What's wrong with Cavs defense? Your thoughts

[moohead]

If you could say ONE thing was the root cause of our defenive problems, what would that ONE thing be? Post away, and your thoughts will be read on Moohead Radio tonight.

Moo

For all future reference, these questions appear in "The Essential Moohead" thread inside the Moohead Radio forum, and will be updated every few days.

 

[Maximus]

We have new players trying to fit in with the existing players AND we have a new coach teaching a completely new system for everyone.


What makes the Spurs so good is that they've had the same system and for the most part the same players in place year after year. Their team just gets tweaked a bit and minor adjustments are made. Most of the players are familiar with each other and they are familiar with Pop's system.

For the Cavs it would have been tough enough to integrate 4 new rotation players into an existing sytem that was here last year....but it is more difficult than that. We have new players trying to fit in with the existing players AND we have a new coach teaching a completely new system for everyone. Not only does Brown have the challenge of teaching the system.....he also has to get the players to buy into it, believe in the new system, and believe in each other. That hasn't happened yet and it clearly shows. It takes time.....

 

[Dirk Gently]

I've got to say consistant effort. The key to defense is putting 100% effort into that side of the ballgame, and so far, none of the cavs players have shown that defensive intensity on a consistant basis.

 

[G-MAN]

EFFORT. Turning offensive players into defensive minded players is showing to be more than brown asked for. He's not only asking them to do things they haven't thought about before, he is asking them to understand how to play d. Which most of them don't know anything about to begin with. It’s half of the game numbnuts. Play it.

Coach Brown is asking guys to guard their man and then also help out. They don’t know how to guard their man.

They have been sagging on defense most of their careers. So they sag and think they are doing the help defense that Brown wants. So in essence they are not guarding anybody. They are in NO MANS LAND thinking they are doing something. They are too far away to help and too far away to cover their own shooter.

Lebron has never played sound fundamental defense in his life. He could always jump over players or run faster to make up for bad fundys. Lebron better be careful because he is going to get a rep as a bad defensive player and a whiner. Both are remembered by NBA officials because it’s their job and he’s getting in their face too much.

Damon is as close to Jeff McInnis as you can get.

Z needed to touch a few weights during the years he sat on his butt rehabbing his feet. Z is slow reacting to situations but he creates mismatches at the other end so he is kind of a push. There are not too many 7+ footers for him to go against so he’s playing against pfs most of the time which makes him look a lot slower. If he punishes the smaller guys on the other end then he’s doing his job. We knew what we had in Z.

Gooden is playing for a contract. His tip in the basket with donyell shows that. I have been saying it for a year. His aggressiveness comes from wanting to put up numbers. Anything that doesn't have to do with numbers he does not do. That includes help defense. I will give drew this; he does not get any respect from NBA officials for some reason. He is a foul waiting to happen. Some players just get that type of respect and he is definitely one.

Hughes is better than Newble but gets muscled by bigger guards. Takes some chances but I can live with that.

Four out of five of the starters didn't have defense on their minds coming into this year. Greg Anthony has put it best, until the best (most athletic) player on your team shows that he's going all out on that end of the floor then the rest will follow. That’s when he will become a leader and can say anything he wants to, to anybody. Until then, Lebron words are shallow to his teammates.

Brown should be showing tapes of Indy games to show how it should be done. I am disappointed that the team is almost twenty games in and the d is getting worse as apposed to better. I can’t see how the d the cavs are running is supposed to look like Indy’s defense. They definitely are the chicken and we are the egg.

Indy is my second favorite team now. They play ball like it should be played and Larry is showing me that he is a genius. This artest thing should be interesting.

On a positive note we are missing two of our better defensive players in Newble and AV. When they come back it’ll just help rotations having 2 guys that THINK about that end of the floor.

 

[ootbttnlagitnbasf]

i agree 106.5%. when popovich took over for brian hill at san antonio, he had his two best players willing to play defense on every posession. when robinson got oldre and slowed down, they brought in other defensive minded players. bowen was dropped by all kinds of teams. ginobli played defense from day one. parker is a good defender against quick guards. but it all started with duncan and robinson. we don't have that team leader yet.

like Lebron said the other night: "I don't ever want to score 50 points again because every time i score 50, I lose."

 

[Dungong]

Its been said before but effort. Really, guys are going up for uncontested shots a lot against the Cavs. You'll see if from all the guys, Lebron, Larry, Gooden especially, they let their man take open jumpers without even jumping to greet em. I say at least stick a hand in their face or something. Z is pretty good effort wise, but he just doesn't have the quickness to make up for a 10 foot gap on a busted rotation though he tries.

If you watch any team at the end of a tight game, they'll be especially bouncy on the defensive side of the ball, you'll notice players actually guard their guys off the ball and do things like challenge all shots even though they're horribly beaten just on the off chance that a little something will help out. Teams like San Antonio, Detroit, and Indy are playing that kind of defense consistently, and its where the Cavs need to be.

 

[Rimage]

They are a Cleveland team? Cleveland is cursed?

 

[Glen Infante]

Damon Jones

His element: Three point shooting. But it doesn't mean jack when players like Tyronne Lue become an all-star consideration over night.

 

[PIP]

Ball movement...
Spacing...
Interior defense...

 

[LyXo]

1. Terrible perimeter defense: LeBron lets people blow by him. Damon Jones. Even Eric Snow at times. Drives straight to the basket with no answer. Wide open jumpers because of the lack of focus on the defense. Slow rotations. Missed rotations. Wide open jumpers.

2. Lack of toughness in the interior. These penetrators meet nothing in the middle. There are only 6 Z fouls to go around, if he's there. Other than that, Gooden is never there to foul/contest, Marshall misses rotations as well, being a tad slow. Henderson is tough, but he's not a body servicable for more than 15 minutes. That said... Slow rotations. Missed rotations. Open layups, uncontested.

Our defensive scheme is sucking right now. There actually is no scheme. It's a zone with nobody defending, only pretending to. We can't strike fear into opponents if we don't show it. We don't contest shots, plain and simple. We give them the stare, hoping that the jedi mind tricks will work. Time and time again we just let people shoot straight over us, and gain confidence in every shot.

While on the other end we get forced into bad, terrible, no-space, bail-out shots. If we didn't have the talent to make those impossible shots, then we'd lose every game by 30+. All we have to do is study what other teams do to us and replicate it. Is it really that difficult?

Come on Cavs. You can make it happen. Win a boring game for a change. Win a game that the total score is less than 150. Hold the opponent to less than 70. Do it up, and we will succeed.

 

[NarlCavs]

Lebron James.

If he's the team leader than he has to start giving effort on D. He's a pathetic defensive player right now. He stood around watching on the defensive end last night.

Many other Cavs are poor individual defenders but when you're #1 player and supposed leader doesn't care about D than the rest of the team follows. It also doesn't help when your coach does nothing about it and continues to let him get away with only playing one end of the court. The Cavs are also a very soft team.

 

[The Disector]

You can't point to one problem defensively with this team.

The backcourt players outside of snow do not do a good enough job staying in front of there men but the biggest problem is there is no defensive big man intimidator or shot blocking presence.

This is why I do not care for Ilgauskas - I believe a good big man who helps his team win is a player who can consistently be a defensive presence.
Not only is Ilgauskas not a defensive presence teams focus on taking advantage of him by running on him and constantly putting him in pick n roll.

1 more note-did any one here Magic's comment on the Cav's "They dont really have a legitimate goto post presence"-someone tell me what does that say about Z!

 

[Karma]

Disector surprisingly talking about Ilgauskas :vio:

Do you spend much time watching some of the off ball defense?

Do you notice the difference inside when Marshall is with Ilgauskas, to Gooden with Ilgauskas?

Plain to see. Ilgauskas is a smart but athletically limited defender. Gooden is athletic but lacks any awareness. No rotations at all are made, at least not in time.

This is why I beg us to start Marshall, as this team will benefit at both ends.

 

[Karma]

“Z (Zydrunas Ilgauskas) was good. I thought he was great. He got some deep post up positions for us. He made it tough on them inside. He also defensively came across and changed some shots from the back side.” Coach Brown

 

[The Disector]

I understand that Gooden doesn't play good defense and I like Marshall but he doesnt solve the defensive problems and mismatches started with the pick'n'roll and he doesnt give the Cavs a legit big man intimidator/shot blocker which this team desperately needs along with a quality point guard.