Anatomy of a Loss: Or how not to play perimeter defense

['89 Kings Fan]

So the last two games have been an absolute embarassement for the Kings. Klay Thompson's display it appeared we actually tried to guard him, but last night against the Raptors we gave up a season high 17 threes. Thanks to the miracle of technology and the new tracking cameras provided by the NBA, any fan can go back and look at why the Kings defense is so comically bad. I wondered if it was anyone in particular that was causing the defensive lapses or if it's a teamwide effort. Lets go to the tapes.

10:04 in the First Quarter, Jason Thompson dares Amir Johnson to shoot a 3. Of course he hits it.


7:46 in the First Quarter, Lowry runs a pick and roll with Amir Johnson and hands it off. Gay comes over to help and leaves DeRozan wide open in the corner and no one rotates over.


4:02 in the First Quarter, Amir holds it at the top of the key and they run Lowry off a set of staggered screens and he hits over Collison.


2:46 in the First Quarter, Louis Williams runs a pick and roll with Jonas and Cousins doesn't show at all, so as Ben gets caught on the screen, Louis hits the screen.


1:15 in the First Quarter, after a Gay turnover DeRozan dribbles into the key and four Kings follow him and he passes out to an open Patterson.

 

['89 Kings Fan]

10:11 in the Second Quarter, Louis Williams kicks it out to Ross who shoots over Williams who seems more concerned about a drive.



8:53 in the Second Quarter, Patterson hands the ball to Louis Williams and runs to the corner and no one follows him, Louis passes for the wide open three.


11:44 in the Third Quarter, DeRozan dribbles to the top of the key and three Kings follow him, easy pass to Vasquez.


9:10 in the Third Quarter, we again double DeRozan and no one rotates over.



6:33 in the Third Quarter, after a Thompson jump shot miss, we race back and no one bothers picking up Vasquez even after he had already hit two threes in the quarter.




5:59 in the Third Quarter, DeRozen gets into the paint again and Ben ends up guarding no one as he watches and lets Vasquez setup in the corner for his fourth three of the quarter.

 

['89 Kings Fan]

3:24 in the third quarter. This is a two parter just to show Sessions not running back on Defense. First Rudy dribbles into three defenders and Louis Williams leaks out. Now Stauskas has to defend a 2-1 break because Ramon went about 5 feet while Louis went the length of the court.





1:17 in the third quarter. High pick and roll with Lowry and Hansbourh and Thompson doesn't show at all and Lowry easily shots over Sessions.


0:48 in the third quarter. After another Jason Thompson missed jumper everyone runs back into the paint and doesn't pick up anyone on the Perimeter.


End of the third quarter, Lowry gets into the paint and three Kings follow. Rudy isn't really playing the passing lane or guarding anyone, Ross hits the three.


11:02 in the Fourth Quarter, another high pick and roll with Louis Williams and Hansbourgh and Cousins doesn't help at all. Louis use the pick goes right and drains the three.


6:35 in the Fourth Quarter, Lowry again gets in the paint and 3 Kings follow him and Collison tries to rotate over to Patterson, but it's the 17th three of the night for the Raptors.



So what conclusions can be drawn from this?

1. It appears to be a teamwide effort since everyone who played got burned at some point.
2. Our defensive scheme (if you can call it that) seems to be to pack the paint and dare people to shoot threes. Someone might want to let the Kings staff know it's the year 2015 not 1985.
3. We can't guard high pick and rolls, at all.
4. We allow physical guards to get into the paint and do whatever they want (See: Harden, James)
5. We don't communicate on Defense like we did to start the season.

How do we fix it?
At this point it has be a top-down culture change. Not even Ron Artest could fix this defense.

 

[pshn80]

Thanks for your good work. Enlightening for me. Sounds like a game plan for every team we face.

 

[k_dubb90]

It's obvious the players are just playing for a check now by how pathetic the defense has been

 

[Bricklayer]

Very nice. Where are the graphs generated from?

BTW, do they go all the way back? I swear that for some mysterious reason we changed how we were playing the pick and roll from when we were under Malone. Guys suddenly looked confused. Now they look like they may e actually following a wildly unsuccessful scheme, and apathetically.

 

['89 Kings Fan]

They're from stats.nba.com.

I was planning on doing our best defensive effort over the weekend.

 

[Ugolino]

Nice post. Damning evidence.

 

[dude12]

I wrote this in the Toronto post game grades but Cuz was saying that they don't have any defensive plays...just for the hell of it. Was a weird quote, maybe implying that they are trying some version of the Reno system. They may be wanting the opposition to take these 3's to create the up tempo pace on misses. Makes as much sense as anything in this mess.

 

[whozit]

I wrote this in the Toronto post game grades but Cuz was saying that they don't have any defensive plays...just for the hell of it. Was a weird quote, maybe implying that they are trying some version of the Reno system. They may be wanting the opposition to take these 3's to create the up tempo pace on misses. Makes as much sense as anything in this mess.

I may have misread the tweet when I read it on twitter, but I read it as 'we don't draw up defensive plays for the hell of it ......' I had read it as another quote of Cousin's saying the players need to execute. Whatever it is, players or system it sure ain't working. But it was ...................................................

 

[fansinceday1]

I wrote this in the Toronto post game grades but Cuz was saying that they don't have any defensive plays...just for the hell of it. Was a weird quote, maybe implying that they are trying some version of the Reno system. They may be wanting the opposition to take these 3's to create the up tempo pace on misses. Makes as much sense as anything in this mess.

backs up what Kayte Christensen has said. She said that she hasn't seen the coaches drawing up defensive plays.
It's so obvious that this coaching staff isn't pushing defense. It really is all about our offensive pace.

 

[dude12]

So those who are more familiar with the Reno system....is part of the system to encourage the open outside shot to increase pace of the game...I only watched part of one game and didnt pay attention to what the defensive system or lack of was. I know I've read where players have to change their thinking there and deprogrammed themselves of what they know in regards to defense. Is this what we are seeing?

 

[Spike]

Overall, it's designed to create "quick shots", so that we can go back and jack up quick shots. Genius, right?

Ugh, I sure hope that players aren't programming themselves to not play defense...

 

[k_dubb90]

Overall, it's designed to create "quick shots", so that we can go back and jack up quick shots. Genius, right?

Ugh, I sure hope that players aren't programming themselves to not play defense...

Didn't we already see this in the keith smart era?

 

[Spike]

Didn't we already see this in the keith smart era?

Yup.

 

[LPKingsFan]

Nice post. I don't have the time to digest it all right now, but wanted to say thanks for the effort. Look forward to some interesting discussion here.

 

[Chubbs]

So, is the plan to allow quick open 3's to increase the pace? I think that's what Reno does.

Klay may not be the only guy setting NBA records against this team as this season continues if we are really going to dare NBA players to beat us with open 3's.

 

[CurseOfTheSalmons]

I know it's fun, but it is kind of a waste to study the defense now since we know they're just going through the motions until the front office sorts itself out. Anyway, here are my thoughts on these plays.

Q1-10:08. Amir Johnson isn't known as a three point shooter, so it's okay to step away from him.

Q1-07:48. DeRozan isn't a three point shooter, so it's okay to leave him. Nobody should rotate to him either. He's still Gay's responsibility if the pass goes to him.

Q1-4:02. Raptors run a good play, but it looks like Lowry takes a long two. Maybe the defense could be executed better next time, but philosophy-wise, they have to be okay with long twos.

Q1-2:49. Cousins correctly stays in the paint. It's Ben's job to go over the screen and take the three point shot away.

Q1-1:19. Here's a genuine breakdown, but it happens in transition after a turnover, so I wouldn't be too mad about it. PPat is Carl's assignment, but he's in front of the ball helping to stop the drive, so there needs to be communication, and Cousins needs to leave DeRozan and Chuck Hayes and go cover PPat.

Q2-10:14. A defensive lapse. D-Will needs to discourage the three point shot, and he needs to be confident that if he gets beaten on a drive, JT will step over, Nik will sink and fill, and Sessions will get in position to contest passes to Vasquez or Lou.

Q2-8:57. This play is very tough to guard without switching. If we don't want Carl Landry guarding T-Ross, then we should take either Carl or JT out of the game and put someone in like Casspi, Quincy Miller, or Gay.

Q3-9:14. ???

Q3-6:36. Bad offense, I guess.

Q3-6:03. ???

Q3-3:24. Bad offense tends to lead to situations like this. I wouldn't really try to scapegoat Sessions here.

Q3-1:20. Like the play earlier with Cousins and Ben. JT should stay in the paint, and it's Sessions job to fight over the screen and prevent the three.

Q3-00:53. Bad offense and/or poor communication.

Q3-00:04. This one's on Stauskas, not Gay. Gay is supposed to be in the paint to prevent a Hansbrough layup. Nik is supposed to be just outside the paint between Lou Williams and T-Ross.

Q4-11:05. Cousins is correct not to leave the paint (although he looks a step too high here). It's Ben's job to force Lou to the left, away from the screen (to the sideline or the baseline).

Q4-6:39. Bad defense. Cousins should be where D-Will is, and D-Will should be at the perimeter guarding PPat. I wonder what the heck D-Will is doing where he is...

 

[kingsboi]

all those graphs make my head hurt..