My biggest problem with this article is that we dropback on the P&R by design. Only Portland drops back more than we do. Gasol & Noah dropping back on the screen and protecting the rim is by design, primarily because our ballhandlers go over the P&R and the guards are supposed to always force the ballhandler to his left side (if right handed). The intent of the design is that the ballhandler now has a shot, but it's a moving mid range 2 pointer towards his offhand w/ the rim protected. Funneling baseline with a big in front of the rim is the core of Thibs defense.
If you're trapping the ballhandler on the baseline the responsibility for picking up the original screener is never the big man, who has to cut off the basket. It's either rotation from another player, or often in our case it's we concede the shot by the big man. Lately we've not been conceding the shot and wings have rotated over.
But probably the biggest problem with this conclusion is if Gasol was have a negative impact on our defense.
Gasol has the second highest defensive +/- on the team. Only Noah is higher.
The highest defensive +/- players on this team in order: Noah, Gasol, Taj, Butler.
The lowest defense +/- players on in order: McDermott, Brooks, Rose, Moore.
BBallBreakdown has also shown that in terms of big pairings, the pair without Gasol is overall the worst. (Stats are from earlier this year, not up to date).
The reality is that we may not like how the Bulls defend the pick & roll, but Gasol is doing what Thibodeau is telling him to do, and taking care of his responsibility. I would prefer a more in your face aggressive defense where we challenge the ballhandler and shooters, but this isn't how Thibodeau defends the P&R. In his system a guy protects the rim, another guy funnels baseline, and we let the ballhandler or screener shoot. But in his system we are the #1 team in blocks and more importantly the #1 team in not committing fouls, those both will be huge defensive advantages in the playoffs. The drawn shooting foul is the best half court possession in basketball, and Thibs basically has taken that away by playing the P&R this way.
The other aspect to consider is that our defense isn't "failing", we're the #3 two point FG% defense in the entire league. Our defensive efficiency is middling because of the # of possessions. But you can't blame a football team's defensive squad if the offense keeps turning the ball over.
The real issues with our defense is not the shot defense, but the fact that we're 27th in the league in forcing turnovers and 27th in allowing offensive rebounds.
As I said above, our actual shot defense is elite, #3 on twos and #9 on threes.
