3rd best defense for last 44 games

[djsunyc]

110.2 drtg over the last 44 games which was 3rd best over that time. (okc 109.2, lac 109.7)

our schedule did not hit the "other teams are out tanking us" portion until march 7th (20 games left).

mar 7 - end of season (20 games): 108.5 (3rd)

jan 11 - mar 6 (24 games): 111.7 (8th)

oct 23 - jan 10 (38 games): 117.6 (27th)

i think heading into next season, the team should have expectations of being a top 10 defense, possibly even top 5.

[WuTang_OG]

Last season was offence focused and this season was on defence. You gotta play defence to get out of the bottom (ORL, Rockets etc)

Good to see.

[Indeed]

Opposing team offense tanked, and our offense tanked as well.
What did the opposing team do? Go behind screen, we go under, someone unknown jack a pull up 3. It happened often against teams, but I don't see this happen often next year.

[Shakril]

110.2 drtg over the last 44 games which was 3rd best over that time. (okc 109.2, lac 109.7)

our schedule did not hit the "other teams are out tanking us" portion until march 7th (20 games left).

mar 7 - end of season (20 games): 108.5 (3rd)

jan 11 - mar 6 (24 games): 111.7 (8th)

oct 23 - jan 10 (38 games): 117.6 (27th)

i think heading into next season, the team should have expectations of being a top 10 defense, possibly even top 5.

jan 11 - mar 6 is probably the only number that has any value. The other two were either tankers or with injuries on our part.


But honestly, i would be surprised if we will be in the top 10.

[Psubs]

Double down and trade down and get Carter Bryant and Rasheer Fleming for more STOCKS!

[YogurtProducer]

Pretty wild considering we had to be damn near last for the first half

[TeamDisgruntled]

Strength of schedule from first half hardest to second half easiest obviously plays a role, but it isn’t nothing. The defence was noticeably better according to the eye test aswell. I’d imagine Kelly O and Dick not being in the rotation helped quite a bit.

Still super positive considering how much youth and mid season signees we were playing big minutes. Despite being decent this year, you would imagine Shead, Mogbo, Walter, Battle should all make a leap defensively next year considering rookies typically take some time to adjust/learn on that end.

[MEDIC]

This is the main reason I have optimism for next season. They need to continue to build.on this.

[vini_vidi_vici]

This is the main reason I have optimism for next season. They need to continue to build.on this.

I agree, but...

- Were adding Ingram, who can be a pylon defensively at times, maybe he will buy in tho.
- How can we optimize the offense??

Using DJs parameters...
Mar 7th to EoS, 25th in ORTG.
Jan 11 - Mar 7th, 16th in ORTG.
Oct 23 - Jan 10th , 24th in ORTG.

I love defense, but it feels like a league thats transitioning into more dynamic offenses, and zagging into a defensive structure isnt going to win.

To be fair, most good defenses this year are good offense, because the bad teams are just very bad, but im concerned youll become an ORL type, where the D is good, but you can only cap out at a marginally successful team as a poor offensive team.

[OakleyDokely]

The big thing for me is the hustle and fight they displayed. That goes a long way. Even when they incorporate Ingram into the lineup and when the quality of competition increases over an entire season, just caring defensively should allow them to carry over some of this.success.

[Zeno]

I think we had a pretty good defence when it came to stopping really bad offences but I also vaguely remember hearing somewhere that we had the worst defence in the league against top 10 offences. I don’t know how to look up such a stat but it makes sense because we were forced to play so many rookies early in the season against elite teams. I don’t mind much, given the objectives for the season but having such crazily unbalanced schedule makes evaluations more difficult.

[ConSarnit]

I think we had a pretty good defence when it came to stopping really bad offences but I also vaguely remember hearing somewhere that we had the worst defence in the league against top 10 offences. I don’t know how to look up such a stat but it makes sense because we were forced to play so many rookies early in the season against elite teams. I don’t mind much, given the objectives for the season but having such crazily unbalanced schedule makes evaluations more difficult.

I saw a tweet related to a conversation at the Sloan conference that the Raptors end of season schedule was possibly the easiest in NBA history. Dean Oliver tweeted that we had by far the easiest last 20 games this season.

Important info: our defense was not bad to begin the year. We were terrible in turning the ball over and fixing that issue saved us 6-7 points as far as defensive rating goes. A LOT of our defensive improvement came from the offensive end.

I will also add: here are our best defensive performances for March and April (teams we held below 105 points):

ORL
WAS
PHI
POR
WAS
CHA
CHA

Now, did we get better defensively? Yes. But, I have no idea if we are actually “good” on defense because our competition was by far the weakest in the league.

[Zeno]

I think we had a pretty good defence when it came to stopping really bad offences but I also vaguely remember hearing somewhere that we had the worst defence in the league against top 10 offences. I don’t know how to look up such a stat but it makes sense because we were forced to play so many rookies early in the season against elite teams. I don’t mind much, given the objectives for the season but having such crazily unbalanced schedule makes evaluations more difficult.

I saw a tweet related to a conversation at the Sloan conference that the Raptors end of season schedule was possibly the easiest in NBA history. Dean Oliver tweeted that we had by far the easiest last 20 games this season.

Important info: our defense was not bad to begin the year. We were terrible in turning the ball over and fixing that issue saved us 6-7 points as far as defensive rating goes. A LOT of our defensive improvement came from the offensive end.

I will also add: here are our best defensive performances for March and April (teams we held below 105 points):

ORL
WAS
PHI
POR
WAS
CHA
CHA

Now, did we get better defensively? Yes. But, I have no idea if we are actually “good” on defense because our competition was by far the weakest in the league.

Yeah, the schedule just makes evaluation very difficult though you are definitely right about the turnovers. Also, the foul rate was unbelievably high early on in the season and I feel that was curtailed some as the year went on too.

[PushDaRock]

I think we had a pretty good defence when it came to stopping really bad offences but I also vaguely remember hearing somewhere that we had the worst defence in the league against top 10 offences. I don’t know how to look up such a stat but it makes sense because we were forced to play so many rookies early in the season against elite teams. I don’t mind much, given the objectives for the season but having such crazily unbalanced schedule makes evaluations more difficult.

I saw a tweet related to a conversation at the Sloan conference that the Raptors end of season schedule was possibly the easiest in NBA history. Dean Oliver tweeted that we had by far the easiest last 20 games this season.

Important info: our defense was not bad to begin the year. We were terrible in turning the ball over and fixing that issue saved us 6-7 points as far as defensive rating goes. A LOT of our defensive improvement came from the offensive end.

I will also add: here are our best defensive performances for March and April (teams we held below 105 points):

ORL
WAS
PHI
POR
WAS
CHA
CHA

Now, did we get better defensively? Yes. But, I have no idea if we are actually “good” on defense because our competition was by far the weakest in the league.

Yeah, the schedule just makes evaluation very difficult though you are definitely right about the turnovers. Also, the foul rate was unbelievably high early on in the season and I feel that was curtailed some as the year went on too.

We still ended up dead last in opponent FTA. We played so many rookies though so that was obviously a big part of that and we should expect that to trend down at least a bit next season. I think reputation also plays a part as well, once we have established our identity as a physical defensive team that really gets into teams, we will get away with a lot more contact as well and they can't call everything.

[Raps in 4]

Darko haters in shambles.

[vini_vidi_vici]

I mean, when you look at some of the most impressive DRTGs (I dont care about total points), you have (post Jan 11th)...

- beating a completely healthy BOS (103.2 DRTG).
- Cuffed HOU without FVV (95.9)
- Held GSWx2/IND/PHX (all top 15 offenses), below their season avgs.

Plus (pre Jan 11th).
- locked up a healthy IND in DEC (103.7).
- Got a healthy MIN (107.1).

I get that the trepidation, because who knows, but they can only beat the teams they had infront of them, and they did get demolished by some good teams in there, MEM/PHX/etc.. but everyone does.

Also a little caveat, the month of January as a whole, the team was 8th in DRTG, so it wasnt just post-ASG with the weak schedule excuse.

[PushDaRock]

I mean, when you look at some of the most impressive DRTGs (I dont care about total points), you have (post Jan 11th)...

- beating a completely healthy BOS (103.2 DRTG).
- Cuffed HOU without FVV (95.9)
- Held GSWx2/IND/PHX (all top 15 offenses), below their season avgs.

Plus (pre Jan 11th).
- locked up a healthy IND in DEC (103.7).
- Got a healthy MIN (107.1).

I get that the trepidation, because who knows, but they can only beat the teams they had infront of them, and they did get demolished by some good teams in there, MEM/PHX/etc.. but everyone does.

Also a little caveat, the month of January as a whole, the team was 8th in DRTG, so it wasnt just post-ASG with the weak schedule excuse.

Yes, there was a very noticeable shift in defensive improvement since the new year started. From the eye test, there was noticeable improvement in the execution of defensive schemes, a lot better on ball D containing penetration from guys like RJ, Stunt and Recovers from Scottie were being executed very well, just overall much better helping the helper and switching going whereas before it looked like the team lacked defensive chemistry not trusting they would get help if they helped another guy's man.

[Raps in 4]

This is the main reason I have optimism for next season. They need to continue to build.on this.

I agree, but...

- Were adding Ingram, who can be a pylon defensively at times, maybe he will buy in tho.
- How can we optimize the offense??

Using DJs parameters...
Mar 7th to EoS, 25th in ORTG.
Jan 11 - Mar 7th, 16th in ORTG.
Oct 23 - Jan 10th , 24th in ORTG.

I love defense, but it feels like a league thats transitioning into more dynamic offenses, and zagging into a defensive structure isnt going to win.

To be fair, most good defenses this year are good offense, because the bad teams are just very bad, but im concerned youll become an ORL type, where the D is good, but you can only cap out at a marginally successful team as a poor offensive team.

Dick returning to the lineup will also hurt us.

[ConSarnit]

I mean, when you look at some of the most impressive DRTGs (I dont care about total points), you have (post Jan 11th)...

- beating a completely healthy BOS (103.2 DRTG).
- Cuffed HOU without FVV (95.9)
- Held GSWx2/IND/PHX (all top 15 offenses), below their season avgs.

Plus (pre Jan 11th).
- locked up a healthy IND in DEC (103.7).
- Got a healthy MIN (107.1).

I get that the trepidation, because who knows, but they can only beat the teams they had infront of them, and they did get demolished by some good teams in there, MEM/PHX/etc.. but everyone does.

Also a little caveat, the month of January as a whole, the team was 8th in DRTG, so it wasnt just post-ASG with the weak schedule excuse.

It’s tough to say how much of this is actual system improvement on defense. Consider:

Prior to Jan. 11 we had a 117 def rating. From Jan 11 to Mar 1 we had a 111 def rating.

What was the difference? Prior to Jan 11 we gave up 21ppg on TO’s and 15ppg on 2nd chance points. Jan 11-Mar 1 we gave up 17ppg on TO’s and 13ppg on 2nd chance. That’s a 6 point swing saved from turnover’s and better defensive rebounding. That’s almost exactly the change in defensive rating that happened during those periods.

We started defensive rebounding (which is good) but 66% of our defensive improvement was from avoiding turnovers (which is not defense related). Outside of rebounding I’m not sure if we improved defensively at all. The only area I can really pinpoint improvement is from Poeltl whose rim protection definitely improved once his mpg we reduced to below 30mpg.

[james vincent]

It’s probably noise and sample size considering their lighter competition during the latter part of the season.

However, I believe this team has very good defensive components but gradey dick and rj Barrett (at times) makes the team worse defensively.

Their poor team and perimeter effort drags the team down significantly.

Hopefully they get better and understand the principles better and get stronger.

Otherwise, they should be traded unless they become elite efficiency wise offensively or have an elite skill that offsets their deficiencies there.