The Hornets Defense in 2015

[fatlever]

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2015/0 ... NGMSkfF_O8

Our defense lately is worthy of its own thread. Bonnell has a new article out about how good we have been on defense last 15 games. Lets throw some more stats in this thread.

“We’re tight, No. 1, and No. 2 – we’re all talking,” Kidd-Gilchrist said of better defensive communication. “We all like each other and we want to fight for one another. I’m the leader of that. I’m starting to understand how important I am to this team at the defensive end. Being all tied together is so important.”

Defense is partially about trust – if you leave your man to rotate to someone else’s man, you do that with conviction only if you’re confident everyone else will rotate, too.

“I know if I get beaten, Al (Jefferson) is right there or (Gerald Henderson) is right there,” Kidd-Glichrist said. “It’s a trust thing. I agree.”

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2015/0 ... NGMSkfF_O8#storylink=cpy

[fatlever]

Over the past 15 games, in which the Hornets went 11-4, the defensive numbers are rather striking: Opponents have averaged 89.4 points on 39.6 percent shooting from the field.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2015/0 ... NGMSkfF_O8#storylink=cpy

Something dramatic changed right around the new year.

“I’d say from the beginning of the year, like night-and-day,” Clifford said of the improved defense. “Less mistakes and more activity. We’re tied together – more organized.

“The last five weeks we turned a corner – it’s about focus and purpose.”

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2015/0 ... NGMSkfF_O8#storylink=cpy

[catch20two]

Lol at "I know if I get beaten Al is right there". Lmao

[fatlever]

Hats off to Jefferson who is at least back to playing defense like he did last year, which is bad, but not worst in the league awful, like he was to start the season.

[catch20two]

Hats off to Jefferson who is at least back to playing defense like he did last year, which is bad, but not worst in the league awful, like he was to start the season.

He know he had to earn that starting spot back from Biz. It's like we've all been saying that there had to be some accountability.

[Dancingpanda]

Ive been impressed with AL's D. As long as he tries and dosnt just move out the way im happy. Hell, he tried to take a charg from Wall (i think) who laid him out. is he a great deffensive guy? No, but as long as he puts iin the effort this team is enjoyable to watch

[yosemiteben]

Reminder: MKG turned 21 in September. He is the leader that owns a good to great NBA defense.

[Diop]

I mentioned it in the last game thread, it seems this team turned around after injuries to key units.

The other players gained confidence? It made the returning stars more accountable?

The hard nose players were able to change the culture when they had control of the team? Did coach gain more faith in other players?

Probably a combination of all those I guess

[Elden Payton]

Reminder: MKG turned 21 in September. He is the leader that owns a good to great NBA defense.

MKG is this teams soul.

[fatlever]

Hornets DRTG over past X games:

Season: 100.4
While MKG was out (12 games): 109.7
Since MKG returned (28 games): 96.4
Last 25 games: 95.6
Last 15 games: 92.7
Last 10 games: 90.4

MKG DRTG over X games:

Season: 94.3
Since returning (28 games): 92.6
Last 15 games: 86.5
Last 10 games: 84.4

DRTG of 3-man lineups with more than 100 minutes:

1. MKG, Biz, Roberts - 82.0
2. MKG, Hendo, Roberts - 85.4
2. MKG, Hendo, Marvin - 85.4
4. Biz, Hendo, Roberts - 87.0
5. MKG, Biz, Marvin - 87.5
6. MKG, Biz, Zeller - 87.9
7. MKG, Biz, Hendo - 88.3
8. MKG, Zeller, Roberts - 88.4
9. Max, Neal, Zeller - 88.9
10. Biz, Walker, Zeller - 90.6
11. MKG, Zeller, Hendo - 90.7 -> this is the lineup I was specifically looking for. they have played a lot of minutes 396 and done very well over a large stretch of minutes. If I bump the filter to 300+ minutes this lineup is #1. (Biz hasn't played enough minutes to fall into any of the 300+ groups)

The early struggles of the Lance, Kemba, Jefferson trio are evident when you sort like this. You have to go deep to find their names in many of the groupings.

[fatlever]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/tomhaberstroh/status/563038594231971841[/tweet]

anybody care to summarize what he said?

[BigSlam]

Hats off to Jefferson who is at least back to playing defense like he did last year, which is bad, but not worst in the league awful, like he was to start the season.

Explain to me what he is doing differently now that he wasn't doing in Nov and Dec.

[BlackOutBuzz]

Trying?

[fatlever]

Hats off to Jefferson who is at least back to playing defense like he did last year, which is bad, but not worst in the league awful, like he was to start the season.

Explain to me what he is doing differently now that he wasn't doing in Nov and Dec.

Feel-O-Meter: He seems to be moving a little quicker than he was to start the year. I think he came into camp out of shape after missing all summer with the foot problems. He was a step late on all his rotations, giving up lots of layups. It was compounded by the fact that Lance was all out of sorts, Marvin was starting and MKG went out injured early.

That being said, I guess it is entirely possible that nothing has changed with Al and everything has changed with the 4 guys around him, giving the appearance his is playing a little better defense.

I just know that the times I want to punch a wall watching Jefferson on defense has drastically decreased the past few games since he returned.

[yosemiteben]

Hats off to Jefferson who is at least back to playing defense like he did last year, which is bad, but not worst in the league awful, like he was to start the season.

Explain to me what he is doing differently now that he wasn't doing in Nov and Dec.

Can't really do that, but here are some SportsVU defensive stats for you:

Defensive FG% within 6 feet:
November: 64.3% (3.2% above opponents' average)
January: 60.0% (1.3% below opponents' average)

Defensive FG% within 10 feet:
November: 57.6% (1.9% above opponents' average)
January: 47.8% (7.5% below opponents' average)

Defensive FG% from greater than 15 feet:
November: 54.4% (14.1% above opponents' average)
January: 33.3% (2.8% below opponents' average)

Other random stats: Al had a D rating of 109 in November and 91 in January. Al had as many blocks in the six games he played in January as he did in the 17 games he played in November.

[Flip Murray]

definitely need to give some credit to hendo here too

[mrknowitall215]

Jefferson finally starting giving some effort and it's made a huge difference. It look like making him come off the bench to Biyombo has knocked some sense into Jefferson

Also as 'Flip Murray' mentioned, we have to give Henderson some credit as well because there's a huge divide in defensive net ratings from positive to negative when you replace him with Stephenson in the lineups

[fatlever]

Jefferson finally starting giving some effort and it's made a huge difference. It look like making him come off the bench to Biyombo has knocked some sense into Jefferson

Also as 'Flip Murray' mentioned, we have to give Henderson some credit as well because there's a huge divide in defensive net ratings from positive to negative when you replace him with Stephenson in the lineups

the difference between henderson and lance on defense is night and day. i have no idea how lance earned such a great reputation as a defender while rarely anyone talks about henderson the same way. henderson always plays w/in the team, part of that core guys "moving on a string" as they like to say. lance occasionally plays some really aggressive man to man defense and those images stick with people.

[BigSlam]

Hats off to Jefferson who is at least back to playing defense like he did last year, which is bad, but not worst in the league awful, like he was to start the season.

Explain to me what he is doing differently now that he wasn't doing in Nov and Dec.

Feel-O-Meter

Can't really do that, but here are some SportsVU defensive stats for you:

Don't get me wrong guys, I'm not saying there hasn't been a difference, I'm just not sure what it is.

I think his D is the same. He's still defending with his hands (slapping down) and not with his feet (because he is so slow laterally), he rarely leaves the ground to defend (eg: to block shots) and his help or weak side D is still non existent (because he stays glued to his man - which is even worse when he is paired with Goggles because he SUCKS on D - still for the life of me will never understand why Cliff refuses to play Al and Biz together).

Thanks for your input on Al's D. Maybe I am being to hard on him by saying I can't really see that much of a difference.

I think what Fats said (about the other 4 guys playing next to Al playing D makes Al look better) makes the most amount of sense. Al is no rim protecting defensive anchor but if all 5 guys are playing on a "string" and moving as one then there is no doubt it will masks everyone's short comings on D.

[catch20two]

Hats off to Jefferson who is at least back to playing defense like he did last year, which is bad, but not worst in the league awful, like he was to start the season.

Explain to me what he is doing differently now that he wasn't doing in Nov and Dec.

It's obvious that the effort is there compared to November. Not just defensively but he's been a more willing passer on offense. That couple weeks out watching the team play successful without him did some good.