Let's talk defense!

[Chris Parker]

I could be totally wrong, but I don't think this is necessarily because of Frye's defense... I wonder is it because of the offensive boost? I.E., with Frye on the court we make more buckets, and thus our opponents cannot attack in transition.

There is a good chance that some of that is Longabardi's (in)famous "best defense is a good offense"; also Frye is facing 2nd teams mostly and doesn't play crunch time.

Also there's always pure luck factor. In looking what's been going on with Tristan of late, noticed that before 2/1 team was allowing like 35% on 3s when on floor, since then team is allowing 41% when he's on the floor. Now we all know some of that is lazy rotations and penetration kick-out threes, which you know, aren't really Tristan's issue in most cases, but some of that is bad fortune. In the case of Frye, that new start of the 2nd Q bench unit has intermittently been pretty good, so he may benefit from the switch-ability of new lineup Lue's used with Derrick "Due" Bills/RJ/Korver/LBJ (and now Deron "overdue" Bills)

 

[Green Lantern]

I'm not going to try to explain it because I have no idea, but over the last 6 weeks (part of it is Love's absence, no doubt) Tristan has been a raging tire fire (114.6 pts/100 possessions) while Frye's been great defensively when paired with LeBron.

I get the offense numbers - Frye really spaces, but over the last 6 wks teams done MUCH better forcing midrange instead of 3s when Frye was on floor. For season, nearly half shots are 3s when Frye is on floor, but over last 6 wks that's been lower than 30%. Perhaps it's all the layups, but teams Layup FG% has also improved lately.

Could Frye be working a lot harder than it looks, but he's got the Mozgov dismissal-hate on him from his bad earlier defensive performance? I don't know, because I initially looked expecting Frye to be dogfood defensively.

Blame it on Khloe K, for whatever is up with TT..actually just blame it on all the Kardashians..we see what happens to any athlete who gets involved with one of those girls..

But I said it yesterday..dude is not playing like he has in the past..not withstanding his weaknesses..but I don't see him dominating the offensive glass like he used to.
The comment I saw earlier about why Lue made Frye ,Thompson's backup is simple..no other big man on the team, which was why I wanted them to go after several other players when that buy period came around.

But the whole team seems to have the mental thing that they will try to outscore their opponent instead of getting defensive stops.

 

[cavsfever]

What worries me about the "it's just effort, don't worry" explanation is that if it was just effort you would expect the team to occasionally turn it on and look sharp for a quarter or two on defense in important games. I feel like the only time I've seen that recently was the fourth quarter of the Lakers game, and there it was easy to turn it on because the Lakers suck. I would have expected to see some strong defense in the fourth quarter of e.g. the Houston and Boston games, very close and winnable games against good teams where defense could have pulled it out, but didn't.

 

[pinoycavsfan]

Agree.. If it was effort it would be fixable.. But the personnel along the defensive scheme has been incompatible.. Not enough defensive players and the defensive strategy does not help our defensive liable players..

 

[Rimage]

So we have the debate of "willing" vs "unable" going on. We'll assume that it is simply an unwillingness to play good defense for health and energy reason come playoff time.

However, Cavs have 13 games to go. Every team sport I've ever been involved, you know that habit is huge part of success. You can't think about everything thing you're doing out there and be good. So, is 13 games really enough to time for this team to develop good defensive habits come playoff time? We have Deron, Sanders and Korver who are basically brand new to the team, so nothing from last year carries over. Love and Smith might be able to get there because they are familiar with the rest of the personnel.

Unless the Cavs are planning on using the 1st, 2nd and maybe 3rd round to also get the defense in shape, your basically out of time to really get that half of the game tightened up to beat a team like the Warriors.

 

[fan0283]

Blame it on Khloe K, for whatever is up with TT..actually just blame it on all the Kardashians..we see what happens to any athlete who gets involved with one of those girls..

But I said it yesterday..dude is not playing like he has in the past..not withstanding his weaknesses..but I don't see him dominating the offensive glass like he used to.
The comment I saw earlier about why Lue made Frye ,Thompson's backup is simple..no other big man on the team, which was why I wanted them to go after several other players when that buy period came around.

But the whole team seems to have the mental thing that they will try to outscore their opponent instead of getting defensive stops.

TT gets noticeably better in the postseason. This time last season I also wondered if we paid 18m to a one hit wonder. Then the postseason came and he was back to his old self.

His main value is that his skillset actually gets better in the grind it out style of playoff games. Unlike roleplayers/6th men like JJ reddick, jamal Crawford and even our own JR smith who have shown inconsistency when defenses gameplan their contributions

 

[dark2332]

Wish I could just hit "simulate to postseason" on this bitch.

 

[Bob_The_Cat]

So we have the debate of "willing" vs "unable" going on. We'll assume that it is simply an unwillingness to play good defense for health and energy reason come playoff time.

However, Cavs have 13 games to go. Every team sport I've ever been involved, you know that habit is huge part of success. You can't think about everything thing you're doing out there and be good. So, is 13 games really enough to time for this team to develop good defensive habits come playoff time? We have Deron, Sanders and Korver who are basically brand new to the team, so nothing from last year carries over. Love and Smith might be able to get there because they are familiar with the rest of the personnel.

Unless the Cavs are planning on using the 1st, 2nd and maybe 3rd round to also get the defense in shape, your basically out of time to really get that half of the game tightened up to beat a team like the Warriors.

I just don't think they care about defense right now. Defense is about effort more than anything. It takes less effort to try and outscore teams than it does to buckle down and play hard-nosed defense game in and game out. Conserve your energy for when it actually matters.

For as much as people say not everyone can flip the switch like LeBron, I don't believe that so much. If this team goes as LeBron goes, you can't expect the defense to look very good when the defensive leader isn't trying that hard yet. Seems pretty simple to me. This team feeds off LeBron's energy. If he isn't putting that forth yet (along with the injuries) then the D is going to look really bad and inconsistent at times.

 

[LeShaq]

We've looked bad before, but the Wizards shooting 70% from the field with 1:30 left in the first half is ridiculous.

Gotta have some pride.

 

[Chris Parker]

How confident are you that the Cavs can stop the high pick and roll come playoff time? I mean they've shown no ability to do so during year...

 

[fan0283]

Finally got a chance to watch a Cavs game after 2 weeks. Is this what people have been complaining about? Cos so far it seems like we have some of the lowest basketball IQ on defense. I mean guys bumping into each other on close outs, switching off. Our opponents only need to swing the ball a few times to expose concentration errors.

Most annoying is we don't seem to have a single player who can provide any kind of interior resistance or toughness. If you get to our rim then you can be sure no one is going to make things harder. And please tell Love and TT the point of going vertical isn't to block the shot if you can at least disrupt the scorer's view of the rim. In the paint, Love never seems to jump for some reason. TT does but is poor with his timing

 

[Huber.]

The new sitting out is to give zero effort on defense.

 

[Gimme Some Mo]

How confident are you that the Cavs can stop the high pick and roll come playoff time? I mean they've shown no ability to do so during year...

ZERO confidence. Since Lue has taken over the defense has been a shitshow.

 

[LeShaq]

I was not worried before, but I'm worried now. Or, at least, concerned. It's probably still an effort thing (back to back tonight), but Washington just did anything they wanted to do.

Losing Bogut was a big blow.

With garbage perimeter defense, you need a rim protector to clean things up.

We don't have that now, and don't seem likely to have it for the playoffs with Sanders still way behind the curve.

 

[Dupp]

Why doesnt liggins play anymore? Because hes a one way player? Like 12 other guys on the team.