Defense: nature vs nurture

NYallDay

Benchwarmer
So im debating whether defense something that our guys can actually become real good at.
On one side, you can state that our players are who they are and can get marginally better at defense but thats it. So all this talk about hiring a defensive coach or specialist as an assistant wont really help. Case in point: Amare's been in the league for 8 yrs now and his defense/rebounding has not improved. Im sure he practices it, im sure he knows its a problem and a detriment to the team, so its not as if hes allergic and wants no part of it.

The counter to that is, they can get real good, all they need to do is put in the effort. Noah, Battier, Allen, all these players put in the effort, whether its on the court hustle, or film study, they put in the work to get better at defense. I've seen countless times where our guys dont fight for the looseball, or fight to get position for a rebound or simply play defense with their hands and not feet.

I've watched alot of ball and one of the best defensive showings i ever seen was the 4q of the last celtics game at the garden. Go back and look if you dont believe me, they had our guys going side to side, we couldnt penetrate past the 3point line. Even Clyde was screaming that we're trying to play ball 30 ft away from the rim. Now during that time, i saw all out effort from the celtics. From getting to a certain spot so our dribbler couldnt go by to switching and closing out, it was classic textbook. Now is that something they practice and genuinely are committed to it, or is it cuz they have Garnett, Rondo, and other guys who have been great defenders from day one.
I dont think we'll be the spurs from 5 years ago, but i would like to see more effort and hustle out of our guys so we close the gap between us and the elite teams.
 

nuckles2k2

Superstar
Individual defensive is mostly based on athleticism and awareness, but it's also kind of overrated because you can't play team defense on an island. Team defense can most definitely be taught...because team defense is all about awareness and effort and not so much individual ability.

The Bucks have one legit lockdown defender in Mbah a Moute, and a defensively sound center in Bogut, and that's good enough for the 5th best scoring defense, and 6th best opponents FG% in the league. They don't have a team full of lockdown defenders, they actually have some poor one-on-one defenders on the team. But if you close out hard without fouling, and lead your man to the help...who actually helps...and doesn't sidestep out of the way (I'm looking at you STAT) you can be pretty solidly defensively. And when you don't do those things....you gotta deal with Scott Skiles....good luck...

Obviously their defensive plans and schemes on a game to game basis are more involved than that, but not doing those couple of things I listed can lead to a piss poor defense and none of that is "god given ability."

Also keeping your hands up to create tougher passing angles, it's not good enough if you lead your man where you want him to go but give him an easy pass out of it. I mean...these are things that need to be stressed game in and game out, practice after practice, day after day...
 

NYallDay

Benchwarmer
those are great points man.
but i still have a question , now if some of those things are basics like keeping your hands up, im sure they're being stressed during practice. i mean even Dantoni should teach the basic principles of defense. And if he is, Stat still hasnt gotten it yet, so how can Stat be held accountable? I think answer to all this simply might be accountability. And if the coach cant hold people accountable, then he shouldnt be the coach. Thats one thing i've always seen in Skiles, you will hate playing for him but he will squeeze every last drop of potential out of you. thats one of the reasons he was let go of in Chicago, because burned em into the ground and players eventually stopped responding ( i guess thas the opposite effect of demanding too much but then again his players included Eddy Curry :teeth:)

Individual defensive is mostly based on athleticism and awareness, but it's also kind of overrated because you can't play team defense on an island. Team defense can most definitely be taught...because team defense is all about awareness and effort and not so much individual ability.

The Bucks have one legit lockdown defender in Mbah a Moute, and a defensively sound center in Bogut, and that's good enough for the 5th best scoring defense, and 6th best opponents FG% in the league. They don't have a team full of lockdown defenders, they actually have some poor one-on-one defenders on the team. But if you close out hard without fouling, and lead your man to the help...who actually helps...and doesn't sidestep out of the way (I'm looking at you STAT) you can be pretty solidly defensively. And when you don't do those things....you gotta deal with Scott Skiles....good luck...

Obviously their defensive plans and schemes on a game to game basis are more involved than that, but not doing those couple of things I listed can lead to a piss poor defense and none of that is "god given ability."

Also keeping your hands up to create tougher passing angles, it's not good enough if you lead your man where you want him to go but give him an easy pass out of it. I mean...these are things that need to be stressed game in and game out, practice after practice, day after day...
 
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