RealGM

As many of you know the 03' Draft Class brought a great haul of players into the NBA. There are All-Stars such as David West and Josh Howard. It brought in solid players such as Leandro Barbosa, T.J. Ford, Chris Kaman, and Kirk Hinrick (among others). But the four that it is most know for are its superstars: LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh.

Now, these four players have not exactly been heralded for their defense in the NBA, yet. However, all four of these players are playing significant roles for Team USA in the Olympics, a team in which they have dedicated themselves almost entirely to creating offense through tenacious defense. Dwyane Wade is averaging close to 3 steals a game. LeBron is playing great interior defense. Carmelo Anthony has dedicated himself to guarding 4's and pulling down as many defensive rebounds a game as he can. Chris Bosh has played great defense too. And aside from just individual defense, these guys have committed themselves to TEAM defense as well.

So, my question is this. Will the defensive intensity that we have seen from the 03's in the Olympics carry over to the NBA? Will these guys finally understand that the best strategy for winning in any sport is great defense? Will they understand that you can play great defense every night, even if your offensive game is off?

I'm hoping so. IMO, these players can increase their legacy by miles if we start seeing them on First Team All Defense or even Defensive Player of the Year.

One reason why the defensive intensity might not carry over is the fact that these four players carry much of the offensive load for their teams, so they must conserve a little bit of energy on defense. IMO, that's BS. Players such as Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon were able to do it night in and night out.

So, will we start knowing these players as defensive studs following these Olympics?
Or will they continue to be high-powered offensive machines, and not much else?

The defensive schemes we are using here on Team USA, aren't exactly the same type of defensive schemes NBA Teams play, save for a handful of times a game.

They are more set/oriented type of defensive sets in the NBA, unlike the roaming style Team USA is playing, being led by Wade, LeBron and Paul.

Flash3 wrote:The defensive schemes we are using here on Team USA, aren't exactly the same type of defensive schemes NBA Teams play, save for a handful of times a game.

They are more set/oriented type of defensive sets in the NBA, unlike the roaming style Team USA is playing, being led by Wade, LeBron and Paul.

True. But even if the style of defense is different, shouldn't the effort be the same?

The problem for Bron, Wade, Bosh is that the offence on their respective teams revolves around them. If any of these guys get into early foul trouble due to aggressive defence, the offence usually stagnates.

What we are seeing in the Olympics is different because these guys are willing and ABLE to sacrifice and play aggressive defence because the offence is a given. Every member of the team can score.

Never have I seen such aggressive defence that it seems the entire offensive scheme is predicated on the defence. This team is running and gunning off of every rebound, steal and deflection. Team USA's half-court offence is almost non-existant. That's why it seems like Howard and Bosh don't ever get any touches on the inside, it just slows the game down.

If Lebron, Wade and Bosh had more offensive talent on their respective teams, I'm sure we would see better defence from these guys. Melo has less of an excuse because of Iverson, but I think Melo will come around. He definitely has the tools to excel.

Plus, it's a lot easier to play at maximum energy for 20 minutes every other day in a short tournament than it is for 40 a night over an 82-game schedule. They'd never last.

Flashx3x wrote:

Flash3 wrote:The defensive schemes we are using here on Team USA, aren't exactly the same type of defensive schemes NBA Teams play, save for a handful of times a game.

They are more set/oriented type of defensive sets in the NBA, unlike the roaming style Team USA is playing, being led by Wade, LeBron and Paul.

True. But even if the style of defense is different, shouldn't the effort be the same?

You aren't factoring the minutes they play in an NBA Game as compared to an Int'l Game. -- Wade current plays 18-19 mins a game, and will probably play double that this coming season.

Add to that, the responsibility they have on their NBA Teams are magnified even more than they have on Team USA.

the traveller wrote:The problem for Bron, Wade, Bosh is that the offence on their respective teams revolves around them. If any of these guys get into early foul trouble due to aggressive defence, the offence usually stagnates.

What we are seeing in the Olympics is different because these guys are willing and ABLE to sacrifice and play aggressive defence because the offence is a given. Every member of the team can score.

Never have I seen such aggressive defence that it seems the entire offensive scheme is predicated on the defence. This team is running and gunning off of every rebound, steal and deflection. Team USA's half-court offence is almost non-existant. That's why it seems like Howard and Bosh don't ever get any touches on the inside, it just slows the game down.

If Lebron, Wade and Bosh had more offensive talent on their respective teams, I'm sure we would see better defence from these guys. Melo has less of an excuse because of Iverson, but I think Melo will come around. He definitely has the tools to excel.

exactly

Flash3 wrote:

Flashx3x wrote:

Flash3 wrote:The defensive schemes we are using here on Team USA, aren't exactly the same type of defensive schemes NBA Teams play, save for a handful of times a game.

They are more set/oriented type of defensive sets in the NBA, unlike the roaming style Team USA is playing, being led by Wade, LeBron and Paul.

True. But even if the style of defense is different, shouldn't the effort be the same?

You aren't factoring the minutes they play in an NBA Game as compared to an Int'l Game. -- Wade current plays 18-19 mins a game, and will probably play double that this coming season.

Add to that, the responsibility they have on their NBA Teams are magnified even more than they have on Team USA.

I'm not expecting them to go up and pressure the hell out of the ball and give their everything on defense. Rather, I'm hoping that they will pay a little more attention to their defensive responsibilities now that they have seen what kind of success solid defense can bring. I'd rather that this generation of superstars not be known only as offensive studs. Again, I understand that they need to carry a lot of the offensive load, but these four guys also have had or just got new scoring options on their respective teams that will help them with it. LeBron got Mo Williams, Wade has Beasley and Marion, Carmelo has Iverson, and Bosh has Calderon and now Jermaine O'Neal.

I guess what I'm trying to say is this: with these guys going through a defensive-minded and hopefully successful Olympic run, with new (or old) scoring options on their teams, and with the desire to all become more complete players (which I have heard Dwyane, LeBron, and 'Melo express - not Bosh yet), you guys don't think this could be their best defensive season yet?

I sure as hell think so.

You also have to consider the NBA is much more offensively gifted(and oriented) so I wouldn't expect many two or three block games from Lebron next season.

When you account literally for just the main, if not all points your team will get via assists or directly scoring, playing defense at the same intensity is hard.

When you have others on your team that are capable of doing that, you can focus on playing defense at that same intensity too. We saw Pierce's improvement in defense, he's always been capable of playing good defense, but now he has become a very good-great defender on the perimeter.