Our team Defense has gotten embarrassing.

[HereWeBoogie]

so we have now given up Career highs to opposing players 3 games in a row!!!! that has to be a record. terrible. first Chalmers, then Waiters, then Beal. pretty embarrassing



so lets look at the last few games. we won the game, but gave up 118 points to the Cleveland cavaliers. not good!

tonight we didnt give up ALOT of points. but the Wizards got WAY to many wide open 3s and easy baskets at the rim.

before that we gave up a season high 128 points to Miami

before that 117 points to Dallas, yes it was OT, but still thats a lot for Dallas

before that 113 to Memphis in a blowout loss. oh and i think another Career high, this time for Ellington. so thats 4 out of the last 5 games. yikes.

and before that 113 to Brooklyn........


Basically they better get their crap together on Defense and quit leaving good 3pt shooters wide open. if this doesnt change were not gonna win very many games the rest of the year, its not every day you get 2 easy games in your schedule like home games against Cleveland and Washington

 

[Hadlowe]

so we have now given up Career highs to opposing players 3 games in a row!!!! that has to be a record. terrible. first Chalmers, then Waiters, then Beal. pretty embarrassing



so lets look at the last few games. we won the game, but gave up 118 points to the Cleveland cavaliers. not good!

tonight we didnt give up ALOT of points. but the Wizards got WAY to many wide open 3s and easy baskets at the rim.

before that we gave up a season high 128 points to Miami

before that 117 points to Dallas, yes it was OT, but still thats a lot for Dallas

before that 113 to Memphis in a blowout loss. oh and i think another Career high, this time for Ellington. so thats 4 out of the last 5 games. yikes.

and before that 113 to Brooklyn........


Basically they better get their crap together on Defense and quit leaving good 3pt shooters wide open. if this doesnt change were not gonna win very many games the rest of the year, its not every day you get 2 easy games in your schedule like home games against Cleveland and Washington

Minor quibble, but . . .

Giving up a career high to Beal in his 3rd month of his rookie year is no big deal. Chalmers was a combination of out of character good shooting from him and pee-poor defense from our point guards. Waiters? Yeah. I got nothing there.

 

[Kingster]

so we have now given up Career highs to opposing players 3 games in a row!!!! that has to be a record. terrible. first Chalmers, then Waiters, then Beal. pretty embarrassing



so lets look at the last few games. we won the game, but gave up 118 points to the Cleveland cavaliers. not good!

tonight we didnt give up ALOT of points. but the Wizards got WAY to many wide open 3s and easy baskets at the rim.

before that we gave up a season high 128 points to Miami

before that 117 points to Dallas, yes it was OT, but still thats a lot for Dallas

before that 113 to Memphis in a blowout loss. oh and i think another Career high, this time for Ellington. so thats 4 out of the last 5 games. yikes.

and before that 113 to Brooklyn........


Basically they better get their crap together on Defense and quit leaving good 3pt shooters wide open. if this doesnt change were not gonna win very many games the rest of the year, its not every day you get 2 easy games in your schedule like home games against Cleveland and Washington

Couldn't agree more. The switching defense in the Wizards game was aweful. Seems like they forgot how to communicate on the floor. Smart spends tons of time on defense in the preseason and in practice and now it's like this team doesn't know the meaning of the word. It is especially odd in the last few games when you get your best individual defender in Tyreke back from injury. I thought Cousins was particularly lazy in the Washington game. Not going after a ball on the floor about three feet away was symbolic of his play.

The fact that Johnson has not been playing much lately seems to be a factor in all of this; he does seem to be the toughest interior defender and he does take defense seriously. But it is by no means the only reason why the entire defense has been so pitiful.

The rubber is going to meet the road when the Kings play tougher teams. If they play like this against the Grizzlies they are going to get blown out.

 

[mac]

Couldn't agree more. The switching defense in the Wizards game was aweful. Seems like they forgot how to communicate on the floor. Smart spends tons of time on defense in the preseason and in practice and now it's like this team doesn't know the meaning of the word. It is especially odd in the last few games when you get your best individual defender in Tyreke back from injury. I thought Cousins was particularly lazy in the Washington game. Not going after a ball on the floor about three feet away was symbolic of his play.

The fact that Johnson has not been playing much lately seems to be a factor in all of this; he does seem to be the toughest interior defender and he does take defense seriously. But it is by no means the only reason why the entire defense has been so pitiful.

The rubber is going to meet the road when the Kings play tougher teams. If they play like this against the Grizzlies they are going to get blown out.

It really seems like a communication issue to me. We actually rotate pretty well for about 18 seconds but then someone always fails to rotate to the 3 point shooter on the weak side when the ball is swung. Tyreke was getting caught on a lot of screens earlier on in the Wizards game, causing us to have to switch a lot more. But in the second half of the game they iced the pick and roll more, and our defense was a lot better overall with Chuck coming out to help and then rotating back in. Coaches should address issue of Tyreke helping off his man to prevent interior penetration. Either tell him to stick to his man or make sure that others are ready to rotate if he goes to help.

 

[Bricklayer]

It really seems like a communication issue to me. We actually rotate pretty well for about 18 seconds but then someone always fails to rotate to the 3 point shooter on the weak side when the ball is swung. Tyreke was getting caught on a lot of screens earlier on in the Wizards game, causing us to have to switch a lot more. But in the second half of the game they iced the pick and roll more, and our defense was a lot better overall with Chuck coming out to help and then rotating back in. Coaches should address issue of Tyreke helping off his man to prevent interior penetration. Either tell him to stick to his man or make sure that others are ready to rotate if he goes to help.

A lot of that is a scheme thing -- when I rewatched the first half of this one I watched it defensively, not offensively, and a couple of things were clear.

1) we were going to have our bigs show on EVERY pick up top. And the Wiz knew it.

2) when the guy the big was guarding then rolled to the hoop, whichever wing was on that side of the court had respnsibilities to dive into the paint to cover the rolling big until our own showing big could get back and recover

3) thing is that means that whoever the wing was covering is now able to spot up freely along the angle to the corner three, and our wing either has to abandon the bgi he is covering and risk the easy interior pass/layup. Or he has to just try to recover late the best he can if the pass goes to his opponent in the corner. Its a damned if you do damned if you don't scheme. We could obviously run it better, MUCH better, but only occasionally is our wing just drifting off those shooters through inattention.

 

[Kingster]

A lot of that is a scheme thing -- when I rewatched the first half of this one I watched it defensively, not offensively, and a couple of things were clear.

1) we were going to have our bigs show on EVERY pick up top. And the Wiz knew it.

2) when the guy the big was guarding then rolled to the hoop, whichever wing was on that side of the court had respnsibilities to dive into the paint to cover the rolling big until our own showing big could get back and recover

3) thing is that means that whoever the wing was covering is now able to spot up freely along the angle to the corner three, and our wing either has to abandon the bgi he is covering and risk the easy interior pass/layup. Or he has to just try to recover late the best he can if the pass goes to his opponent in the corner. Its a damned if you do damned if you don't scheme. We could obviously run it better, MUCH better, but only occasionally is our wing just drifting off those shooters through inattention.

Isn't there supposed to be a guy covering for the wing that is covering the big man? I think that is what mac is referring to above. I'm no defense expert by any means, but I've always been shown that the guy who is helping out should also be helped out by another guy. That's where the communication comes in.

Thanks to you and mac for the additional analysis. Hopefully, they start to get it figured out soon!

 

[ppine]

This thread gets to the crux of the Kings' problems. It is not about coaching, rotations, substituting or anything else as much as it is about defense and rebounding. The other thing is moving without the ball on offense. The Kings love to stand around even more than many high school teams.

 

[Bricklayer]

Isn't there supposed to be a guy covering for the wing that is covering the big man? I think that is what mac is referring to above. I'm no defense expert by any means, but I've always been shown that the guy who is helping out should also be helped out by another guy. That's where the communication comes in.

Thanks to you and mac for the additional analysis. Hopefully, they start to get it figured out soon!

Oh definitely. That was one of the things I was tryign to figure out. Thing is I have no idea how it could work.

Basically if you set a pick on IT at the top of the key, and either JT or Cuz steps up hard to show on it. Then either Reke or Salmons has to dive back in the paint behind them to prevent Nene or Serpahin or whoever the guy who set the pick was from getting a free run. Then that leaves their guy wide open out on the wing. IT is still up top along with Cuz doubling the ballhandler...well how is that going to work? As soon as the ballhandler passes Reke or Salmons can only cover one of the two options. No way IT can make it all the way into the corner to stop it, and even if he did he's too short to bother a 6'7" shooter.

My only conclusion is that we weren't running it right. When I rewatched the difference was I could clearly see what we intended to do. But it was jsut getting carved up and nobody looked 100% sure of themselves.

 

[IfAt1st]

The Kings' bigs were showing on every PnR against the Cavs, too - WAY out there.
For some weird reason, it confused the Cavs tremendously, and they seldom took advantage of the overplay.

Apparently, the Wizards did take advantage and now, it's a team defense problem...?

Further proof to me that Smart has absolutely no clue of how to coach - why would he have the team run their defense the same way against all teams?
Hate to break it to him, but basketball is not that easy - you have to adjust to the team and even to the personnel that is on the floor at that exact time.

 

[gunks]

The Kings' bigs were showing on every PnR against the Cavs, too - WAY out there.
For some weird reason, it confused the Cavs tremendously, and they seldom took advantage of the overplay.

Apparently, the Wizards did take advantage and now, it's a team defense problem...?

Further proof to me that Smart has absolutely no clue of how to coach - why would he have the team run their defense the same way against all teams?
Hate to break it to him, but basketball is not that easy - you have to adjust to the team and even to the personnel that is on the floor at that exact time.

On the plus side, its so blatently obvious what a horrendous coach Smart is, that the new owners (whoever they may be) are going to can his *** first thing.

This is gonna be the last season of Smart. Let the carousel continue!! Oh wait, we wont have the Maloofs either..Bring on Sloan!

 

[pshn80]

so we have now given up Career highs to opposing players 3 games in a row!!!! that has to be a record. terrible. first Chalmers, then Waiters, then Beal. pretty embarrassing



so lets look at the last few games. we won the game, but gave up 118 points to the Cleveland cavaliers. not good!

tonight we didnt give up ALOT of points. but the Wizards got WAY to many wide open 3s and easy baskets at the rim.

before that we gave up a season high 128 points to Miami

before that 117 points to Dallas, yes it was OT, but still thats a lot for Dallas

before that 113 to Memphis in a blowout loss. oh and i think another Career high, this time for Ellington. so thats 4 out of the last 5 games. yikes.

and before that 113 to Brooklyn........


Basically they better get their crap together on Defense and quit leaving good 3pt shooters wide open. if this doesnt change were not gonna win very many games the rest of the year, its not every day you get 2 easy games in your schedule like home games against Cleveland and Washington

We won and I wasn't embarrassed at all.

 

[CruzDude]

This thread gets to the crux of the Kings' problems. It is not about coaching, rotations, substituting or anything else as much as it is about defense and rebounding. The other thing is moving without the ball on offense. The Kings love to stand around even more than many high school teams.

Carrying this a step farther, it is about rotating on defense as mentioned above. Their first rotation works most of the time. It is the weak side 2nd level rotation/covering open shooters that tends to break down. This also includes pick and rolls. One big staying with another big starting a PnR is tough enough. But worse when no weak side help rotates to defend the rolling big. A difficult process to learn just as learning to cover the passing lanes. This is not coaching as mmuch as it is basketball IQ. The instincts on defense, and on offense. Some have one, some the other but rarely both.

Tyreke has better instincts on def than offense. Salmons has better offensive instincts IMHO. But it is the 3-4-5 spots that have to protect the paint. Sometimes they do many times not. Gets back to having the right mix of players which the Kings do not at this point. Playing better and more consistent defense can cover that issue if you can score against any team. I think Smart has done a really good coaching job in view of the "wrong mix" he was handed.

One help on the near horizon to standing around is TRob. He never stands or stays still and is in the mix within 8 ft of the basket on every play.

 

[pshn80]

After my post above I read the analysis of Mac and brick and the rest. Very interesting and informative for me. Thanks. Much more useful than saying it's great or it sucks.

 

[ESP47]

It really seems like a communication issue to me. We actually rotate pretty well for about 18 seconds but then someone always fails to rotate to the 3 point shooter on the weak side when the ball is swung. Tyreke was getting caught on a lot of screens earlier on in the Wizards game, causing us to have to switch a lot more. But in the second half of the game they iced the pick and roll more, and our defense was a lot better overall with Chuck coming out to help and then rotating back in. Coaches should address issue of Tyreke helping off his man to prevent interior penetration. Either tell him to stick to his man or make sure that others are ready to rotate if he goes to help.

Salmons is weak at help defending on the pick n rolls. He's good at defending a man that's trying to take him 1 on 1 but he's soft for a SF (obviously considering he's a natural SG). Johnson is 100x better at help defense. He can come in and legitimately guard a PF who has the ball in the post. Salmons has no chance other than making a steal. Only problem is Johnson is 110x worse on offense so even with the bad D, it makes more sense to have Salmons in there.

I think the players are coached (badly) to help off their man to prevent interior penetration. I mean every team does this but our team takes it wayyyy too far. It's not only Tyreke....Thornton, Jimmer and Brooks do this as well. They just sag off their man for no apparent reason. It might help at getting a steal or two a game but it's not worth it if the team gets the other team half a dozen wide open 3 point looks. At almost any point, the other team could make a cross court pass for a wide open 3 if they were aware of it.

 

[ppine]

I like CruzDude's post. He understands basketball better than most people.

At times like this I miss Samuel Dalembert because he could rebound and play defense. Why has J Thompson disappeared? He had a long streak of good games for awhile. It must be harder to play in the NBA than any of us realize.