Tristan Thompson

[FrontPageNews]

TT's ability to switch as a five is the reason Curry was largely pedestrian. That changes with a traditional five.

But what happens when KD comes driving to the basket at him? The whole dynamic of the Warriors has changed. It's not switching out on curry we're worried about. It's KD slicing up our interior.

 

[Jscc]

It's not switching out on curry we're worried about. It's KD slicing up our interior.

You should be. Let Durant gunk Golden State's offense up. That means Curry is getting fewer shots and Green is getting fewer possessions as play-maker.

 

[Sir'Dom Pointer]

TT's ability to switch as a five is the reason Curry was largely pedestrian. That changes with a traditional five.

No, it wasn't.. how many times was he switched on Curry? Neutralizing Curry was largely a team defense effort, trapping, rotations and gambling on defense and hope Barnes missed his shot.
TT is a great on ball defender but it wasn't the reason Curry was bad.

 

[fan0283]

You should be. Let Durant gunk Golden State's offense up. That means Curry is getting fewer shots and Green is getting fewer possessions as play-maker.

Durant taking those shots might prove a better alternative to either of those things. If he does it efficiently them you can't say he's gunking their offense. Warriors certainly seem to be finding their way. Plus they actually have more length and athleticism on D. I don't even think Love sees the floor much against the Warriors

Anyway let's leave TT be. Happens every regular season where we put him down and then the playoffs roll through where he consistently runs a one man gangbang on other teams frontcourts

 

[buzzdog]

Durant taking those shots might prove a better alternative to either of those things. If he does it efficiently them you can't say he's gunking their offense. Warriors certainly seem to be finding their way. Plus they actually have more length and athleticism on D. I don't even think Love sees the floor much against the Warriors

Anyway let's leave TT be. Happens every regular season where we put him down and then the playoffs roll through where he consistently runs a one man gangbang on other teams frontcourts

You're crazy if you think Love won't see the floor much against the Warriors. Talk about something that happens every season, undervaluing Love is #1 on that list.

 

[Jon]

No, it wasn't.. how many times did he was switched on Curry? Neutralizing Curry was largely a team defense effort, trapping, rotations and gambling on defense and hope Barnes missed his shot.
TT is a great on ball defender but it wasn't the reason Curry was bad.

There actually were a lot of possessions where TT ended up on Steph and they mostly went TT's way in the finals. But TT is not a suffocating defender, he's more of a contester, so I'm afraid that was as much on Steph as on Tristan.

 

[fan0283]

You're crazy if you think Love won't see the floor much against the Warriors. Talk about something that happens every season, undervaluing Love is #1 on that list.

Just an opinion. I dony have a crystal ball or anything. I've come around big to Love this season but Durant just changes the GS dynamic. I think we're going to end up trotting lineups heavy on capable wing defenders to beat them.

Let me ask your opinion in turn. With a switching defence how do you think we will contain the threat of Curry/klay/durant/green with Love on the floor? He has improved his lateral quickness but still doesn't go up vertical while defending the rim.

 

[Jscc]

No, it wasn't.. how many times was he switched on Curry? Neutralizing Curry was largely a team defense effort, trapping, rotations and gambling on defense and hope Barnes missed his shot.
TT is a great on ball defender but it wasn't the reason Curry was bad.

Way to downplay TT's phenomenal performance. Up until game 7, Curry was 0-11 when TT contested him, Curry was a -24 with Thompson on the court and a +20 with Thompson off the court, and ended the series shooting 35 percent when TT either switched onto Curry or defended him at the rim.

 

[BimboColesHair]

Way to downplay TT's phenomenal performance. Up until game 7, Curry was 0-11 when TT switched onto him, Curry was a -24 with Thompson on the court and a +20 with Thompson off the court, and ended the series shooting 35 percent when TT either switched onto Curry or defended him at the rim.

Yeah...not sure how anyone can downplay Tristan's defensive impact in the Finals...

Any PnR that involved him in the play ended up with him switched on to Curry, and most of the time ended up with him passing the ball since he couldn't find a shot against him...only time we didn't switch with Tristan was when he was on Green and he pressed and recovered. And when he shot the ball on Tristan, it didn't go in. Was that all Tristan? No, some of it was because the team did a good job of wearing Curry down on the other end that he wasn't his best on the offensive end, but you can't say he did nothing to help slow him down on PnRs.

Also, any time they tried to run Curry or Klay off of screens off of the ball that involved his man setting the screen (which is a HUGE part of GS's offensive system), he jumped the screen and guarded the perimeter instead of forcing our guards or wings through multiple screens while chasing their shooters.

Just saying we stopped Curry because of pure effort/trapping is a bit disingenuous as to what really happened in that series.

I've watched that series over and over again way too many times (a lot as a fan, a lot to look at how we turned the series on its head). The Cavs can thank Tristan for a lot of their defensive success vs GS, both last year and the year before that, because he is one of the rare bigs who won't get burnt by Curry on a switch on the perimeter, which allows us to stick with their motion off of the ball and limit their clean looks and ball movement, which is what has made GS so good the last few seasons, especially in the regular season.

 

[Chris Parker]

, which allows us to stick with their motion off of the ball and limit their clean looks and ball movement, which is what has made GS so good the last few seasons, especially in the regular season.

interesting side point -- wasn't the turning point of the series when the team STOPPED switching everything off the ball? It seems that was causing massive confusion, and when the team made an effort to stay on the off-the-ball guys the situation changed. (They were switching too easily, for one thing.)

I am, admittedly oversimplifying to coverage because there seemed to be certain situations they did switch off the ball, but by and large I thought one of the big keys was when they stopped. But I defer to you, you've probably watched even more than I did.....

 

[BimboColesHair]

interesting side point -- wasn't the turning point of the series when the team STOPPED switching everything off the ball? It seems that was causing massive confusion, and when the team made an effort to stay on the off-the-ball guys the situation changed. (They were switching too easily, for one thing.)

I am, admittedly oversimplifying to coverage because there seemed to be certain situations they did switch off the ball, but by and large I thought one of the big keys was when they stopped. But I defer to you, you've probably watched even more than I did.....

Yeah...that's what I mean by having TT switch in the PnR and us being able to not worry about him getting torched by a guard, or jumping out to the perimeter to defend on off ball screens...doing that allows you to play straight up on the other 3 or 4 out of the action, or "stick with their motion off the ball"...what makes GS so special is the consistent off ball movement to get open or wide open looks from their players by forcing you to just pay attention to Curry and Green or whoever is in the action with the ball, so you kind of lose track of Thompson, or Barbosa, or Barnes, or Speights, etc....by having a big you don't have to worry about when covering guys on the perimeter, you can just play those guys straight up and limit their clean looks.

Only problem for the rest of the NBA is there aren't many bigs as good at that as Tristan is in the league. Why I think GS has never looked like their normal dominant self, offensively, in any series vs the Cavs yet, even though I don't consider the Cavs a good defensive team by any means and you take into consideration some of our health problems in 6 of those games. I mean, we have a sample size of 13 games the last 2 summers, and to this point they average 100.2 points per game vs us. They've averaged 107.8 in their 32 other playoff games over that same time period. Cavs are doing something right vs them, and I think Tristan is a big reason for that.

And yeah, we did it in the first 4 games too, but we would scramble and rotate on the backside to get Kyrie or whoever was guarding the ball-handler in the PnR off the bigger player, but eventually just said fuck it and played straight up and dared their bigs setting the screen to beat us...they didn't, though Draymond tried in game 7.

Big thing is, if we see them for a 3rd straight year, I'm not so sure we can do that with Durant in Barnes' spot...LeBron, not Tristan, will be the defensive key in the next series vs GS, should we even see them. I have a feeling they will try to do the same thing we did to them if they see us, and go heavy with the small/small PnR with Durant and Curry.

 

[Chris Parker]

LeBron, not Tristan, will be the defensive key in the next series vs GS, should we even see them. I have a feeling they will try to do the same thing we did to them if they see us, and go heavy with the small/small PnR with Durant and Curry.

I believe both of these things are spot-on. You'll note that they had so much trouble with TT and in the circumstances you mention with their bigs that they just started doing small/small PnRs and Durant will cause problems with that because he has a lot more variety to his game than Klay Thompson.

 

[BimboColesHair]

I believe both of these things are spot-on. You'll note that they had so much trouble with TT and in the circumstances you mention with their bigs that they just started doing small/small PnRs and Durant will cause problems with that because he has a lot more variety to his game than Klay Thompson.

The big problem with their small/small PnR package with Klay in the past is he isn't much of a threat to take you down low or attack the basket. Like he'll post up in the mid-range, but that isn't beneficial in their offensive system, and most of the time he would pop out behind the arc and go away from the basket. If he ever went to the basket, it appeared to be more of a show cut to get someone else a look. So it allows you to keep someone like Kyrie or a smaller defender on him.

Durant, well, he is a threat to do both of those things in a PnR with Kyrie or another guard switched onto him...means we will have to find another way to defend their non-Draymond small/small PnR package.

I think the Cavs solve that by either starting Shumpert in a series vs GS, or playing him a ton of minutes, and telling him to guard Curry, while sticking Kyrie on Klay almost full time. If they want to force mid-post post-ups to Klay with the perceived mismatch with Kyrie, I will say go right ahead...

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

interesting side point -- wasn't the turning point of the series when the team STOPPED switching everything off the ball? It seems that was causing massive confusion, and when the team made an effort to stay on the off-the-ball guys the situation changed. (They were switching too easily, for one thing.)

I am, admittedly oversimplifying to coverage because there seemed to be certain situations they did switch off the ball, but by and large I thought one of the big keys was when they stopped. But I defer to you, you've probably watched even more than I did.....

Wasn't that partly a function of Bogut going down? As long as he was in the lineup, he created a size/strength mismatch that simply required switching. And, his ability to set those picks also made switching more of a necessity.

When he went down, though, the picks weren't as bad, and we at least equivalent in terms of strength/size at most positions.

 

[Andrew]

Congrats to TT on becoming a new father!

http://www.etonline.com/news/205498...d_tristan_thompson_welcomes_baby_boy_with_ex/