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Spurs better defenders this year than last.
Porker is gone.
I am getting more and more concerned about this year's defense the more I see this off season unfold.
Losing Dedmon, who was the 2nd best defensive big on SA and starter for many games feels like a pretty big defensive blow.
Lee, while not known for his defense, played pretty solid and looks like he is gone.
As we currently stand, SA's guard rotation outside of Danny Green & Simmons last year, was really bad defensively. TP is injured and even though he was bad on defense, are any of the replacements considered actually better at this point?
Plus Defenders: Kawhi, Danny, LMA, Kyle Anderson. Maybe Simmons if he indeed returns.
Negative Defenders (based on all evidence we have today): Mills (battles hard), TP (injured anyways), Rudy Gay (never great, although worked himself to acceptable but then blew his Achilles out), Derrick White (total unknown at NBA level but did garner some defensive accolades in college), Bertans (not showing much defensively outside occasionally blocking shots), Forbes (not showing much on defense) & Murray (really not showing much on defense either in team or individual setting despite great physical tools) & Joffery (bad defensive metrics entire 3 years so far).
Spurs were definitely a win with defense team last year & so far the two players they look to have lost (Dedmon & Lee) were not replaced with anywhere near the defenders they were.
The guard rotation which was weak on defense depth wise was not addressed either.
I don't think the players added (Gay, Joffery, Murray (I say added because TP is injured), White, Blossomgame)) did anything to really elevate the offense at this point either.
Do you all see potential on defense from anyone in particular where it's reasonable to assume defense won't be an issue?
I think with Gay & Murray (maybe) & White (and Forbes playing so well) you can see some potential lift on offense if things break well, but what about the defense?
Spurs better defenders this year than last.
Porker is gone.
Just list the players that are "gone"...
Judge their true defensive value to team....
You won't be concerned...
Not that concerned yet. Spurs still had a good defense last season and Dedmon is going to be the only good defensive player we lost. Lee was awful on the defensive end imo. But if Gay can put in work and at least be a positive on that end I am not too worried about it. League is trending less and less toward traditional lineups with shotblocking centers. Gobert albeit not fully healthy didn't make much of a difference against GS and he's probably Spurs fans wet dream
That is exactly what I did or did you not read
Dedmon and to a lesser extent Lee do have me concerned. Then on top of that the already weak guard defense was not addressed and the big they added is not only worse than Dedmon, but actually a negative type defender. Can Gay reasonably be expected to pick up the slack for Lee/Dedmon defense coming off such a harsh injury?
Mills is looking like the starting point guard by default due to the tyness of Murray and White. That should tell you how trash the defense will be next year
To give a little context. When Dedmon fell out of the playoff rotation, SA went from being a top 2 defense in the league to 11th out of the 16 playoff teams in defensive ratings. Obviously that can be skewed by the GS series and not having Kawhi, but still.
Pretty massive dip in defense by SA in the playoffs. Is it correlation or causation with regards to Dedmon no longer really getting minutes in the playoffs? Hard to tell.
What does this word "defense" mean? I thought the NBA was just a three point contest with running?
They are bringing back their defensive core. They'll be fine.
Dedmon played a small role last year. Losing him wont impact the overall defense much. Spurs should be better defensively by simply going smaller as well. Their defensive metrics w/ LA + Kawhi lineups w/ LA at the 5 were great.
I'm wondering if, point guard aside, ia line-up of Green, Kawhi, Gay, and LMA isn't an improvement over the same with Pau replacing Gay. Gay might not play much with Kawhi, but he seems an upgrade over Pau on defense. Now this is playing LMA the 5 which so far seems likely.
Pretty much ... with some illegal screening thrown in.
Spurs had 10 games vs. the two best offenses in the NBA and were without Kawhi for 5 of those 10 games.
Plus, people were concerned about the D taking a dip last year w/ TD retiring too. Fact is, they still have one of the best perimeter defenses in the NBA (w/ Kawhi/Danny). The rise of Simmons only adds to that.
The top 8-10 players is where you need to assess.
Kawhi, Green, Simmons, Gay, LMA, Murray, Mills, Manu, Pau, Bertans/Anderson. (Mills and Pau are only true liabilities vs. great teams that gameplan -- Pau/ Mills are fine vs. bad/ avg teams). Can't be concerned of the defense because of guys 11-15 on the roster.
Last edited by MaNu4Tres; 07-10-2017 at 11:55 PM.
DPG brings some solid points and legit concerns. I think the offseason plans got screwed up at some point. LMA crying rumors just before the draft? 12:01? Tony's injury forcing the team to select another Guard? Combo of all of those? Dunno. But unless there's some nice trade brewing so far PATFO's moves have been somewhat weird imo.
Didn't read this yet, but yes I think it's an improvement if we have LMA at the 5 and Gay and Kawhi as the forwards.
Why?
The spurs have their core defenders. Plus, If Aldridge is playing the 5 more with Gasol off the bench the spurs should be even better overall in an 82 game sample.
I also have reason to believe that Joff would be am upgrade defensively over lee.
The more the spurs play Aldridge at the 5, the better they are defensively.
You might notice an increase in opp. points per game because they might play faster but I suspect they'd be an even more efficient defensive team.
Our defense was good in the playoffs without Dedmon. Will be fine.
Well Kawhi being injured was huge, of course. However I'm wondering if Dedmon was such a big difference maker in our defense why Pop, 'Mr. Defense First,' didn't play him more. Do you think he didn't, rightly or wrongly, see Dedmon as a big difference maker?
Too early to tell, but I'm not a fan of where the team is going on that end (and in general).
Dedmon did a pretty colossal nosedive from the All Star Break to the end of the season and it continued to drop in the PO. His NetRfg% went from 11.4 to -1.3 from AS to the end of RS, then -11.5 in the playoffs.
If spurs can get reliable offense from lma, Gasol and Gay, then the more defensive destructive Leonard could become.
Wait...did OP say dedmon was our 2nd best defensive big last year? Who was the first???
LMFAO! anyone who actually watched the games knew better...LA was lazy on defense...his idea of stopping penetration is fouling the opposing team with a weak reach, then putting on that dumb smile when the refs call foul
Texas Red is right: They'll be fine on D because they kept Green.
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