Interesting thing about our "Declining" defense is...

[UNT Eagles 2016]

...while our oppPPG (nominal) stat has steadily gone up since late December (now 91.4), our D-Rtg (analytical) stat has remained about the same (94.8) since opponents have started scoring more, as our pace (8th slowest) has gradually increased.



Discuss?

[SAGirl]

We are playing more uptempo to match up with teams.... also we don't have Timmy so we have adjusted to a more perimeter oriented style ourselves.

We have also started to get more 3s rolling. Pop figuring out a way to change the team's identity on the fly, since Timmy is out, but the good news is that as you noted, Pop still has guys in a strict leash to play well on defense. We didn't see any zones tonight or weird stuff.

I did see some switching and its apparently working.

[Mnky]

I think Pop has a step up system. What I mean by that is he has the team focus on one thing at a time as the season goes on, and adds to it as he sees necessary. People who freak out about our defensive rating don't realize how little game planning Pop actually does. He wants his players to learn fundamentals without covering up their weaknesses with strategy. Learn how to adapt and strengthen your weakness and we will add strategy layer to make it even better. To me, this is why he has never cared about regular season records. lMA I'd an example to me, as Pop having him show effort on rebounding, position, learning the system.. being more active being more of a leader. Slowly but surely he is finding his spot in the spurs with baby steps. I feel the defense is the same. Pop can teach much more with more tape on the spurs getting their tales kicked. People joke about C.I.A. pop, but I completely believe he embraces losing and blowouts for the impact of teaching. The defense is steadily learning not to rely on Duncan or Kawhi greatness and to establish themselves as a unit.

[UNT Eagles 2016]

I think Pop has a step up system. What I mean by that is he has the team focus on one thing at a time as the season goes on, and adds to it as he sees necessary. People who freak out about our defensive rating don't realize how little game planning Pop actually does. He wants his players to learn fundamentals without covering up their weaknesses with strategy. Learn how to adapt and strengthen your weakness and we will add strategy layer to make it even better. To me, this is why he has never cared about regular season records. lMA I'd an example to me, as Pop having him show effort on rebounding, position, learning the system.. being more active being more of a leader. Slowly but surely he is finding his spot in the spurs with baby steps. I feel the defense is the same. Pop can teach much more with more tape on the spurs getting their tales kicked. People joke about C.I.A. pop, but I completely believe he embraces losing and blowouts for the impact of teaching. The defense is steadily learning not to rely on Duncan or Kawhi greatness and to establish themselves as a unit.
As long as we win the last game played in June, I'm cool with losing a few in the RS.

[SAGirl]

I think Pop has a step up system. What I mean by that is he has the team focus on one thing at a time as the season goes on, and adds to it as he sees necessary. People who freak out about our defensive rating don't realize how little game planning Pop actually does. He wants his players to learn fundamentals without covering up their weaknesses with strategy. Learn how to adapt and strengthen your weakness and we will add strategy layer to make it even better. To me, this is why he has never cared about regular season records. lMA I'd an example to me, as Pop having him show effort on rebounding, position, learning the system.. being more active being more of a leader. Slowly but surely he is finding his spot in the spurs with baby steps. I feel the defense is the same. Pop can teach much more with more tape on the spurs getting their tales kicked. People joke about C.I.A. pop, but I completely believe he embraces losing and blowouts for the impact of teaching. The defense is steadily learning not to rely on Duncan or Kawhi greatness and to establish themselves as a unit.

I read an article about Pops coaching (specially young players) but I think it applies to vets who are new like you mention in this context that includes an approach of military training. How untrained soldiers are put in the most hellish of situations to see if they can work and figure things out togehter. Who steps up, who takes command, who starts to scream and blame others etc. Basically setting up the young cadets for failure, you break them down then you build them up. Surely goes with Pop's military background.

Otherwise what do you make of him taking the opportunity Tim the absolute center of the Spurs universe on defense is out and he goes and faces the GSW and gives a lot of minutes to Anderson and Simmons, puts Simmons on Curry, does a whole lot of weird stuff. CLE, same thing, although his hand was forced by LMA early foul trouble. I think this is a trial by fire and guys are getting much much better.

Batmanu posted a tweet that Tony said communication was much better this game, a big factor in our terrible defense the past few games without Timmy.

[spurs10]

As long as we win the last game played in June, I'm cool with losing a few in the RS. Well I actually think it's something that is intentional with our team. We are pacing ourselves and I can only hope we are playing our best ball in June instead of chasing an historical RS. Good post by SAGirl and Minky as well.

[Mnky]

I read an article about Pops coaching (specially young players) but I think it applies to vets who are new like you mention in this context that includes an approach of military training. How untrained soldiers are put in the most hellish of situations to see if they can work and figure things out togehter. Who steps up, who takes command, who starts to scream and blame others etc. Basically setting up the young cadets for failure, you break them down then you build them up. Surely goes with Pop's military background.

Otherwise what do you make of him taking the opportunity Tim the absolute center of the Spurs universe on defense is out and he goes and faces the GSW and gives a lot of minutes to Anderson and Simmons, puts Simmons on Curry, does a whole lot of weird stuff. CLE, same thing, although his hand was forced by LMA early foul trouble. I think this is a trial by fire and guys are getting much much better.

Batmanu posted a tweet that Tony said communication was much better this game, a big factor in our terrible defense the past few games without Timmy.

I never read that article, but that makes a lot of sense into the military background. Pop is big on getting players to get over themselves and I honestly think he wanted to break lma and know he understood the team came first before starting to push for him being established. Like you said, throwing the young guys at vets to get demolished works too. :lol I take this same approach when training some of the young players in the area. I'll break them down, because normally its the players who have been groomed since a young age and are naturally better than others, whose parents seek out more training. The ones who break quick always have the fastest growth rate in fundamentals and performance. I got that concept from Pop to be honest, and it's worked well for developing players. After implementing it, it's always much easier to see and understand Pops approach to things.