Wizards defense - it can be fixed (at least part of it)
by Rook6980 on Feb 12, 2009 11:45 AM EST
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Print"We decided to get aggressive and double-team the ball," Tapscott said. "You're looking for steals and turnovers there and if they beat your interceptors and rotate the ball, they'll find an open shooter. They have a very good one. We knew what the risk was, but we couldn't just sit back and let the time run. We had to be aggressive."
The game is in the balance. It's the 4th Quarter. 7:56 to play. The Wizards are on a mini run, outscoring Charlotte 10-4 ..... and have cut the lead down to 9. So the defensive scheme there was to get aggressive, double the post and leave Radmanovic wide open for a 3-point shot. Which he makes. Charlotte increases the lead to 12.
The game is still winnable, but there's only 3:29 to play. . The Wizards are on a mini run, outscoring Charlotte 10-6 ..... and have cut the lead down to 8. So the defensive scheme there was to get aggressive, sag into the paint on penetration and leave Radmanovic wide open for a 3-point shot. Which he makes. Charlotte increases the lead to 11. A minute later, he hits another one. GAME, SET, MATCH.
That's a perfect description of the Wizard's defense, both this year and last:
- "Protect the paint".
- Double down, when the ball is in the post.
- Sag everyone into the paint on penetration.
- Leave hot shooting 3-point specialists wide open.
In this particular case, it was the timing of the 3-point shots; but in other cases this year, it's been the volume and consistency of 3-point shots by opponents. Coaches and Scouts in the NBA are pretty intelligent. They're quick.They can see the way the Wizards play penetration and how they play entry passes to the post.
Charlotte is not a particularly good 3-point shooting team. The Bobcats attempt 15.5 per game, and they make 5.6 of them for 36%. But against the Wizards, they turned into a team full of Matt Bonners. They chucked up 27 last night. 27..! Twenty-freaking-seven. And they made 11 of them (41%). That's 5 more made 3-point baskets than Charlotte normally makes against the rest of the League. That's 15 extra points. For a team that struggles to score (last in the league at 92.2 ppg) - that's HUGE. The Bobcat players didn't just arbitrarily decide to take more 3-point shots against the Wizards; and it wasn't a random, single event. The Charlotte Coaching staff saw a flaw, recognized the opportunity, prepared their team, and ran plays to expose the flaw and take advantage; just like every other team has done against the Wizards this year.
There are a lot of reasons the Wizards are losing this year..... There are a lot of problems with the team. Injuries. Losing Attitude. Poor 4th quarter execution. But 3-point defense is ONE problem that could be fixed immediately - with a simple scheme change.
This represents the view of the user who wrote the FanPost, and not the entire Bullets Forever community. We're a place of many opinions, not just one.
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Tapscott Never Learns
Tapscott, much like his predecessor, never seems to learn with regard to defense. It has been a consistent deficiency for the Wizards for the past several seasons. Could it be Randy Ayers fault? Either way, the Wizards won’t go anywhere until, like you said, it gets corrected.
What bother me more than the collapse and leave open scheme is the failure to adapt to hot shooters. When an opposing players gets into a zone, a good coach would do something to disrupt that zone. But Tap, like EJ before him, does nothing. Zero adjustments. They both just sit there and watch as some random player lights them up. It is extremely frustrating to watch.
"It's OK for the Bullets to trade baskets, as long as they can score on their end." -- Words of wisdom from Phil Chenier
Exactly
failure to adapt to hot shooters.
Like maybe, tell the guy guarding him to stick to him like glue… NO HELP. Everyone else play standard defense, except you; YOU stick to Radmanovic (or Matt Bonner, or Ray Allen, or whomever the “hot” guy is)… Unless you’re talking about Orlando, there’s really only one or two guys on the other team that can hurt you from distance… and they’re generally not both hot at the same time.
Bullets Forever - where "Dagger ! " happens......
I Don't Even Care
If Tapscott says, “hey, let’s double team this guy on the next possession and make sure we get the ball out of his hands.” At least that is some sort of adjustment. Instead, the same hot player keeps getting left wide-open on possession after possession. Sometimes I wonder, is Tapscott even watching what is going on?
"It's OK for the Bullets to trade baskets, as long as they can score on their end." -- Words of wisdom from Phil Chenier
haywood
lets get haywood back first. with the likes of javale mcgee, darius songalia and andray blatche patrolling the paint, its not surprising were trying to give them as much help as possible
It's not Haywood
It’s not an individual player thing. I pointed this problem out last year. Even when Haywood was having his so called " break out year ", the Wizard’s 3-point defense was pitiful.
Haywood is, by far, the Wizards best on-ball and help defender; but even with Haywood in the game, the Wizards scheme was to double down in the post, and to collapse the paint on penetration.
Comparing 3-point defense last year to this year:
2007-2008 = 8.3 makes, 21.6 attempts, 38.6%
2008-2009 = 8.4 makes, 21.6 attempts, 38.9%
As you can see from the stats above, it doesn’t matter if Haywood is playing, or if he’s sitting on the bench. The Wizards still give up 21.6 attempts and over 8 made 3-point shots per game.
I’ve said it before: That’s the scheme, not the players.
Bullets Forever - where "Dagger ! " happens......
but
its centers who have hurt us the most compared to last season.
opposing centers PER is 20.9 this season, up from 17.8 last season. other positions have seen only modest increases. clearly we miss him a lot. i think we are forced to over compensate for his loss
As I said
There are lots of problems with the Wizards this year…. Opposing Center’s PER? Ok , I’ll concede that as a problem…although a minor one… and not entirely unexpected, considering the Wizards are on their 4th Center.
On the other hand, the Wizards front court (SF, Center, PF) have outscored their opponents by 2.1 points per game:
61.9 vs 59.7 points per game:
http://www.hoopsstats.com/basketball/fantasy/nba/washington-wizards/frontcourt/profile/09/30/3-1-1-eff
But the Wizards backcourt (PG, SG) have been outscored by the opponents by more than 10 points per game:
32.6 vs 42.8 points per game:
http://www.hoopsstats.com/basketball/fantasy/nba/washington-wizards/backcourt/profile/09/30/2-1-1-eff
More supporting stats?
The Wizards are winning the battle of points in the paint , 44.5 vs 38.3:
http://www.hoopsstats.com/basketball/fantasy/nba/washington-wizards/in-the-paint/profile/09/30/4-1-1-eff
BUT they are losing the battle outside, 50.0 vs 64.2 :
http://www.hoopsstats.com/basketball/fantasy/nba/washington-wizards/out-of-paint/profile/09/30/5-1-1-eff
ONE of the reasons the Wizards backcourt is being outscored is the 3-point differential; which, as I said can be fixed fairly easily with a scheme change. AND the Wizards don’t even have to wait until next year to do it either.
Bullets Forever - where "Dagger ! " happens......
Compared to last season, yes our 3 point defense hasnt changed and our interior defense is worse.
BUT, last season we had the worst 3 point defense in the history of the league in terms of 3s allowed. THE WORST IN HISTORY. The fact that our 3 point defense hasn’t improved one bit is actually a hell of a lot more disturbing than not being able to play good interior D with Haywood/Thomas/Blatche out.
Getting buckets since 2003.
by Icantfeelmyface on Feb 12, 2009 10:18 PM EST up reply actions
Stopping opposing centers isn't important
The idea that you must defend the paint above all else is a myth. If you look at the best defensive teams in the league, they actually allow the highest PER’s to opposing centers, not guards or forwards.
The San Antonio Spurs yielded a higher PER at center than at any other position in each of the last 4 seasons. The Chicago Bulls under Scott Skiles (when they ranked 1st and 2nd defensively) yielded a higher PER at center than any other position.
Good NBA defenses harass shooters and generally make it difficult to get a clean look. Consequently, they occasionally leave big men open in the paint, or sometimes they’re not in position to box them out. It doesn’t matter. On balance, you’re better off stopping the perimeter scorers and then worrying about the paint.
Consider the Milwaukee Bucks. Last year, they ranked 30th on defense. This year, after Skiles took over, they rank 13th. On paper, they started Luke freaking Ridnour and Michael Redd for most of the season. Meanwhile they’re reasonably solid up front with Jefferson, Mboute and Bogut. One would expect their guards to be awful on D but they might be respectable in the paint. The truth is the exact opposite. The yield an ungodly PER of 19.1 to centers and 17.8 to power forwards, while absolutely shutting down SG’s (PER of just 13.4). Skiles has figured out that it’s much more important to harass perimeter players, even if it costs you some points in the paint. He has managed to get that woeful bunch of lousy defenders to play good team defense.
by nate33 on Feb 14, 2009 4:38 PM EST up reply actions 2 recs
Excellent Analysis
And good research. I would not have assumed or even guessed that this was the case. I suppose that it makes sense when you figure that 2 points is less than 3, therefore giving up a high percentage of 3 pointers is much more damaging than a high percentage in the paint.
"It's OK for the Bullets to trade baskets, as long as they can score on their end." -- Words of wisdom from Phil Chenier
Don't know
I went back as far as 1998.
The closest they came was tied for 12th (34%) in the 2003-04 season.
One of the reasons I keep harping on this whole 3-point defense thing is that if you look at the best teams in the Association each year, most of them are in the top 10 in 3-point field goal defense.
For instance: This year Orlando, Cleveland, Boston, Houston, Detroit, LA Lakers and Utah are all in the top 10.
Bullets Forever - where "Dagger ! " happens......
He Has to Share in the Blame
I would say he is an overrated defensive coach, but he wasn’t very highly rated when we got him. We really suffered when Tom Thibedeau bolted. Randy Ayers has had a very negligible effect on our defense and ought to be replaced if we can find somebody available who’s better.
"It's OK for the Bullets to trade baskets, as long as they can score on their end." -- Words of wisdom from Phil Chenier
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