bridges. Hayward has had way more average/poor games this season than good ones and his contract sucks.

[JDR720]

Reposted from the Suns thread
-------
Regardless, our team shouldn't be last in defense by a decent margin like they currently are.

The 7 win Bobcats team had worst defensive rating in the league that season. At...109.4. We're currently at 115, which is also worst in the league.

To be fair the league has changed a lot since then. But the Bobcats 109 rating would still be bottom 10 for this season.

It's a Borrego + Players issue. Borrego doesn't know how to coach defense. Our players are mostly offense guys who think they're better than they actually are. Which I think is a main reason we get trashed early in the game so often. They think our offense can win games even if they don't bother to defend until the 2nd half.

[JDR720]

My new lineup.

Ball - Rozier
Gordon - Oubre
Martin - Thor
Miles - PJ
Plumlee - Richards

Honestly, not a lot of great options for us. We shouldn't be nearly as bad as we are. We're small, but only in height. We have athletic young players. Defense is 90% effort.

[Benjamin Linus]

Would it be the worst thing to slide Miles back to SF and start PJ for more size/defense in the starting rotation?

Maybe roll with this lineup some more LaMelo-Martin-Miles-PJ-Plumlee


Side note - Chicago's done a good job building up their defense in the backcourt by adding Lonzo and Caruso to help offset Vucevic's garbage ass defense

[yosemiteben]

Read on Twitter

Agree with this

[amcoolio]

Our defense is so bad that teams get up for our game like we are the top dog just so they can pad their stats

[Bassman]

Read on Twitter

Agree with this

Love Melo but he deserves some nuts busted here for his poor perimeter effort. Same for Terry. Expend energy there early instead of trying to “get going” offensively. Melo is young, stars in his eyes (deservingly) and perhaps a bit ego’d out. Agree coach isn’t busting chops when the starts suck out of the gate.

[Snidely FC]

Read on Twitter

Agree with this

The duality of that tweet is what's wrong with this team. All the talk this summer of Box Office I feel like mgmt put this team together to be exciting - give the ball to Lamelo and run opponents off the floor - on one hand they succeeded: when the offense is clicking its must see tv - but there is no balance; there was no thought given to how to stop the other team, and when the shots aren't falling - which seems to be endemic on the road - its damn ugly