Last night in the first half we were pretty vunerable defending the P&R as our switching right now is too messy with far too much attention being paid to the ball handler often ignoring the rest of the team. Here are a few examples, and before we move on I’m not specifically placing blame on any of the players mentioned below simply our team defense failing. And I saw many more examples like this, the highlight video wasn’t a full game so these were the ones I could easily reference.
In this example, Bullock opts to go over the screen forcing Kleber to switch…but THJ is hedging way too far off his man basically committing to the switch early, he should be about 2 feet closer to Conley just enough to show help D but never commit bouncing back out to cover his man. Bullock moving over the screen now late switches behind the cutting Markkanen leaving him open at in the post and Conley open for the 3.
[https://youtu.be/A03V5MHL\_cM?t=74](https://youtu.be/A03V5MHL_cM?t=74)
Here we see an example where Bullock again misses the switch and then over corrects leading to an unnecessary double which causes Powell and Dinwiddie to hedge their men. But then we see another missed defensive switch with Bullock/Luka resulting in Luka behind the driving player and Bullcok in no man’s land between 2 open 3 point shooters. Markkanen and Olynyk are now both wide open to make back cuts to the post AND there are 2 men open in at the perimeter. That’s 4 of 5 players literally open and inexcusable, a total defensive breakdown.
[https://youtu.be/A03V5MHL\_cM?t=166](https://youtu.be/A03V5MHL_cM?t=166)
We see another weird defensive switch on a Markkanen/Clarkson P&R initiating a high low style motion offense with Bullock first starting to switch then changing his mind for a late double on Clarkson. Again, we have far too much attention on the ball handler as Kleber hedges his man in the corner leaving Sexton open for a back cut and a huge mismatch of THJ trying to cover the rolling Markkanen.
[https://youtu.be/A03V5MHL\_cM?t=208](https://youtu.be/A03V5MHL_cM?t=208)
2 comments
i think you mean vulnerable?
The 4th quarter defense was lowkey a mess again, once Green checked out.
First 6 minutes with Green: 66.7 DefRtg
Last 6 minutes without Green: 127.3 DefRtg
The closing lineup was just trading baskets. I personally don’t like it, because if they go colder or fail to score at a ridiculous high pace, you might really had another Suns/OKC ending.
People want to see Wood in the closing lineup. You would have to bench some defensive liabilites and re-structure the entire closing lineup.
140.0 OffRtg
127.3 DefRtg
the last 6 min