Lakers Defense - Fixable?

I think it's about time to devote a new topic about our piss poor defense.

How the hell can we improve this thing?

Forgot the stat but DEN had around 60 pts in the paint. 60. Over half of there buckets were easy ones. I think the major problem is our perimeter defense. Opponent guards and forwards are getting into the paint at will. Is this our philosophy? To funnel everything to D12? I freaking hope not because it clearly isn't working.

The Lakers shot a better % from the field, had more rebounds, and hit more free throws than the Nuggets. Still lost.

UGH

We were decent last year, what the hell happened?

De..fense? That's my impression of Mike 'Antoni. How do we fix it, stop turning the damn ball over so much for one. Other than that yes too much reliance on Dwight, Nash is indeed old and slow there, Kobe roams, Pau is a ghost or a wuss, I'm not sure of the solution.

borri wrote:How the hell can we improve this thing?

1) Energy. Energy. Energy.

2) Repetition. Repetition. Repetition.

3) Accountability. Accountability. Accountability.

Number 1 is being hampered because we're old. Number 2 is a problem since we've focused so much on offense in training camp with the Princeton. Then D'Antoni comes over and trying implement his offense. Defense isn't being practiced, habits aren't being hammered in through repetition. Number 3 is because we have too many "nice guys" who don't hold each other accountable and a head coach who is clueless about who screwed up the rotation.

i typed a longer response, but the short version is personnel. i know it doesn't sound insightful, but outside of howard, the lakers are slow. teams capitalize on that, both by getting in transition and by penetrating and dishing, forcing guys to move their feet.

yes, a coach that cared about that end would help, but for all mike brown is (or isn't), he could coach d. and he couldn't make this team into a top defense, either.

Is the Middle East fixable?

I don't think it's all his fault, but I would begin fixing this D by replacing John Ratzenberger as head coach.

revgen wrote:

borri wrote:How the hell can we improve this thing?

1) Energy. Energy. Energy.

2) Repetition. Repetition. Repetition.

3) Accountability. Accountability. Accountability.

Number 1 is being hampered because we're old. Number 2 is a problem since we've focused so much on offense in training camp with the Princeton. Then D'Antoni comes over and trying implement his offense. Defense isn't being practiced, habits aren't being hammered in through repetition. Number 3 is because we have too many "nice guys" who don't hold each other accountable and a head coach who is clueless about who screwed up the rotation.

so basic short answer is NO, its not fixable

Has nothing to do with having too many nice guys.

I think the fact we have no chemistry is a big part, because these guys never talk on defense. I see guys with no idea that someone is coming around the back to poke the ball away... why aren't they talking?

First off, stop running the wrong system. The more we push and try to jack up shots, the more we play into the youth and athleticism of younger teams. The front office screwed up by hiring Datoni.

Second, as long as we have Kobe and Nash as our starting backcourt, we will always have issues. And while Metta is still a good defender, he can't run the floor for squat to get back.

It'a just all wrong. The system doesn't even give our d a chance and i can't believe the system we are running when we should be a half court, slow the game down team and feature our bigs.

dj vitus wrote:Is the Middle East fixable?

More fixable than our team at this point.

I don't think we have the personnel. We need more quality defenders. Dwight at 80% won't be enough. MDA isn't going to coach D, so we need players that are already good defenders, and will D it up no matter what.

if we fix dribble penetration, 80% of our defensive issues go away or are erased by dwight.

dwight doesnt get it ridiculous foul trouble, kobe doesn't always have to cheat. rotations don't need as many moving parts, etc.

I mean this isn't rocket science. We have an old and slow team with great bigs. Common sense dictates you slow the game down to limit the opportunities for opponents to run on us. Save our legs and dictate our size on opponenets. But what do we do? I mean i almost swear if this is the twilight zone. Our system doesn't evengive our guys a chance. They have to play great ball just to be in games because the opposition is getting so many easy points while we have to grind to get ours because we struggle to manufacture easy baskets due to our lack of athleticism.

Pig Miller wrote:if we fix dribble penetration, 80% of our defensive issues go away or are erased by dwight.

dwight doesnt get it ridiculous foul trouble, kobe doesn't always have to cheat. rotations don't need as many moving parts, etc.

Yeah but if we prevent the other team from scoring at all, 100% of our issues go away.

To put it simple, no.

JGC wrote:

Pig Miller wrote:if we fix dribble penetration, 80% of our defensive issues go away or are erased by dwight.

dwight doesnt get it ridiculous foul trouble, kobe doesn't always have to cheat. rotations don't need as many moving parts, etc.

Yeah but if we prevent the other team from scoring at all, 100% of our issues go away.

not really sure what you're trying to say, but we're just too slow no the perimeter. we don't limit penetration at all. bigs have to go too far out, then get lost trying to get back.

no

Pig Miller wrote:if we fix dribble penetration, 80% of our defensive issues go away or are erased by dwight.

they weren't even capable of doing that several years ago, why would they be able to do it now at an older age and even more slower?

^well it's going to require new parts.

it also might require less possessions for the other team, either by slowing the game down, or not giving up as many O-reb as they have is some of these games.

Pig Miller wrote:

JGC wrote:

Pig Miller wrote:if we fix dribble penetration, 80% of our defensive issues go away or are erased by dwight.

dwight doesnt get it ridiculous foul trouble, kobe doesn't always have to cheat. rotations don't need as many moving parts, etc.

Yeah but if we prevent the other team from scoring at all, 100% of our issues go away.

not really sure what you're trying to say, but we're just too slow no the perimeter. we don't limit penetration at all. bigs have to go too far out, then get lost trying to get back.

Well, it would be impossible to prevent the other team from scoring at all. Well, not impossible, but almost. Preventing dribble penetration would be near impossible also. First, we might have the worst defensive backcourt in the league right now, and second, our team hates each other.

Not much of a recipe for defensive success.

^i'm not saying eliminate it, not sure why you want to make that assumption that I was referring to the team stopping all opponents offense.

but okay, assume away if that's what you want.

Pig Miller wrote:^i'm not saying eliminate it, not sure why you want to make that assumption that I was referring to the team stopping all opponents offense.

but okay, assume away if that's what you want.

No, I wasn't. I was just saying expecting this team to prevent any sort of dribble penetration is expecting way, way too much.

Balance&Options24 wrote:We were decent last year, what the hell happened?

My guess is primarily the coach and system. Brown stressed d but he also gave our d a chance for success by slowing the game down and limiting opportunities for teams to run on us.