Defense - What's the problem?

[NuggetsWY]

Since the All-Star break, here's the list of points scored by the Nuggets opponents, followed by Porter's minutes:

113 Thunder - 10 minutes
116 Twolves - 10 minutes
98 Pistons --- 22 minutes
132 Clippers - 9 minutes
118 Raptors - 19 minutes
116 Warriors - 13 minutes
112 Hornets -- 0 minutes

Please note that Porter only played in 6 games and in those games our opponents averaged 116 points and Porter averaged 14 minutes per game. The game where he played the most minutes is the game we gave up the fewest points. Blaming Porter for our poor defense is about as myopic as can be. He plays 25% of the minutes - he is not our problem on the defensive end.

We have the second slowest pace which should mean we score less and so does our opponent. So these high scoring games by our opponents are actually even more egregious than they might appear.

We are bottom-10 in points-in-the-paint by opponents.
I'd suggest this is because our defense against the pick-n-roll is very ineffective - it's called help-defense. A man that sits near the court at most home games said he doesn't hear the Nuggets talking as much as some of the teams. We are also very slow to switch off from bad matchups once a pick has been executed. That leaves our bigs trying to cover guards out high, which usually results in someone driving past them giving our opponents the advantage. Our team's approach regarding three point shooters is to fly past them to avoid the foul. If a guy pump fakes and our man goes past him, it's another opportunity for our opponents to have a free man heading towards the basket.

[THE J0KER]

The extreme defensive issue started in early February, not since ASG like Malone false interpreted. Fortunately, Jokic and Murray have offensively one of the career-best months, so our W-L record was still good. Since February 6th Denver has NBA worst defensively rating, the same team which was previously TOP10 before Feb6!

So there are 10 games since FEB-6 where MPJ played overall 82 minutes which means 8.2 per game, and in 4 out of these 10, he actually didn't play at all.

108 Suns -- 0 minutes
120 Spurs -- 0 minutes
120 Lakers -- 0 minutes
113 Thunder - 10 minutes
116 Twolves - 10 minutes
98 Pistons --- 22 minutes
132 Clippers - 9 minutes
118 Raptors - 19 minutes
116 Warriors - 13 minutes
112 Hornets -- 0 minutes

Of course, barely playing MPJ is the last one who should be blamed for that defense slump, and if the team suddenly once again starts to play TOP10 defense it is nothing with dumped scapegoat Porter, but because coach Malone stops to play current no-defense system. Simple as that.

And Malone is a proven master of this blame game. He is control-freak obsessed with always showing his players "who is the boss", and when he blacklists some player he knows how to broke him and make him look bad and useless. We see it in Nurkic, Faried, Lyles, and Beasley cases. Also, looking back, when it was obvious that Jokic is going to be a Nuggets franchise player, isn't it is really strange that all players with which Jokic has very special connections are suddenly dropped despite in all cases it is all bench role players playing under cheap veteran or rookie deal (Mike Miller, Jameer Nelson, Juancho)?

This team proved they can play defense on a high level when that is the order, you cant be just like that #2 NBA defense before Christmas Day where more than 1/3 of the season was already played.


Playing a whole game with the defense on max intensity is actually not good for our best offense based on good and constant movement, but we proved against so many good teams which we beat so far that we can play our best offense being at the same time TOP10 defense, and that is our winning formula.

[skywalker33]

You’re trying to equate our defensive play with MPJs minutes ??? Really ?? Seems a bit of a stretch there. I do want Porter to get more mins but he still does have defensive lapses. However, practice makes perfect, he’s not getting any better sitting on the bench

[NuggetsWY]

You’re trying to equate our defensive play with MPJs minutes ??? Really ?? Seems a bit of a stretch there. I do want Porter to get more mins but he still does have defensive lapses. However, practice makes perfect, he’s not getting any better sitting on the bench

Actually Malone is the one that said Porter was benched because of his defense. If his defense is so bad that he caused, all by himself as Malone implied, the Nuggets defense to fall apart - well, that's ridiculous because he just doesn't get enough minutes to matter.

I am not saying Porter does not have defensive lapses but as you say, "he's not getting any better sitting on the bench". My frustration reached the breaking point with the Hornets game and Malone's pre & post game statements.

It was Nurkic's bad attitude ...
It was Beasley's poor defense ...
It was Chandler's unwillingness to come off the bench ...
and the list goes on ... but it is NEVER Malone's issue.

I managed teams of people and if the team failed, I was the one that was blamed for the failure and nobody cared about my excuses. The Nuggets have set the standard with their PR: "Malone has improved our record each year". He'd better do it this year too or ... They said, "He got us past the first round." He'd better win two rounds this year or ...

[The Rebel]

The team's defensive problem is not MPJ, he is the last of our problems when he is allowed to play.

The issue is that guys are not giving effort on defense. Watch the games, Barton has went from one of the best defenders in the league in November to about average in advanced stats. Our entire starting group depends heavily on rotations and guys being able to hold their own one on one defensively, Barton is doing neither. His struggles cause major issues in the whole system.

Our bench has a problem in that Plumlee is not playing as well defensively as he has in the past. His problem is not effort, but teams have figured out that he struggles against the pick and pop and that he struggles against bigger guys in the post. Add that to Craig not doing near as well this year on defense, and the constantly changing rotations, and our bench has been plain bad the last few months. Porter has not been great, but he is not near as bad as the stats make him look.

As for the bigger issue with Malone. He has the roster he wanted, a bunch of defensive guys who are average at offense to surround Murray and Jokic. The whole system is not going to work unless Jokic and Murray carry the load on offense and Jokic continues to play so well on defense, but reality is they do not have much help right now. I place the blame for that on Malone, he refused to play Beasley and Juancho when he did not have too, insisting on defensive players, and those defensive players are not putting in near the effort now that those 2 are gone. Our team has looked like **** since the trade deadline, and most of that is effort from guys who are now nearly guaranteed minutes.

[skywalker33]

The team's defensive problem is not MPJ, he is the last of our problems when he is allowed to play.

The issue is that guys are not giving effort on defense. Watch the games, Barton has went from one of the best defenders in the league in November to about average in advanced stats. Our entire starting group depends heavily on rotations and guys being able to hold their own one on one defensively, Barton is doing neither. His struggles cause major issues in the whole system.

Our bench has a problem in that Plumlee is not playing as well defensively as he has in the past. His problem is not effort, but teams have figured out that he struggles against the pick and pop and that he struggles against bigger guys in the post. Add that to Craig not doing near as well this year on defense, and the constantly changing rotations, and our bench has been plain bad the last few months. Porter has not been great, but he is not near as bad as the stats make him look.

As for the bigger issue with Malone. He has the roster he wanted, a bunch of defensive guys who are average at offense to surround Murray and Jokic. The whole system is not going to work unless Jokic and Murray carry the load on offense and Jokic continues to play so well on defense, but reality is they do not have much help right now. I place the blame for that on Malone, he refused to play Beasley and Juancho when he did not have too, insisting on defensive players, and those defensive players are not putting in near the effort now that those 2 are gone. Our team has looked like **** since the trade deadline, and most of that is effort from guys who are now nearly guaranteed minutes.

Well said !! Seems like that’s Barton’s MO, play defense early in the season to “deserve” minutes then reverte to the selfish player he is

[THE J0KER]

Ironically, Porter's lack of good defense is actually the extra reason why he should play more. He is a natural-born elite scorer and also a good rebounder thanks to that unusual height for SF players. But he is a rookie who misses even his NCAA career, so no other ways to learn it than playing, especially against garbage teams against which our other players are obviously not well motivated to put some big efforts according to several shocking loses and lack of blowout wins.

I can agree with some opinions here that efforts from some players become the issue, not only Malone's changed scheme. But I will not blame Barton in this case. We are overperformed with defensive intensity in October and November with no reason, which damaged our intensive movement-based offense, and even worse, since late December our 4 starters are injured! I don't think Barton dropped more of his level after Beasley is gone than the other two which shared minutes with Beasley on SG/SF Harris and Craig dropped defensive level significantly too. Harris slump in offense is a big issue, but before the injury, Harris was a dark horse DPOY candidate, he was that good! After the injury is solved he realizes the team trying to trade him, also Beasley, the SG player with the ability to put on offense what he is not able to do was traded, and MPJ is on reduced minutes as well, so Barton stays at SF role. Also, Harris temporarily has some other priorities last month, he gets son, so we can understand why he is not 100% focused on his game. And together with Barton and Harris, Torey Craig also deserved to be mentioned in this context. Craig played a career-worst month in terms of defense! That said, he deserves some credit for improved offense, maybe because he realizes he needs now to replace what Beasley do from the bench, so defense is not his priority anymore, but it is bizarre to see Malone hypocritically praising Craig with more minutes because of his defense after Craig played defensively career-worst month!? Before Christmas, Denver shut down defensively so many elite backcourts stars, but lately, we have big problems even with opponent's backup guards.

But once playoff starts, there will be always a day or two off with no traveling too much, so we can expect much bigger intensity and much better D-Stats I guess.