Suns (lack of) defence

Damkac · Post #1 » by **Damkac** » Tue Feb 9, 2016 9:58 am

Suns played really nice defence at the start of the season but it changed quickly. Theoretically a team with Bledsoe, Chandler and Tucker should be at least decent on defence, but it looked bad even before Bledsoe's injury. Especially Chandler is big disappointment. He don't looks like former DPOTY at all. Even when Suns play him together with Len rim protection is non existent. How can you have 2 7'1 towers on the floor and allow every scrub in the league to get to your basket like a prime MJ? Not ot mention we all hoped Chandler will mentor Len and improve his defence and it only get worse.

So what is wrong? Is it coaching? Player's motivation? Injures (maybe Chandler is not recovered fully)? Lack of motivation to play defence? Or maybe this team have too few players that can play D and too many who can't?

I know that Suns aren't know for they elite defence but if this will not change they will not win a champiosnhip in our lifetime.

Donald_Trade · Post #2 » by **Donald_Trade** » Tue Feb 9, 2016 1:54 pm

Bledsoe is injured, we had a good start defensively when we were 7-5 we were top 10 on offense and defense.

Then Chandler got injured and later Bledsoe. Tucker has not had a standout year defensively.

dremill24 · Post #3 » by **dremill24** » Tue Feb 9, 2016 11:22 pm

Bledsoe is an overrated defender. If he's guarding a stud who has the ball, he is solid but he plays down to his competition and when defending off the ball he's just atrocious no matter who he's guarding.

Post #4 » by **lilfishi22** » Wed Feb 10, 2016 1:06 am

No one expected Chandler to bring in DPOY levels of defense to this team, but I did expect him to instil more of the intagibles on defense like communication, effort, and positioning. We saw glimpses of that but overall it's been a total disappointment. Bledsoe has also had his flashes on defense but he's also a better one on one defender than he is a team defender. I feel he doesn't trust his team mates behind him so he over-commits defensively and that's when he gets burnt.

Overall, I think it's a combination of player motivation (we're going to lose anyway, might as well focus on offense), lack of a defensive philosophy and inconsistency from our "star" defensive players.