The real trick to playing defense

[thecampster]

Any coach who knows anything will tell you that the most important thing to playing defense, is to make your own shots and take care of the basketball. Missed shots lead to rebounds, bad ball handling leads to steals. Both lead to transition opportunities. Limiting turnovers is job one. But just as important is limiting bad possessions.It's going to take some time to find but there are pretty detailed stats out there that show what percentage of points per possession are scored off of turnovers, rebounds and out of bounds plays. In general, hold on to the basketball and convert at the offensive end and defense becomes much easier.This is what I like about the coming Hawks squad. We've been a good turnovers team the last few years, but our execution has been sub par. I believe with the superior shooting on this team, the much better ball handling and point play, we are going to be much more efficient on offense and by extension, limit the freebies at the other end.

[thecampster]

Well that was an easy find.

http://www.basketbal...p?articleid=630

Hoping the graphic showed. This was a study done of the Tar Heals in 2009. As you can see by the graphic, the longer the possession, the worse the result. Notice what happens if you attempt a shot in the first 10 seconds of possession. This is what I'm hoping to see from the Hawks. Take care of the ball, quick possessions beating the other team up the floor.

This was by far our biggest problem last year. We took far too long to get into offensive sets. Too much iso, too much walking the ball up. The reason this works is simple. Fast possessions tend to beat the big men up the floor leading to poorer interior defense on the attempt.

[DrReality]

Gotta think all the dribbling impacted other players. We were a different team last year when we ran the offense

[Admin]

Hoping the graphic showed. This was a study done of the Tar Heals in 2009. As you can see by the graphic, the longer the possession, the worse the result. Notice what happens if you attempt a shot in the first 10 seconds of possession. This is what I'm hoping to see from the Hawks. Take care of the ball, quick possessions beating the other team up the floor. This was by far our biggest problem last year. We took far too long to get into offensive sets. Too much iso, too much walking the ball up. The reason this works is simple. Fast possessions tend to beat the big men up the floor leading to poorer interior defense on the attempt.

... better known as the D'Antoni philosphy and while I'm sure that is fun to watch, you're not going to win a championship with that style of basketball. Then again we're not going to win a championship with this squad anyway so I guess it doesn't matter. In D'Antoni's 4 years in Phoenix the Suns looked like this in offensive / defensive scoring and NBA rank: 04-05 (110 #1 - 103 #30) 05-06 (108 #1 - 103 #28) 06-07 (110 #1 - 102 #23) 07-08 (110 #3 - 105 #24)

[Admin]

The top 10 teams in scoring differential last year and their offensive / defensive ranking:Chicago (+8.1) (#18) (#1) - better defensivelySan Antonio (+7.2) (#2) (#14)Oklahoma City (+6.2) (#3) (#17)Miami (+6) (#7) (#4) - better defensivelyPhiladelphia (+4.2) (#22) (#2) - better defensivelyAtlanta (+3.4) (#17) (#4) - better defensivelyIndiana (+3.3) (#13) (#9) - better defensivelyNew York (+3.1) (#11) (#11)Denver (+2.9) (#1) (#27)LA Clippers (+2.5) (#14) (#11) - better defensivelySo only 4 of the teams in the top 10 in scoring differential did so by outscoring their opponents. New York and Denver, 2 of those teams, were only borderline playoff teams. The Spurs and Thunder were championship caliber teams. Conversely, only the Bulls (with Rose) and Heat were championship caliber of the teams who were better defensively.

[capstone21]

... better known as the D'Antoni philosphy and while I'm sure that is fun to watch, you're not going to win a championship with that style of basketball. Then again we're not going to win a championship with this squad anyway so I guess it doesn't matter. In D'Antoni's 4 years in Phoenix the Suns looked like this in offensive / defensive scoring and NBA rank: 04-05 (110 #1 - 103 #30) 05-06 (108 #1 - 103 #28) 06-07 (110 #1 - 102 #23) 07-08 (110 #3 - 105 #24)

I def do not want a D'Antoni type team

[Ruckus]

I def do not want a D'Antoni type team

Might not have a choice until with the team as is.

[Admin]

I def do not want a D'Antoni type team

Neither do I, although I think that we can be better defensively since we have better defenders than the Suns had.

[Guest]

The difference is the Sun's did not even attempt to play any kind of defense. It was all about scoring and nothing else. I do not think that will be the case with the Hawks. We may not have great individual defenders but if we have a defensive effort it will go along way with a solid team defense.

[MaceCase]

The real trick is to switch every screen.

[benhillboy]

The Spurs are easily the model to follow on both ends. They aren't worried so much about time elapsed. Their offense has many releases and secondary options that take time to develop, so getting the best possible shot is paramount. If they're leading, they actually prefer to run the clock while getting the shot they want, then force the oppenent to run clock while not getting what they want. A minute passed with them in the plus. Their main focus on D is playing it well enough while not fouling and never missing an oppurtunity to help inside to prevent easy scores. It's cool to speed the game up and not worry about # of possessions in the first half, but as those Suns teams showed, fatigue and not being able to slow the game down, especially when trailing, in the second half is a recipe for disaster. There were times when Woody's switching was bad, but there were some instances where it worked perfectly against some teams where the guards weren't the quickest and our froncourt's length detered them from even attempting a shot. I'm wiling to bet we had the most forced shot clock violations when we won 53.

[Admin]

The Spurs are easily the model to follow on both ends. They aren't worried so much about time elapsed. Their offense has many releases and secondary options that take time to develop, so getting the best possible shot is paramount. If they're leading, they actually prefer to run the clock while getting the shot they want, then force the oppenent to run clock while not getting what they want. A minute passed with them in the plus. Their main focus on D is playing it well enough while not fouling and never missing an oppurtunity to help inside to prevent easy scores. It's cool to speed the game up and not worry about # of possessions in the first half, but as those Suns teams showed, fatigue and not being able to slow the game down, especially when trailing, in the second half is a recipe for disaster. There were times when Woody's switching was bad, but there were some instances where it worked perfectly against some teams where the guards weren't the quickest and our froncourt's length detered them from even attempting a shot. I'm wiling to bet we had the most forced shot clock violations when we won 53.

Excellent post BHB!

[capstone21]

nm

Edited July 30, 2012 by capstone21

[PSSSHHHRRR87]

Well that was an easy find.

http://www.basketbal...p?articleid=630

Hoping the graphic showed. This was a study done of the Tar Heals in 2009. As you can see by the graphic, the longer the possession, the worse the result. Notice what happens if you attempt a shot in the first 10 seconds of possession. This is what I'm hoping to see from the Hawks. Take care of the ball, quick possessions beating the other team up the floor.

This was by far our biggest problem last year. We took far too long to get into offensive sets. Too much iso, too much walking the ball up. The reason this works is simple. Fast possessions tend to beat the big men up the floor leading to poorer interior defense on the attempt.

I'd love to see this team run this year and push the ball up the floor all season long. With Teague and Harris as our point guards, we should have no problem running other teams ragged. I believe we have the fastest PG duo in the league in those two. In the past, what analysts and other players have said about the Hawks is that we are an energetic, athletic group that likes to run... Haven't seen that team over the past two seasons. We got rid of ISO Joe and replaced Marvin with shooters. We should able to work the ball around and run a better, quicker offense now. 1, 2, 3 passes and a shot, that's what I want to see.

[Supporter]

The suns SSOL teams should've won atleast one chip. MVsteve, Amare, Shawn, and JJ, four all star caliber players and two potential hall of famers should've got the job done.

[Nicholasp27]

Jj got injured that playoffs, killing their one shot at glory