We are the Worst Defensive Team

[need4detroit]

I agree that Drummonds defensive intensity isn't there. We are seeing UCONN Drummond, he's been doing pretty well as far as points/rebounds go but he's clearly not all there defensively. He used to be an anchor, now he's just a bit lackadaiscal out there. Hopefully he just needs time to adjust to all the minutes that hes getting.

Take a look at the huge dropoff in his shot blocking;

Last season: 1.6blk in 21 minutes per game
This season: 1.4blk in 35 minutes per game.

Its not even close. He's just not all there right now.

And i think the issue stems from Dre's fear of getting into foul trouble because he knows he's going to get big minutes. He should be blocking 2.5-3 shots per game.

[Q00]

So I found this little nugget about our Dre-Moose combo...

With a 114.3 DRTG, they are the worst defensive duo in the league.

Dre and Smith are better at 109.7, though still nothing to get excited about, but yeah Dre-Moose don't seem like they are going to work if we can't play defense with them together on the court. Dre-Smith as of now appear to be the best option going forward.

We at least saw glimpses of dominating defense from them in the 2nd half of the SAC game. I say start them together and build off of that, and bring Moose off the bench until we can find a viable trade. This ridiculously bad defense can't continue and I have no interest in 4 more years of it by maxing out Monroe.

[sc8581]

So I found this little nugget about our Dre-Moose combo...

With a 114.3 DRTG, they are the worst defensive duo in the league.

Dre and Smith are better at 109.7, though still nothing to get excited about, but yeah Dre-Moose don't seem like they are going to work if we can't play defense with them together on the court. Dre-Smith as of now appear to be the best option going forward.

We at least saw glimpses of dominating defense from them in the 2nd half of the SAC game. I say start them together and build off of that, and bring Moose off the bench until we can find a viable trade. This ridiculously bad defense can't continue and I have no interest in 4 more years of it by maxing out Monroe.

While I agree with you I'm also thinking maybe we should start Monroe and Smith for now until we find a Moose trade we like, I'm not even completely sure why but it just seems like it would hurt his trade value if we moved him to the bench right now even though he would still get over 30mpg. Another thing is, what if we did bring Dre or Monroe off the bench and all of a sudden we started to dominate teams inside and get wins out of it, does Joe then try to keep the team together and pay Moose the max this summer?

[Q00]

So I found this little nugget about our Dre-Moose combo...

With a 114.3 DRTG, they are the worst defensive duo in the league.

Dre and Smith are better at 109.7, though still nothing to get excited about, but yeah Dre-Moose don't seem like they are going to work if we can't play defense with them together on the court. Dre-Smith as of now appear to be the best option going forward.

We at least saw glimpses of dominating defense from them in the 2nd half of the SAC game. I say start them together and build off of that, and bring Moose off the bench until we can find a viable trade. This ridiculously bad defense can't continue and I have no interest in 4 more years of it by maxing out Monroe.

While I agree with you I'm also thinking maybe we should start Monroe and Smith for now until we find a Moose trade we like, I'm not even completely sure why but it just seems like it would hurt his trade value if we moved him to the bench right now even though he would still get over 30mpg. Another thing is, what if we did bring Dre or Monroe off the bench and all of a sudden we started to dominate teams inside and get wins out of it, does Joe then try to keep the team together and pay Moose the max this summer?

I don't think his current trade value would decrease by bringing him off the bench right now, because teams already know what he can do as a starter, and they realize we would only be doing it because of the crowded frontcourt, and not because he's not good anymore. But, if we were to resign him to the max and continue bringing him off the bench, then it might be hard to trade him later if necessary. There's always the chance his production would go down off the bench, and then you would be trying to trade a less productive player with a max contract, as a opposed to a favorable rookie contract.

So for now I would just bring him off the bench and see what happens. Maybe it proves that Dre/Smith don't fit either, and then they would have to rethink trading Monroe. That's why its so important they test each duo starting together right now when they have the chance. It would be foolish of Joe to just trade Monroe before even getting a clear look at the Dre/Smith combo. He had a chance to test the Monroe-Drummond all last year and never did until the last 10 games. If he had, we would know clearly by whether they work or not. He shouldn't make that same mistake again this year.

[Joe Berry]

http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/team/ ... rder/false

You can't win many games with the worst defense in the league, Hawks shot 50%, Pistons are allowing opponents to shoot 48.3% from the field in 11 games.
The pick and roll defense is a disgrace.

[pistontr]

http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/team/ ... rder/false
http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/team/ ... rder/false

[vic]

I’Ve come to the unfortunate conclusion that since Mo cheeks is a players coach, it’s really the players that coach. All we can hope for is he plays the right players, which we have plenty of.

This team is going to rise and fall on the intelligence of Brandon Jennings and Josh Smith. Whatever games Jennings gets Monroe and Drummond the same amount of shots as him and Smith wil be likely wins. Whatever games Josh decides to shoot good shots only and play smart defense and paint passes will be wins.

That's a scary roller coaster but that's what we're on

[Clarity]

This team is going to rise and fall on the intelligence of Brandon Jennings and Josh Smith. Whatever games Jennings gets Monroe and Drummond the same amount of shots as him and Smith wil be likely wins. Whatever games Josh decides to shoot good shots only and play smart defense and paint passes will be wins.

That's a scary roller coaster but that's what we're on

well said, none of this should be breaking news to Piston fans. This was clear in the Summer when we signed them.

[Invictus88]

This team is going to rise and fall on the intelligence of Brandon Jennings and Josh Smith. Whatever games Jennings gets Monroe and Drummond the same amount of shots as him and Smith wil be likely wins. Whatever games Josh decides to shoot good shots only and play smart defense and paint passes will be wins.

That's a scary roller coaster but that's what we're on

well said, none of this should be breaking news to Piston fans. This was clear in the Summer when we signed them.

The sad part about all of this is that it's eventually going to be Monroe who gets traded away instead of Smith. I don't think JoeD has the balls to admit that the Smith signing was a big mistake fit-wise. I also don't see why another team would want Smith unless they have a gaping hole at PF.

I think two trees in the paint (Monroe & Drummond) is clearly enough size and ideally should still be our foundation for the future. It's the rarest piece and we have it.

I think the results so far are hinting that you can, in fact, have too much of a good thing. I haven't seen the jump in defense touted at the beginning of the year that was supposed to compensate for all of the missed jumpshots predicted. We've seen the missed jumpshots though.

[Snakebites]

I gotta say, at the very least I thought we'd see some defensive progress in this team this year.

It reminds me a little of the Gordon/CV signings. As bad as I figured things would be they wound up even worse. Its only been 11 games so I must acknowledge that its possible things could improve, but early returns are terrible.

[Clarity]

The sad part about all of this is that it's eventually going to be Monroe who gets traded away instead of Smith. I don't think JoeD has the balls to admit that the Smith signing was a big mistake fit-wise. I also don't see why another team would want Smith unless they have a gaping hole at PF.

I think two trees in the paint (Monroe & Drummond) is clearly enough size and ideally should still be our foundation for the future. It's the rarest piece and we have it.

I think the results so far are hinting that you can, in fact, have too much of a good thing. I haven't seen the jump in defense touted at the beginning of the year that was supposed to compensate for all of the missed jumpshots predicted. We've seen the missed jumpshots though.

Plenty of teams would love Josh, it will be a pride thing if they eventually decide to mess up the front line because Josh isnt a 3.

If the Pistons trade away a player of the quality on & off court of Monroe at 22/23 years old they are literally the dumbest franchise in history, they deserve every loss that comes their way.

Your 2nd paragraph is spot on.