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The defense isn't great, but that Portland game definitely skewed the numbers.
Rankings at the break . . .
opp fg%: .456 (26th)
opp 3p%: .349 (16th)
opp ppg 95.6 (16th), pace 93.7 (18th)
Def. efficiency 101.1 (T-16th)
As much as people think they're better defensively with Splitter in the rotation and with Leonard and to a lesser extent, Green, the numbers don't bear it out.
The defense isn't great, but that Portland game definitely skewed the numbers.
Yeah, he did look good, but I don't think his personality would work with the Spurs, what with the constant shouting and general ness he displays on the court.
No point looking at the whole season's number, better to look at how the numbers are trending. The defence of the first 15 games bears little resemblance to what we've seen in the past 15. And yeah, exclude the Portland game as an outlier.
More stats about Spurs defense and the ranking among NBA teams:
Cut defense: 0.97 ppp (1st)
Post up defense: 0.79 ppp (7th)
Hand off defense: 0.79 ppp (7th)
Spot up defense: 0.93 ppp (12th)
Other play defense: 0.39 ppp (13th)
Transition defense: 1.14 ppp (20th)
Overall defense: 0.92 ppp (21st)
Pick and Roll defense: 0.90 ppp (27th)
Putt back defense: 1.14 ppp (27th)
Isolation defense: 0.89 ppp (28th)
Off screen defense: 1.09 ppp (30th)
ppp stands for points per possession allowed.
The number for the PnR D is the biggest concern. IMO
And that ranking doesn't surprise me.
Fair enough. But the truth is, the defense has gotten progressively worse from the game against the Pistons on. Like I said a few weeks ago, don't be fooled by the defensive surge they were on, they were merely progressing to their mean. Now they're simply regressing again.
As much as they want to pretend it has a chance to get significantly better by the young guys better grasping the system, the reality is, the only chance it has at getting significantly better is by playing Duncan and particularly Splitter, significantly more minutes. Short of that, they just don't have the personnel to defend at even a top 10 level.
Agree. The iso ranking is also a big concern.
In the playoffs where individual defense is more important I think they will have no choice but playing TD and TS. Teams are going to look for the weakest link and try to attack it on defense. TS probably has the best bigman pick and roll defense. We could have used him in '10 when the Suns were abusing TD on the pick and roll.
The Spurs also need to work TD and TS together on offense to make teams pay for trying to play small ball. You can't let teams dictate the matchups. Once they see TS getting layups and and-ones they'll stop playing small ball pretty quickly. But the team has to be prepared to take advantage and guys need to know how to make the passes and space the floor. Pop has tried to match up with other teams in small ball and the team wasn't as good. I remember from 2010 Doug Collins saying that Pop should stop trying to play small ball against the Suns because his small ball just wasn't good enough.
Can we get a update?
Dictating matchups would require active planning / coaching the team. Pop stopped doing that ages ago. That takes effort.
Nowadays, Pop prefers to just sit back on autopilot and play 'simon says' with the opposing coach. He's got 4 les, ya know. Anyway, he's worked hard on all the GM/team building stuff he's tired, you know. Plus sitting back and letting the team figure things out on its own always worked for Phil, right?. Game time = Miller Time for Pop. And in-between nodding off in a half-drunken stupor every now and then he he'll throw in a tantrum/ejection to keep up the appearance of being tough.
So? What's wrong with that? Pop is the greatest coach in the history of mankind...who are you? ...some poster on a forum...so if you got rid of Pop...who would you replace him with?...
I don't know why people can't realize this. At best the Spurs personnel are B- level athletes. That's just not good enough to play help defense to cover the hole inside with Blair/Bonner and stay on shooters. Their best bet at covering that hole inside is by playing TD/Splitter who are capable individual defenders and having the perimeter players stay attached to their man.
Found this link in a tweet about the best defenders in the NBA. Scroll down to see the top Spurs as measured by opponents' production:
http://www.82games.com/1112/ROLRTG3.HTM
Matt Bonner FTW!Found this link in a tweet about the best defenders in the NBA. Scroll down to see the top Spurs as measured by opponents' production:
http://www.82games.com/1112/ROLRTG3.HTM
It's that time again, to find out if actual improvements have been made defensively, or if they're just in the midst of a good stretch. They have more or less reached what has been their pinnacle defensively in recent seasons (not necessarily in terms of ranking, but statistical threshold). The defensive efficiency is down to 100.8 (11th), the opp. fg% is down to .452 (17th) and the opp. 3 fg% is .356 (21th).
This time, the defense has a legitimate shot at, if not necessarily trending up a whole lot more, then at least plateauing, as opposed to regressing. That's because Blair and Neal, the two worst defenders in the rotation, are seeing less and less minutes, while Diaw, a solid defender, is continuing to play more.
On the flip side, the same can be said for their 3 point shooting. In particular, Ginobili, Green, Neal and Leonard, are seemingly shooting at their absolute apex. The same could be said for Diaw, but the sample size is still too small to include him with the aforementioned four. Meanwhile, the only ones that can seemingly shoot better by a decent amount are Bonner and probably Jackson.
I'm actually more concerned about their 3 point shooting for a change. Even though they're not as reliant on it as in recent seasons, they're still reliant on it. And as good a shooting team as they are and as quality of looks as they generate, they're so insanely hot right now (.476 fg% 0 - 1st; .393 3pt% - 1st, despite losing roughly 14% from 3 when going from Jefferson to Jackson) that they've got to be due for a cold stretch. It may actually be better if they don't shoot the lights out in the next four, which would increase the odds of them heating back up again just in time for the playoffs.
Percentage goes up because they're making the defense sag. In previous years when they ran plays to try to get three pointers, defenders were wise to it and could run them off good shots.
Nice stats for the last 10 games:
Opponent FG %: 43.7% (5th in the league)
Opponent 3FG %: 32.7% (5th in the league)
All of that with a +12.9 margin of defeat.
Let's hope Pop doesn't shorten the rotation during the playoff. Less minutes for each players mean that they don't have to reserve their energy during the game, thus making them more willing to help on defense and cover for one another.
I really love the defense lately, we swarm the opponent from everywhere on the court. Thus, making the opponent think twice before putting the ball on the floor. They try to swipe the ball every time they have a chance and it makes the opponent feel so uncomfortable.
the thing these numbers dont account for are the tank jobs and the amount of times spurs just blow teams out in the first/second quarter and sit the big players for the rest of the game
having a lineup of mills/neal/jack/diaw/blair playing 15-20+ minutes would bring down the defense a lot
I think it would be a huge mistake to shorten the rotation. We really need our depth to go all the way.
Hmm...Yes and no. I'm in favour of shortening the big rotation if it means Blair is out of it and Bonner doesn't play more than either Diaw or Tiago.
If by shorten you mean going only 7 deep in the playoffs then I agree.
I agree guys shouldn't worry about conserving energy because of the depth.
Spurs are now an offensive juggernaut, ranking near the top in points scored per game, point differential per game, FG%, assists per game, and assist differential per game.
While Spurs le teams have been defensively dominant statistically, this year's version is dominant when it comes to executing better than their opponents.
Also, the personnel changes haven't filtered through the team season stats yet.
... unless Blair is the odd man out.
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