Everything Defense

[MixxAOR]

Raptors Report

http://www.tsn.ca/radio/toronto-1050...cline-1.449461

- Last year the weakness was defending the paint. This year we have issues defending shooters. Can't find balance.

Raps have done a better job defending paint this year but rotating/closing out on 3pt shooters has been an issue. Struggling to find balance

— Josh Lewenberg (@JLew1050) March 7, 2016

Raptors last year: 23rd in opponents points in the paint, 13th in opponents 3P%. This year: 3rd in opponents pts in paint, 29th in opp 3P%

— Josh Lewenberg (@JLew1050) March 7, 2016

- Everything goes back to JV-Scola frontcourt pairing.
- Issue starts with Derozan, Ross, JV, Lowry. Lowry and Ross are good defenders when they want to be. But none of those 4 our "natural" defenders. Not in their DNA.
- Lou Williams and GV were a problem last year but they weren't as big part of what Raptors did as those 4.
- Lost focus over the last month. Those 4 need to lock in.
- Can JV, Derozan and Lowry be reliable defenders?
- Raptors are better when Derozan is off the court.
- When JV wasn't in a line up defense was good. Again proves that you gotta separate JV-Scola pairing.
- Opponent FT attempts is way too high. Which is a sign of lost focus.
- If comparing this year to last year, there's acknowledgement that there's an issue. Different from last year. But it can potentially turn to last year.
- With defense being like this. We can lose to anybody in a first round.
- 70% of DeMarre Carroll will help this team. Inspire them to play defense and lead by example.

PS: Don't know if it deserves it's own thread but there it goes.

[MixxAOR]

3 reasons why the Raptors' defense has slipped

http://www.thescore.com/nba/news/976709

Allowing threes

The Raptors play a conservative defensive scheme that's designed to take away the paint first and foremost. But amid the most 3-point-happy season in NBA history, it's not enough to only defend the rim.

Opponents are shooting 41 percent on 3-pointers against the Raptors since the break. The league average on threes over the season has hovered around 35 percent. That differential of nearly six percentage points is the third-worst mark, behind only the Phoenix Suns and Philadelphia 76ers.

Tighter defensive rotations

Like every other element of basketball, defense is one part schematics and one part execution. The Raptors have begun to fall short on the latter.

Toronto boasts a decent crop of perimeter defenders to make up for some lackluster frontcourt players. That means the likes of Joseph, Kyle Lowry, and DeMar DeRozan have to be sharp at all times.

They haven't been quite so keen of late.

Fatigue might be catching up with the Raptors. DeRozan and Lowry both rank in the top 10 for most minutes played this season, while Joseph has already logged a career high in minutes played. Head coach Dwane Casey relies heavily on his guards to carry the offense, and to expect them to shoulder the burden on the other end is asking for a lot.

Adapt or die

More worrisome is the drop-off of Toronto's best unit, which features Lowry and four bench players. That combination carried the Raptors over their recent 11-game win streak, but teams are starting to clue in.

That Lowry-Joseph-Ross-Patterson-Biyombo lineup is coughing up a whopping 128.6 points per 100 possessions since the break, which has turned their greatest strength into their biggest weakness.

An inability to rebound has befallen the unit. They're only grabbing 65.9 percent of available defensive rebounds, which isn't a surprise considering Biyombo is the only plus-rebounder in the bunch. Teams are attacking the glass against Toronto's super-sub lineup with great success.

[KHD]

last year the issue was the guards' defence.

this year, the issue is becoming the guards' defence.

at the risk of sounding ecclesiastic, there's nothing new under the sun.

[Nilanka]

Hey, it could be worse....

[slaw]

last year the issue was the guards' defence.

this year, the issue is becoming the guards' defence.

at the risk of sounding ecclesiastic, there's nothing new under the sun.

There is something to be said for this - I mean there is a reason they signed Carroll to a $15,000,000/year deal and brought in Joseph - but it doesn't tell the whole story. A big part of the issue has been defending the high pick and roll at the point of attack and there is only so much a guard can do when he is getting screened. Too often our bigs are getting caught in no-man's land off of pick and roll coverage opting to neither drop off completely nor attack the ballhandler, which is leaving weak side defenders with a quandary as they aren't sure where to go cause the big is non-committal.

[slaw]

Hey, it could be worse....

Sadly, that's pretty much how JV/Biyombo/Scola have been defending the pick and roll lately....

[white men can't jump]

There is something to be said for this - I mean there is a reason they signed Carroll to a $15,000,000/year deal and brought in Joseph - but it doesn't tell the whole story. A big part of the issue has been defending the high pick and roll at the point of attack and there is only so much a guard can do when he is getting screened. Too often our bigs are getting caught in no-man's land off of pick and roll coverage opting to neither drop off completely nor attack the ballhandler, which is leaving weak side defenders with a quandary as they aren't sure where to go cause the big is non-committal.

That's also partly because we have the guards go above the screen seemingly indiscriminately. Our guards are both bad at doing so and probably shouldn't be every time. It's like the thing our D is most afraid of is the pull up jumper at the 3pt line. Gotta make sure the ballhandler doesn't take that. Teams intentionally try to bring up our big on the screen and roll...by the way, that's literally what every team in the league is trying to do with a high pick and roll. If you can make any C come out, you've already won a big part of the p'n'r game. We have to do a better job playing it as a team, from our big to our on-ball guy to all the off ball guys (who aren't exactly always on point). And you want to know why the bigs are non-committal? Because they frequently don't get help behind them when they do play it aggressively. Any time a big steps up to cut off the drive, their man is often left open.

Also by the way, earlier in the year we were invariably having our big sag back. Wouldn't be surprised if the coaching staff has asked the bigs to play more aggressively as our guards are getting caught too easily, but our bigs don't know how to do this while fitting into the scheme, especially if they'll always be left hanging because nobody helps them (this happens on rebounds too when they help near the rim).

It's hard to tell this without being up close, but I wonder if communication is this team's biggest defensive issue. Everybody has to be talking on D, and I'm not sure we do that. And you can often (always?) hear Casey screaming from the sidelines and I think that actually doesn't help. That screaming needs to be mostly coming from the players themselves.

[GLF]

There is something to be said for this - I mean there is a reason they signed Carroll to a $15,000,000/year deal and brought in Joseph - but it doesn't tell the whole story. A big part of the issue has been defending the high pick and roll at the point of attack and there is only so much a guard can do when he is getting screened. Too often our bigs are getting caught in no-man's land off of pick and roll coverage opting to neither drop off completely nor attack the ballhandler, which is leaving weak side defenders with a quandary as they aren't sure where to go cause the big is non-committal.

Yea I agree. Our guards do need to do a MUCH better job of fighting through picks but our bigs definitely aren't playing it well either. I love how people love to blame the defensive slippage on one guy. One bad defender won't make you 26th in defense for 2 months especially since we had that same said defender when we were playing good defense. It's everyone. Cause if you believe one bad defender is causing all our troubles then that means when Demarre comes back we should be top 5 in defense as a team.

[GLF]

That's also partly because we have the guards go above the screen seemingly indiscriminately. Our guards are both bad at doing so and probably shouldn't be every time. It's like the thing our D is most afraid of is the pull up jumper at the 3pt line. Gotta make sure the ballhandler doesn't take that. Teams intentionally try to bring up our big on the screen and roll...by the way, that's literally what every team in the league is trying to do with a high pick and roll. If you can make any C come out, you've already won a big part of the p'n'r game. We have to do a better job playing it as a team, from our big to our on-ball guy to all the off ball guys (who aren't exactly always on point). And you want to know why the bigs are non-committal? Because they frequently don't get help behind them when they do play it aggressively. Any time a big steps up to cut off the drive, their man is often left open.

Also by the way, earlier in the year we were invariably having our big sag back. Wouldn't be surprised if the coaching staff has asked the bigs to play more aggressively as our guards are getting caught too easily, but our bigs don't know how to do this while fitting into the scheme, especially if they'll always be left hanging because nobody helps them (this happens on rebounds too when they help near the rim).

It's hard to tell this without being up close, but I wonder if communication is this team's biggest defensive issue. Everybody has to be talking on D, and I'm not sure we do that. And you can often (always?) hear Casey screaming from the sidelines and I think that actually doesn't help. That screaming needs to be mostly coming from the players themselves.

Yea we definitely don't talk on defense. That is for sure and that is definitely one of the biggest problems we have on that end

[KeonClark]

Raptors Report

http://www.tsn.ca/radio/toronto-1050...cline-1.449461

- Last year the weakness was defending the paint. This year we have issues defending shooters. Can't find balance.

Raps have done a better job defending paint this year but rotating/closing out on 3pt shooters has been an issue. Struggling to find balance

— Josh Lewenberg (@JLew1050) March 7, 2016

Raptors last year: 23rd in opponents points in the paint, 13th in opponents 3P%. This year: 3rd in opponents pts in paint, 29th in opp 3P%

— Josh Lewenberg (@JLew1050) March 7, 2016

- Everything goes back to JV-Scola frontcourt pairing.
- Issue starts with Derozan, Ross, JV, Lowry. Lowry and Ross are good defenders when they want to be. But none of those 4 our "natural" defenders. Not in their DNA.
- Lou Williams and GV were a problem last year but they weren't as big part of what Raptors did as those 4.
- Lost focus over the last month. Those 4 need to lock in.
- Can JV, Derozan and Lowry be reliable defenders?
- Raptors are better when Derozan is off the court.
- When JV wasn't in a line up defense was good. Again proves that you gotta separate JV-Scola pairing.
- Opponent FT attempts is way too high. Which is a sign of lost focus.
- If comparing this year to last year, there's acknowledgement that there's an issue. Different from last year. But it can potentially turn to last year.
- With defense being like this. We can lose to anybody in a first round.
- 70% of DeMarre Carroll will help this team. Inspire them to play defense and lead by example.

PS: Don't know if it deserves it's own thread but there it goes.

Can somebody expand on the point Form note "we're better when derozan is off the court"? Is this true?

[DanH]

Can somebody expand on the point Form note "we're better when derozan is off the court"? Is this true?

Of all the players on the team, the team performs best (highest net rating) when DeMar sits than when anyone else sits. It's mostly because Lowry+bench has been so good.

[JWash]

Of all the players on the team, the team performs best (highest net rating) when DeMar sits than when anyone else sits. It's mostly because Lowry+bench has been so good.

Isn't JV also absent from that lineup?

That really makes me question the "better when ___ is off the court". There is no way this team is actually a better basketball team with DeMar and Valanciunas sitting when they're our 2nd and 3rd best players.

[Barolt]

Can somebody expand on the point Form note "we're better when derozan is off the court"? Is this true?

Defensively, it's hard to argue. When Lowry is on/DeMar is off, we have a DRtg of 96.4.(all lineups, not just Lowry+Bench)

When DeMar is on/Lowry is off, we have a DRtg of 108.0.

[CalgaryRapsFan]

Defensively, it's hard to argue. When Lowry is on/DeMar is off, we have a DRtg of 96.4.(all lineups, not just Lowry+Bench)

When DeMar is on/Lowry is off, we have a DRtg of 108.0.

That seems pretty straight-forward, since DeRozan is usually replaced by Ross or Joseph, who are both better defenders. Obviously the rest of the lineup would have an impact as well, so it's hardly all on a single player.

[Barolt]

That seems pretty straight-forward, since DeRozan is usually replaced by Ross or Joseph, who are both better defenders. Obviously the rest of the lineup would have an impact as well, so it's hardly all on a single player.

Except when Lowry goes off, it's essentially the same equation. Those minutes are almost always Joseph in DeMar/no Lowry scenarios. DeMar's only played 145 minutes all season with Scola/no Lowry, so that wouldn't be a significant factor either.