All Day Quick Hits - Defense?

Nah.

I think this is too great a leap.

Yes, we have tough individual D — but good defense is team defense, working together, instilling a culture of stopping one’s opponent.

Also: two of our big three — who’ll be on the floor MOST of the game — are at best only passable defenders.

It certainly wouldn’t hurt to sign someone like Ruben Patterson who said in the Oregonian today that he would like to sign a one or two year deal with us or miami for a shot at a title. I’d take him over reggie in a second if both would play for the vet min.

This question probably defines our season. We’ll go as far as we play good defense. Can we? Sure. Will we? Guess we’ll see.

Pierce and Allen can be effective in a good team defense. And relying on one-on-one defense is a recipe for disaster. Therefore, re-establishing team defense should be the coaching staff’s priority. Thibideau’s forte is team defense, but will he be that big a factor when you consider that Doc has said that he himself will coach the defense? Then again, Doc’s statements have been “misinterpreted” before.

Where’s Jim O’Brien when you need him…

Pierce is highly underrated as a team defender. He is a smart player who knows when to drop into the lane to help out, and does a good job of seeing the floor from the defensive end. All he and Allen have to do is play solid team D… and that means funneling players to a waiting KG or Perk. You don’t have to have 5 guys who lock down one on one to have a solid defense. (Same thign goes for the NFL… Belichick’s schemes are what win games on D… not the individual players…)

Yes we will play much better D, two reasons, Tim T. and KG.

No mas matador defense by the Celts.

We will go from one of the worst defensive teams the last several seasons to at least an average D team.

I think Pierce’s offensive struggles are largely due to the requirement the last few years to offensively carry the team. Not giving full effort on the defensive side is common when you are having to exert so much energy to score each time down on the other end. With KG and Ray out there I think he will be able to step it up a bit. His lower weight will also help.

I agree with birdball32 that Pierce is not a liability on D. He plays very good D at times and loafs other times. With KG energizing the floor he won’t loaf. Same with Ray Allen. Because he’s a great shooter he gets knocked as a poor defender. But watch him with a good supporting cast. If our luck has truly turned then Tony Allen will be back as good as last Jan.

I think our defense will be fine. I’m more concerned with our offense when we play the Spurs than our defense. Teams like the Spurs and Pistons have been great over the past few years at making high powered offenses play games in the 80’s and low 90’s. I am very curious to see how our offense does against a power house defender like the Spurs. Just having weapons is not good enough against a team like that, and I think the key to defeating them will be more about our ability to score than theirs.

Pierce is average at best on defense and Ray Allen is no bargain on that end of the court. Consider these two players will be attempting to guard the best scorers in the East like James, Wade, Carter, Redd, Jefferson, Arenas, Lewis, Deng, etc. Of course, they’ll put up points of their own but can they stop anyone? I’m not too optimistic in that regard.

And to consider Scalabrainy as one of the team’s best defenders is like saying the Ford Fusion is one of the best cars in the line. There weren’t any good ones last year save Rondo, who made many spectacular plays but didn’t really adapt to NBA team defense all that well.

Perkins is slow-footed and a hacker.

Thibodeau has his work cut out for him with this group. The addition of Garnett, of course, improves the defense quite a bit. Will it be enough to play with the best of the East in the playoffs? I don’t know. But I wouldn’t worry about the match-up with the Spurs just yet. Let’s see them get out of the first round and take it from there.

The Cavs showed how far a team could go that played defense. Offense alone won’t get the C’s very far.