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Good discussion, and likely the problems is a combination of all the points being made. Losing Greer and Biz are certainly factors. So is the schedule. But I don't think its fair to point to a single player, whether it's Demar or JV or whomever. Demar was never a good defender, and at least he's putting up an efficient 30 a night, which is more than we can say about Carroll or Cojo, who are supposed to be great defenders. Ultimately, I think alot of it comes down to effort, and I'm not letting Demar off the hook here. It appeared to me that he was making a stronger effort early on in the season, getting through screens and sticking to his man in off ball situations at least. But he has dropped off lately. And Lowry, Carroll, and Ross have also been bad, and poor Norman has played most of his minutes against some the best offensive small forwards the east has to offer. Patterson seems to be the only guy on the team that takes pride in putting forth a strong defensive effort consistently. Our leaders have to lead. They don't have to be shut down of course, but they have to be better and then maybe the rest will follow. All the players have weaknesses, but collectively they need to be better. They can be better. If they can do it on O, they should be able to do it on D.
Given that Patterson isn't a great rebounder or shot blocker or steal producer, but has strong defensive stats and seems to elevate every lineup he is in defensively, his value is coming from somewhere. He makes good reads and can defend the PnR well and recover to his man if necessary. I'm not sure if this is necessarily indicative of defensive impact, but I'd be interested in knowing if our opponents tend to go deeper into the shot clock when Patterson is on the floor? I wonder if his ability to help snuff out the initial action is leading to teams maybe taking lesser quality shots, which may be indicated by how deep they go in the shot clock? Anyone able to dig out numbers for that? Or is it even a worthwhile hypothesis? Given my assumption that effort is the biggest factor, I wonder if guys putting forth a stronger effort would help our defense collectively and result in teams shooting later in the clock, which MAY indicate lesser quality shots.
Given that Patterson isn't a great rebounder or shot blocker or steal producer, but has strong defensive stats and seems to elevate every lineup he is in defensively, his value is coming from somewhere. He makes good reads and can defend the PnR well and recover to his man if necessary. I'm not sure if this is necessarily indicative of defensive impact, but I'd be interested in knowing if our opponents tend to go deeper into the shot clock when Patterson is on the floor? I wonder if his ability to help snuff out the initial action is leading to teams maybe taking lesser quality shots, which may be indicated by how deep they go in the shot clock? Anyone able to dig out numbers for that? Or is it even a worthwhile hypothesis? Given my assumption that effort is the biggest factor, I wonder if guys putting forth a stronger effort would help our defense collectively and result in teams shooting later in the clock, which MAY indicate lesser quality shots.
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