So uh.... Our Defense

[Larry89]

So what do you all think about our defense?

Kind of strange of how we went to the Offensive Juggernauts to somewhere inbetween but not-so-much of either to defensive monsters with a polar opposite of offense.

Sorta like a Heaven to the Spirit World , The Matrix type thing to Hell.

Or Bizzaro World, or the Twilight Zone, or some kind of interdimensional thing where you have an evil twin.

But anyways, Our defense looks amazingly good, Im surprised at how good Miller has been playing D and Rebound, Much better then last year, but his offense dissapeared. Weird. If only we get better ball movement and VALUE the ball, meaning be patient and not go pass-trigger crazy we could be a pretty good team.


Oh Yeah, Ron is rebounding pretty good, Not-A-Walmart-But-A-Kmart is stepping up, and Bibby is atleast contributing in some way....

 

[HighFlyingMonkey]

K-mart is KMoney now. Get with the times

And I wouldn't go jump overboard about our offense just yet. We had a ton of turnovers that just limits the flow that we can have. These turnovers could be attributed to the team still trying to mesh together or Bibby's injury (He had 11 Turnovers by himself!).

And also, Brad Miller opens up a lot more for our offense than people give him credit for. In the past two games, he couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, and so his man played off of him a lot, clogging the lane (I really hope he's doing something about his shot...). But once Brad is striking gold, you will see a LOT more things open up for us.

But give it time. As the team grows with eachother under the new style, you'll see better fluidity on the offensive end.

 

[Roman]

We're playing solid defense. Not amazing defense.

But, without Artest our defense wouldn't be half so impressive.

I'll wait to see how this defense continues as the season wears on and we become tired. Most of our guys are used to playing on one side of the ball. Defense is exhausting .... so we'll see if they can keep it up.

I'm going to expect the worst, but hope for the best.

Go Kings!

 

[ESP47]

Last years defense.....didnt they give up 100+ points a game until Artest showed up? I think they only gave up 93 after that.

 

[Amanjoy]

We're playing solid defense. Not amazing defense.

But, without Artest our defense wouldn't be half so impressive.

Neither would the Bulls' without Ben Wallace

 

[Bricklayer]

Neither would the Bulls' without Ben Wallace

Actually that's obviously not ture given that they led the league in FG% last year without him. But its also largely a moot point since we in fact have Artest. It is largely a one man show though. Perhaps almost unique in that most good defensive teams have multiple top defenders.

 

[Amanjoy]

Actually that's obviously not ture given that they led the league in FG% last year without him. But its also largely a moot point since we in fact have Artest. It is largely a one man show though. Perhaps almost unique in that most good defensive teams have multiple top defenders.

I wouldn't say that the Detorit Pistons have a bunch of all-stars on D. Granted, they're not bad, but I would say that their whole defense revolved around Big Ben. Their first game without him saw them give up 105 pts on their home floor! Granted they only gave up 88 to the Celtics, but Boston did shoot 45% from the floor. Last year, to shoot 45% against the Pistons with Big Ben was an achievement. Through 2 games, it is appearing to be commonplace as the Bucks shot 46%. I think this season, we'll realize that the Pistons, although contenders, are a lot more vulnerable defensively without Big Ben, and his supporting cast really aren't as good as we might think, because their scheme revolved around Wallace in the middle.

 

[HndsmCelt]

Actually that's obviously not ture given that they led the league in FG% last year without him. But its also largely a moot point since we in fact have Artest. It is largely a one man show though. Perhaps almost unique in that most good defensive teams have multiple top defenders.

Not sure I agree with you there. Sure Ron is the man on D, but between his influence and Muss's emphisis virtually every player is better on D than in the past. Even Bibby and Miller are out there working their man (at least to the best of their ablities) Kevin, Ronnie Price, Salmons and Garcia are CLEARLY ocused on stopping their man to the point that their offense is out of sync (Im not worried about this). Kings D kept them in both games so far, and while I'll gladly give Artest the lion's share of cretit there is enough to go arround.

 

[Bricklayer]

I wouldn't say that the Detorit Pistons have a bunch of all-stars on D.

Er...? Sheed, Tayshaun, and to a lesser degree Billups are all likely Top 5 at their position, and certainly Top 10.

But of course a couple of things: 1) the coach and system stress open court play now, and that means the other team gets open court play too. 2) minus Ben they can no longer rebound, so over the course of the year I would expect them to give up a ton of 2nd and 3rd chance points.

Saying Ben is not the reason for the Bulls prowess is just a simple factual observation -- the Bulls were a top defensive team last year without him. Its not a cut on Ben. Fact is that Skiles is a classic walk it up up, grind it down, type coach right now. Take the air out of the ball and just grind teams into the dirt, witj or without Ben. But you can see the danger to that ugly tactic -- every once in a while, like tonight, it will work, you will be grinding your opponent into the dust, and yet you will make a couple of mistakes and still end up losing because you are strangling your own offense at the dsame time your are strangling the other guys and you can't get separation no matter how ugly you make them play. One of the reasons I think there is still a cap on Chicago's high end this year -- still do not have either an offensive system, or better yet a true offensive star to carry them and get them over the top.

 

[Bricklayer]

Not sure I agree with you there. Sure Ron is the man on D, but between his influence and Muss's emphisis virtually every player is better on D than in the past. Even Bibby and Miller are out there working their man (at least to the best of their ablities) Kevin, Ronnie Price, Salmons and Garcia are CLEARLY ocused on stopping their man to the point that their offense is out of sync (Im not worried about this). Kings D kept them in both games so far, and while I'll gladly give Artest the lion's share of cretit there is enough to go arround.

Salmons, Price and Garcia played maybe 15 minutes combined. They are not significant factors right now.

And after such explicit examples in Kingsland over the past few years I would hope that everyone would have realized just how absolutely critical on court leadership is at this point, on EITHER side of the floor. Without Ron there to lead and inspire, the house of cards falls. Of course even if he was hurt, I think we would carry on for a while just out of habit, and Ron cheering from the sideline would keep us resposnible. But just take him away -- for the season, in a suspension, in a trade, as a free agent, and it wouldn't take too long for the true colors to start seeping back out. Same way losing our great passing leaders changed the whole spirit of our offense. Tonesetters can inspire everybody to adopt their particualr focus. Like Rick did wiht the latter day offense, I suspect Muss could keep the defense from becoming a debacle, but take awya the leader, and its just not nearly the same. None of our top players are instinctual defenders.

 

[LPKingsFan]

One of the reasons I think there is still a cap on Chicago's high end this year -- still do not have either an offensive system, or better yet a true offensive star to carry them and get them over the top.

Which is why, as the Bulls are my favorite team in the East, I'm such an advocate for a Deng/Gordon/Brown for Iverson deal

 

[HighFlyingMonkey]

Of course without Ron we aren't as good a defensive team. He is easily our best defender out there as well as the staple for our defense. But to say the Kings didn't play good defense as a team yesterday is ludicrous.

 

[Bricklayer]

Of course without Ron we aren't as good a defensive team. He is easily our best defender out there as well as the staple for our defense. But to say the Kings didn't play good defense as a team yesterday is ludicrous.

But to say they would have played as good a defense as a team if Ron had been traded in September is equally ludicrous. He powers the defense, and they feed off his intensity over there. Take him away on a permanent or semi-permanent basis, and the house of cards likely falls.

 

[Jechtsphere]

One good defensive player doesn't make team defense, the kings as a team are displaying team defense, they are playing very good team defense these past two games and ron is doing what he does.

 

[HighFlyingMonkey]

But to say they would have played as good a defense as a team if Ron had been traded in September is equally ludicrous. He powers the defense, and they feed off his intensity over there. Take him away on a permanent or semi-permanent basis, and the house of cards likely falls.

I admitted this. But to say he does all of the work on defense is ludicrous.

 

[Roman]

I admitted this. But to say he does all of the work on defense is ludicrous.

No, we all worked, but he was all over. He covers other's mistakes. He lets Martin overplay the passing lanes because Martin knows Artest has his back.

You take away Artest and the same lack of trust that permeates our offense will seep through our defense.

 

[SacTownKid]

But to say they would have played as good a defense as a team if Ron had been traded in September is equally ludicrous. He powers the defense, and they feed off his intensity over there. Take him away on a permanent or semi-permanent basis, and the house of cards likely falls.

While somewhat valid, you are really underrating how hard these guys are working right now. I have NEVER seen these guys put out that much effort on the defensive side of the ball. Ron is a huge part and a leader in that area for sure, but this team is playing very good team defense first and foremost.

 

[uolj]

I have NEVER seen these guys put out that much effort on the defensive side of the ball.

This actually reminds me of a time in January of 2003, when Bibby was on the team, and they were playing team defense like this, flying all over the court switching and covering. It happened that whole season, but I remember really noticing it that January when I finally realized the Kings might be a good defensive team.

I was worried then that all that effort spent running around would tire the guys out for the end of the game, and I had the same worry last night. However, things turned out alright in 2003 so I am really optimistic that they will be able to keep up the general gist of this team defense concept throughout the year. I'm not saying they will be as good as that 2003 team on defense, but I think they will be able to maintain similar effort.

 

[nbrans]

This actually reminds me of a time in January of 2003, when Bibby was on the team, and they were playing team defense like this, flying all over the court switching and covering. It happened that whole season, but I remember really noticing it that January when I finally realized the Kings might be a good defensive team.

I was worried then that all that effort spent running around would tire the guys out for the end of the game, and I had the same worry last night. However, things turned out alright in 2003 so I am really optimistic that they will be able to keep up the general gist of this team defense concept throughout the year. I'm not saying they will be as good as that 2003 team on defense, but I think they will be able to maintain similar effort.

Well, unfortunately there are some major differences between this team and 2003, not least of which is that back then the Kings had a deep bench that played real minutes. Musselman cannot expect that this team can play as hard as it is playing and have the starters playing this many minutes and think they're going to have much left in the tank at the end of the season.

 

[SacTownKid]

The bench will have to be developed, but the main concern is that the starters do to. And that's a little higher on the list right now.