Jazz Defense

[retiredcoach]

The Jazz defense is about average for the NBA. Some games obviously it is better than in other games.

Previously I posted my observations on the slow feet, and possibly slow reaction time, of Jefferson and Milsap when it comes to help defense against the pick and roll. The bigs have to come up quickly to stop the penetration off screens until the defender regains position, and then the bigs have to move back into position to defend the low post.

Another issue I've been looking at is the communication problems. A couple of the Jazz players mentioned it, but at the time I didn't pay much attention. Communication is almost always a problem anyway. So it always gets talked about. Lately I've been looking closer at what is going on.

It's been a few years since I sat courtside at games. There's a big difference in sitting courtside because there I can hear what's being said or not being said. Without that advantage, I'm only guessing, but I think there's an issue with Milsap and Jefferson not letting the front three know what's going on. At least one of the bigs from the post position has to communicate loudly and frequently on defense because they can see the court clearly and how the play is developing in front of them. Obviously they have to move with their opponent on man to man and of course offenses are designed to bring the ball into the post or clear the post defenders for penetration, so the bigs aren't always in the center of the court, but they can still see often better than those out front.

Neither Milsap nor Jefferson is much for talking anytime. I don't think either one of them is particularly comfortable making conversation, and it may even be somewhat difficult for them from a personality perspective. Not everyone likes to talk or can form quick verbal responses mentally.

Communication isn't as big an issue if there's a dominate defensive center in the game like a Mark Eaton. He often stayed in the middle and pickup cutters going into the paint. He didn't go outside to defend often. With him in the middle, it made up for a lot of small mistakes from the other four players on the defensive end.

For the Jazz to be a mid 55 game team, they need to score approximately 4 more pts per game on average than they give up defensively, which they aren't doing this year. Regardless of their defensive ability, when they score more than their opponents by that 4pt avg margin, they have a strong record.

So the Jazz need to improve the defense to hold opponents to about 4 pts less per game or improve the offense to score an average of 4 pts more per game. Either one will move them up significantly. Better communication can get them the defensive 4pts or a stronger scoring SG or a more consistent 6th man would probably do it on offense. However, if I’m right about where the communication problem is coming from, I don’t know how you coach guys to talk more when they don’t like to talk, especially when they’re all wearing mouth pieces, which adds to the problem.

Nothing else more radical than that is needed to move them into a good playoff spot yearly. To win a title, they would need a really good 7 foot guy at center.

[Luigi]

I've always said we need better bigs to make the jump to title contention. Unless we can match up with bigs like Gasol, Bynum, and Odom, or with Duncan and McDyess, or with Garnett, and Perkins, I don't think we'll ever manage to be a legitimate title contender.

I tend to think its more than calling out picks. I think that Millsap is too short to handle elite 4s, and for some odd reason has turned into a below average rebounder. Jefferson is doing well blocking shots, but he has bad habits of getting out of position and giving up offensive rebounds.

I've been looking at ways to try to land that extra big man to shore up the interior defense. Someone like Anderson Varejao would be great. We could run a three man rotation out of the bigs:

Jefferson (16) / Millsap (32)
Varejao (28) / Jefferson (20)

I'm not sure Jefferson would do well shifting between positions since he is already struggling at knowing his spots from the 5, but I could see that front line matching up against elite bigs.

[retiredcoach]

Millsap's rebounding overall is about the same as in year's past. What has changed is his offensive rebounds have gone down and his defensive rebounds have gone up. That's likely due to his being a scoring option now. Having to score more and shooting more means being out of position for the offensive rebounds. That happened somewhat to Karl Malone, especially in the second half of his career.

[Luigi]

His numbers look about the same, but watching him box out and chase down rebounds out of his area, he seems different to me. I wish i knew where I could find numbers on how many offensive boards players give up. I had a thread watching that per game: I'm convinced 4s and 5s outperform their average offensive boards by a big margin.

Boozer was very vocal. That could be one more thing we are missing with him gone.

[StocktonShorts]

Millsap's rebounding overall is about the same as in year's past. What has changed is his offensive rebounds have gone down and his defensive rebounds have gone up. That's likely due to his being a scoring option now. Having to score more and shooting more means being out of position for the offensive rebounds. That happened somewhat to Karl Malone, especially in the second half of his career.

Offensive rebounds also depend a lot on the team's philosophy. Put most simply you can either crash the offensive glass or get back on defense.

San Antonio is perhaps most famous for preferring to get back on defense despite having bigs who would otherwise grab a lot of offensive rebounds.

[schneiderjazz]

Looking at the Bulls tonight, I don't buy the excuse that our wings are not athletic enough or that we lack a shotblocking 7 footer in the middle. They have freaking Boozer, Korver and Brewer and they can play great defense. Are Rose and Thomas that much of a difference from Memo and Deron? Or Al and Deron this season? We need a better defensive system IMO. Or a coach or assistant who's a defensive specialist.

[Fido]

Boozer was on the bench for a majority of the first half in foul trouble and Korver is simply a shooter in spot situations. Can't call either of those guys the reason for Chicago's great defense. Did you see Millsap run past Boozer in the 2nd half? Also, count the number of blocks the Jazz had. (10 by the way--including 4 from AK and 3 from Jefferson)

The difference in this game was Deron can't hang with Rose and they missed free throws--less than 60% from the line and they don't deserve to win.

[Jazzfan Bayamon]

Boozer was on the bench for a majority of the first half in foul trouble and Korver is simply a shooter in spot situations. Can't call either of those guys the reason for Chicago's great defense. Did you see Millsap run past Boozer in the 2nd half? Also, count the number of blocks the Jazz had. (10 by the way--including 4 from AK and 3 from Jefferson)

The difference in this game was Deron can't hang with Rose and they missed free throws--less than 60% from the line and they don't deserve to win.

Boozer was NOT on the bench because of "foul trouble", maybe "defense trouble" might fit the bill better.

[The59Sound]

As I said in the game thread, LA fans must have had so much fun playing the Jazz these past several years. I was salivating any time Jefferson or Millsap got the ball against Boozer.

[Ziploc]

Just a side note, Thursday's practice was canceled after last nights game to give the front office/team some time to decide what to do. Sloan said that they are not looking to trade any one but to make the team better on the floor. LINK:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/recap;_ylt= ... 2011020926