A question about Trae's defense.

[Wurider05]

My question is whether he doesn't play defense or he can't play defense. 

Edited January 9, 2022 by Wurider05

[NBASupes]

He can, we saw in in the first three games of this season and last season as well as the playoffs. He just realizes he too tired and that's the end till the games matter again to him 

[TheNorthCydeRises]

49 minutes ago, NBASupes said:

He can, we saw in in the first three games of this season and last season as well as the playoffs. He just realizes he too tired and that's the end till the games matter again to him 

 

So why would he feel like that? 

Is he trying to conserve energy so that he can continue to be an offensive threat deep into the 4th quarter?

Is he carrying too much of an offensive burden, because he knows that he has to, in order to keep his team in the game?

Is this also why Nate tends to go with the all-bench lineups, in order to try to give Trae 7 minutes of rest each quarter?

 

Playing Trae on the ball may tire him out, but it also may keep him more engaged defensively.  But if he's tired by trying to play offense and defense full tilt, who will pick up the slack?  Because unlike the other guys who could possibly rest on offense, he doesn't have that luxury.

[bleachkit]

There's no question about his defense, it sucks. 

[RedDawg#8]

He definitely can and has shown it before. It was bad this season but I think his engagement really fell off a cliff after the Covid attrition happened. He was writing it all off on playing with a bunch of new faces, and he hasn't seemed to have turned it back on even slightly since then.

I also think teams are targeting him much more. They see the same tape that we do and they are game-planning for his lack of awareness and effort.

Since he has been back, almost every guard he faces and for sure every backcourt we have seen has had career nights going against us/him.

They are telling their guards to hunt their shot and let it fly because there will be no resistance.

In the past, most teams hunted Trae in the pick and roll to get him switched on to a big, or they would try to post him if he was assigned to a wing. Trae actually faired pretty well in those circumstances. 

Now it looks like teams are just hunting shots for their guards because they know Trae will eventually die on a screen and leave them wide open.

Im not even that mad about that because I generally hate how we defend the pick roll altogether and I think it leaves a lot of our wings to dry because they don't have the freedom to play the screen and go under when it's clearly set way too high. That's another story.

What kills me is his ball watching and "help" defense. Especially when his guy has the hot hand. We don't need Trae to be the guy who double teams against a Lebron or Embiid. He isn't going to do anything but get a weak foul if that. He needs to be on his man and prevent the kick out, or the offensive rebound by his guy.

The Bucks beat us in the playoffs by singlehandedly having Trae's man crash hard to the offensive glass because he would always lose them. They also had Jrue leak out after every Trae shot attempt because Trae would be posing and playing to the crowd instead of getting back. 
Teams are going after the immature parts of his game now. He is an offensive force, but they know that they can get every one of his points back if they attack his weaknesses.

Ability is there as he is quick and scrappy, but it's about pride at this point. Don't just let your man kill us play after play. I'd rather he be so selfish that he face guards his guy and doesn't help on any other assignment. Im sure the locker room would appreciate that much more than what he is doing now. They can figure out what to do 4 on 4, just stop leaving and losing your guy. 

[JayBirdHawk]

1 hour ago, Wurider05 said:

My question is whether he doesn't play defense or he can't play defense. 

He's not great, he's not good, he's not even average, sometimes not even passable, he can be downright terrible on some nights........what he cannot do is not give ANY effort and not care which happens too often. 

We have seen him locked in and actually trying.

So he can improve on things like effort and focus and giving a damn.

[terrell]

1 hour ago, NBASupes said:

He can, we saw in in the first three games of this season and last season as well as the playoffs. He just realizes he too tired and that's the end till the games matter again to him 

So when will the games matter? When we're 7-8 games below .500?

Edited January 9, 2022 by terrell

[terrell]

46 minutes ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

 

So why would he feel like that? 

Is he trying to conserve energy so that he can continue to be an offensive threat deep into the 4th quarter?

Is he carrying too much of an offensive burden, because he knows that he has to, in order to keep his team in the game?

Is this also why Nate tends to go with the all-bench lineups, in order to try to give Trae 7 minutes of rest each quarter?

 

Playing Trae on the ball may tire him out, but it also may keep him more engaged defensively.  But if he's tired by trying to play offense and defense full tilt, who will pick up the slack?  Because unlike the other guys who could possibly rest on offense, he doesn't have that luxury.

But he's been ass deep into the 4th qtrs this season......

[JeffS17]

19 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

......what he cannot do is not give ANY effort and not care which happens too often. 

+1

Giving weak and careless effort has to give shooters a sense of calm and easy.  Even Pat Bev can get results from just running around with energy and being intense

[Watchman]

5 hours ago, Wurider05 said:

My question is whether he doesn't play defense or he can't play defense. 

Would "both of the above" be an acceptable answer?

[Sothron]

I will be fair to Trae: this was the best defensive game he's played since the very first games of the season. He was definitely giving more effort on defense. He even got 2 or 3 steals that way. 

[benhillboy]

Knowing his innate inability to press dribble, challenge shots, and redirect passing lanes, the best team defensive dividends Trae can pay are on one of two plays: well-timed digs on Bigs’ blindside who have triple-threat ability around the paint and drawing illegal screen fouls. There was a healthy serving of the former versus Randle and Embiid in the postseason, solid contributor to our success.  On the rare occasion he does draw a screen charge, he gets super pumped, the team as well.  
 

I don’t think Schlenk had any delusions about how Trae’s measurables would translate to the defensive end.  Not well.  Trae clearly has great fast-twitch movement but his strength can’t be compared to others around his height who play plus defense (Paul, Beverly, Van Fleet, etc, Mookie and Mugsy for my old schoolers).  But I do think he would’ve expected the consistency of effort and awareness to be a notch above where it is.  It is good to know he can and will turn it up in the postseason though.  Just gotta step it up in the regular to help the team get there lol.

Edited January 10, 2022 by benhillboy