Jazz changing their D

[Hikari]

This article focuses on Harris but gives good insite to how the Jazz are changing.

In Dallas, Avery Johnson called Devin Harris the best on ball defender in the NBA. Harris speed, quickness and anticipation made him a defensive game changer. In 2006-07 Harris ranked 2nd in the NBA with 77 offensive fouls drawn.

However, when Harris arrived last year in Utah he struggled miserably defensively. He looked lost. Harris would close out on a player and he would blow right by him and no help defensive would arrive.

So what happened to one of the best on ball defenders in the NBA?

A change in system is how Harris explains it. With Avery Johnson in both Dallas and New Jersey they forced the ball handler to the baseline. Under Jerry Sloan and Tyrone Corbin, the Jazz were 1 of only 2 teams that forced the ball to the middle, the other being the Orlando Magic and Dwight Howard.

Harris says he never adjusted. “I would close out to the wrong shoulder out of instinct. It is all I had ever done in the NBA. I had been trained otherwise.”

The good news for Harris is he won’t have to learn a new system this year, because the Jazz are make significant changes to how they play defensively and are joining the rest of the NBA in forcing the ball handler to the baseline.

With the proliferation of three point shooting in the NBA, forcing a ball handler middle still allows them a complete view of the floor and all of the shooters. By forcing baseline, the hope is you limit the passing options and make defensive rotations easier to complete.

For Harris and many of the Jazz players this makes who rotates and where they rotate to a much easier equation. Last year, the team had constant confusion on who was rotating where and how they were rotation. By forcing baseline, the rotations are shorter and more direct.

Harris still believes he can be a strong defender. It may not be in the same fashion, but it can still be productive. “I am smarter now. Not sure I can take the charges I used to, not sure my body can handle that. But it is angles and I am smarter. “

More importantly, it will be in a system that makes sense to his instincts.

http://1320kfan.com/index.php/story/rea ... to_prosper

[carrottop12]

Good article, hopefully this helps our D against the 3 considerably.

Also sheds some light on why it seems like our bigs are always slow to rotate, the truth is they have to cover more distance with their transfers than most other teams, until now that is.

[FJS]

hallelujah!!!

[HolyToledo]

Good because defense could not get any worse.

[motes]

Finally! I'll always love sloan, but forcing middle really got on my nerves.

[kamazilla]

YES! about damn time- Mark Eaton hasn't patrolled the middle since the mid nineties. The soft underbelly defense is just another of Sloan's antiquated tactics which have not kept pace with the rules, nor the athletes, of today's NBA. This change will help immensely.

[StocktonShorts]

Just echoing what the rest of you are saying. Always thought it was strange the Jazz forced guys to the middle of the floor. Intuitively it never made sense to me why you'd want a guy to go to a spot on the floor where he has more options. On top of that the Jazz didn't have any defensive stalwarts in the middle of the floor.

[carrottop12]

Yeah, the middle of the floor thing doesn't make much sense unless you have Dwight down there. The good thing about the out of bounds line, unlike a help defender, it can't pick up fouls, and it doesn't have to leave a shooter to prevent someone from getting to the line, it's always there to help.

Good call by Corbin.

[d-will8]

While this change won't automatically make our defense much better (obviously, if 28 out of 30 teams force baseline, there are some pretty terrible defensive teams that force baseline), I've been hoping for this for a while and I'm glad it's happening. If we continue to run Jefferson and Millsap together for 35 minutes a night, we're still probably not going to be a very good defensive team, but this is a step in the right direction.

We don't have many guys who have proven themselves as good defenders, but we definitely have athletes, so if guys are willing to buy in and work their butts off (taking a page from Jerry's book), our D could improve. It might even be possible that Jefferson's slimmer frame combined with a new system will turn him into a serviceable rotator on D (I doubt it, but ya never know).

[DelaneyRudd]

YES! about damn time- Mark Eaton hasn't patrolled the middle since the mid nineties. The soft underbelly defense is just another of Sloan's antiquated tactics which have not kept pace with the rules, nor the athletes, of today's NBA. This change will help immensely.

Mid 90s? That was Tag's era!

[hoops4life]

YES! about damn time- Mark Eaton hasn't patrolled the middle since the mid nineties. The soft underbelly defense is just another of Sloan's antiquated tactics which have not kept pace with the rules, nor the athletes, of today's NBA. This change will help immensely.

Mid 90s? That was Tag's era!

I was thinking the same thing... I think he means late 80's.

[Neon Black]

I hope this helps. Our defense has been horrendous for years.

[Dozer!]

Maybe this will keep us from fouling so much too. I think our foul ratio with Sloan was always about 5 points in favor of the other team.

[Nate505]

If this quits leaving the 3 point shot wide open possession after possession this will be an absolute godsend for this team.

[UTJazzFan_Echo1]

Forcing middle is actually more effective if you can execute it correctly. Problem is, many NBA players can't execute that well on the defensive end. I know that Chicago forces middle at times and they're one of the best on the defensive end but then again, they have Noah down there who does a great job and they have some pretty good perimeter defenders too. Personally, I feel that a mix between the two is most effective but it's probably a good idea with this team to force mainly base-line. I'm not sure how much it's going to help since practically every team in the league does this but at least they're trying something different.

[countrybama24]

I like how we forced to the middle when we had zero shot blockers (I still have nightmares about okur-boozer), but now we have one elite shot blocker, and several more adequate ones and have changed our strategy. This was Sloan's biggest short-coming that I can think of (even though I didn't know we were outliers on this question until the Harris article came out).

[Fido]

Wait...we have an "elite" shot blocker? Who is that? I hope you don't mean Kanter because he has 0 career NBA blocked shots.

[nghedman]

wow, I thought when an opponent blew by on the middle side it was just bad defending by the Jazz, never knew it was the objective of Sloan to force middle.

this will be interesting to watch this year.

[idajazz]

This will help a lot with defending the three.

It used to drive me crazy, teams (Spurs especially) would intentionally put AK's man down in the corner forcing him out of the play, or we would have to switch, then parker would drive middle and either kick out fpr a wide open three or have a lay up drill. Pops exploited that for yrs.

[Luigi]

Mark Eaton
Greg Ostertag

Krylo Fesenko??

Without a cork in the middle we've been struggling. Ostertag, for all his embarrassing failures, was a serious defensive anchor in the scheme. The old Celtics used to feed guys into Bill Russell off the drive and watch him eat them alive. We just haven't had the personnel to do it anymore, mostly because of a strange obsession we all have with perimeter play.