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Some excerpts from Jason Lloyd's writeups after the road trip:
Final thoughts: Nets 114, Cavs 101
By Jason Lloyd
The Cavs' defense has been atrocious all season (theoretically correctable). So has the bench (not so easy to fix).
Scott grew tired of the bench's woes a few games ago and began shuffling the rotation, although it really didn't do any good. He has pounding the same defensive philosophies for the last three years, but nothing seems to be setting in.
So is it a coaching problem or a personnel problem? Probably a little of both.
The Cavs presently have the league's worst defense based on shooting percentage. Opponents are making 51 percent of their shots -- and the figure was even higher on this road trip (52 percent).
Scott's teams have rarely been good defensively over the last seven years. Excluding his 2009-10 season in New Orleans, since he was fired just nine games in, Scott's teams have ranked in the top 10 in opponents' shooting percentage once in the last seven years.
His Nets teams were very good defensively, but his Hornets teams were typically average. His Cavs teams have been atrocious.
The Cavs have ranked 27th in the league in defensive field goal percentage both of Scott's years in charge. Improving defensively has been the focus of this team since summer league, yet somehow the Cavs are worse.
It's still incredibly early, but no team has gone a whole season allowing an opponent to shoot better than 50 percent in 16 years. Celtics opponents shot 50 percent during the 1996-97 season, and not surprisingly, the Celtics won only 15 games.
The Cavs still don't defend the pick and roll the way Scott would like, often going behind (or under) screens instead of in front of the screener (over the screen). They fail to box out on missed shots, allowing easy putbacks. And they too often chase the ball and lose their man defensively.
All of it would seem to be easily fixed, but the Cavs have failed to do it for two full seasons and they're off to a lousy start in Year 3. Tristan Thompson was drafted to be a defensive presence, but he has been mediocre this year.
Scouts have lamented Irving's lack of defense since he entered the league, and Irving conceded Tuesday he's playing at about a C level defensively. If he were being honest, Scott might grade him even lower.
...
The bigger concern right now is the defense. There has been zero improvement, only regression. If it doesn't get any better, this team has no chance of competing against even the middle-of-the-pack teams in the NBA.
...
Scott was furious with the defensive effort, which allowed the Nets to score 114 points and shoot 55 percent when they began the night averaging 93 points and shooting 43 percent.
Opponents shot better than 50 percent from the floor in five of the six games on this trip, which is why Scott summed up the road trip as “terrible.”
“There was nothing there defensively,” Scott said. “We’ve got to get more guys who are going to be competitive and passionate about the defensive end. Right now we’ve got three: Boobie [Daniel] Gibson, Alonzo Gee and Anderson Varejao. We’ve got to get other guys to join into the party. It’s as simple as that.”
...
The fact that Scott left Irving off his list of those playing well defensively was telling. Scouts have been lamenting Irving’s defensive effort since the start of his career. Irving recently conceded in a recent interview his defense last season was lousy, but vowed this year would be different. Told of Scott’s comments, Irving agreed.
“I’m probably a C right now,” Irving said. “Maybe I do need to climb on board.”
...
Scott has complained a lot about the Cavs’ defensive effort over most of this trip. Now that they don’t have another game until Saturday, the majority of the focus in practice the next couple of days will be on the defensive end.
“We’ve got three more days before our next game,” Scott said. “I can promise you we will work on it a hell of a lot the next three days. A hell of a lot.”
Final thoughts: Nets 114, Cavs 101
By Jason Lloyd
The Cavs' defense has been atrocious all season (theoretically correctable). So has the bench (not so easy to fix).
Scott grew tired of the bench's woes a few games ago and began shuffling the rotation, although it really didn't do any good. He has pounding the same defensive philosophies for the last three years, but nothing seems to be setting in.
So is it a coaching problem or a personnel problem? Probably a little of both.
The Cavs presently have the league's worst defense based on shooting percentage. Opponents are making 51 percent of their shots -- and the figure was even higher on this road trip (52 percent).
Scott's teams have rarely been good defensively over the last seven years. Excluding his 2009-10 season in New Orleans, since he was fired just nine games in, Scott's teams have ranked in the top 10 in opponents' shooting percentage once in the last seven years.
His Nets teams were very good defensively, but his Hornets teams were typically average. His Cavs teams have been atrocious.
The Cavs have ranked 27th in the league in defensive field goal percentage both of Scott's years in charge. Improving defensively has been the focus of this team since summer league, yet somehow the Cavs are worse.
It's still incredibly early, but no team has gone a whole season allowing an opponent to shoot better than 50 percent in 16 years. Celtics opponents shot 50 percent during the 1996-97 season, and not surprisingly, the Celtics won only 15 games.
The Cavs still don't defend the pick and roll the way Scott would like, often going behind (or under) screens instead of in front of the screener (over the screen). They fail to box out on missed shots, allowing easy putbacks. And they too often chase the ball and lose their man defensively.
All of it would seem to be easily fixed, but the Cavs have failed to do it for two full seasons and they're off to a lousy start in Year 3. Tristan Thompson was drafted to be a defensive presence, but he has been mediocre this year.
Scouts have lamented Irving's lack of defense since he entered the league, and Irving conceded Tuesday he's playing at about a C level defensively. If he were being honest, Scott might grade him even lower.
...
The bigger concern right now is the defense. There has been zero improvement, only regression. If it doesn't get any better, this team has no chance of competing against even the middle-of-the-pack teams in the NBA.
...
Scott was furious with the defensive effort, which allowed the Nets to score 114 points and shoot 55 percent when they began the night averaging 93 points and shooting 43 percent.
Opponents shot better than 50 percent from the floor in five of the six games on this trip, which is why Scott summed up the road trip as “terrible.”
“There was nothing there defensively,” Scott said. “We’ve got to get more guys who are going to be competitive and passionate about the defensive end. Right now we’ve got three: Boobie [Daniel] Gibson, Alonzo Gee and Anderson Varejao. We’ve got to get other guys to join into the party. It’s as simple as that.”
...
The fact that Scott left Irving off his list of those playing well defensively was telling. Scouts have been lamenting Irving’s defensive effort since the start of his career. Irving recently conceded in a recent interview his defense last season was lousy, but vowed this year would be different. Told of Scott’s comments, Irving agreed.
“I’m probably a C right now,” Irving said. “Maybe I do need to climb on board.”
...
Scott has complained a lot about the Cavs’ defensive effort over most of this trip. Now that they don’t have another game until Saturday, the majority of the focus in practice the next couple of days will be on the defensive end.
“We’ve got three more days before our next game,” Scott said. “I can promise you we will work on it a hell of a lot the next three days. A hell of a lot.”