Alright, lets try this again since people are getting so offended with my "common sense" remark. According to the statistics (D-Rating, win shares, opponent production, etc), Lebron is better. According to NBA coaches (All-Defensive Team voting), Lebron is better. According to sportswriters and journalists (DPOY voting), Lebron is better. What exactly are you all basing your opinions on?
I disagree. I think whats undervalued is our other defenders ability to play without a shotblocker. honestly i think other teams when we went with our second unit with no shotblocker had no idea what they were in for. these guys play hard, and shotblocking is only a small aspect of the game. like i said i may be proven wrong, we'll see.
Lebron's D-Rating was better than Battier's in the regular season, and it improved in the playoffs. Battier's D-Rating got worse in the playoffs. Lebron's opponents' points/game was lower than Battier's in the regular season, and it went down in the playoffs. Battier's opponents' points/game went up in the playoffs.
Watching the games. Crazy concept, I know. By the way, there are lots of articles about Lebron's overrated defense. We're not alone in this view.
Those type of stats aren't going to convince anyone. Best argument you can make is that Jeff Van Gundy -- big-time Battier fan, former coach, and defensive guru -- repeatedly referred to LeBron James as the best wing defender in the game last season.
Teams in the NBA don't play exactly a balanced schedule, do they? Much less in the playoffs, when Battier was going up against Kobe and Roy. And you can't look at individual matchups and get any idea at all of the impact of a player on their team defense. Battier quarterbacks the Rockets' D on every play.
Funny, but that's my viewpoint on Yao and his effect on our defense. People look at stats and say, "Hey, he's only blocking 2 shots each game. That's not that big of an impact.".
That lineup would smash the GSWs of the league, and get obliterated by the LALs. Plus Ariza's head would spontaneously combust figuring out how to defend himself.
Just like Larry Hughes was the best defensive player in the league a couple of years back, right? Lebron has great stats which stick with people but he's not a great defensive player.
actually that wasn't the case. he was guarding rafer or lee most of the time. the times he was on either rashard or hedo, they rarely took a shot b/c lebron did a good job v. them. i've watched lebron and i believe he IS a top 5 defender in this league. remember, the cavs are one of THE BEST defensive teams in the L despite having midgets on the perimeter and a slow poke as its C. lebron's athleticism allows him to be like kevin garnett defensively and roam around. his individual defense may not be on par with the likes of shane battier, although it's getting there, his team defense is one of the best in this league. if you watch how lebron guards kobe, he actually does a great job. kobe can RARELY get around lebron and the shots that kobe does make on lebron are some of the most ridiculous fadeaways you can get. i'm sure you saw the kobe-lebron highlights last year b/c of all the hype. i think sometimes the hype of lebron rubs people the wrong way and they don't acknowledge the guy. he IS the best overall player in the league BY FAR, whether it's stats or intangibles or whatever. his efficiency was off the charts, esp. in the playoffs, on both ends of the floor. now let's get back on topic. i do feel the team IS going to struggle defensively v. bigger teams ala the lakers/celts/magic... (but who don't). size is something we have to address. we'll struggle rebounding the ball defensively, blocking shots... more often than not v. the bigger teams. but what we can make up is great perimeter D and help defense. while chuck hayes/scola/landry may lack size and will struggle with individual defense (not chuck of course), they'll make it up with their team defense. and while we lack size on the interior, we do have size on the perimeter with ariza/battier/tracy. i don't think we'll be awful defensively as some may think. we were never a team based on purely individual defense. JVG's defensive concepts--let's be real, we've kept them--depend on help defense more than anything. hopefully andersen or another big that morey will eventually sign can provide some size that will keep our defense at a high level as last year.
again, lebron isn't kobe. kobe is really overrated defensively. lebron actually guards the best perimeter scorer most of the time, while carrying the offensive load. here are some of the elite scorers lebron does guard primarily when the teams do meet: 1) paul pierce - 20 pts on 39% shooting 2) carmelo - 15.5 pts on 35% shooting 3) kobe - 19.5 pts on 43% shooting (though he only guards kobe in the 2nd/4th quarters) 4) granger - 23 pts on 42% shooting 5) durant - 19.5 pts on 45% shooting he actually guards those guys, and he does do a great job. that's extremely impressive considering how efficient he is offensively. i won't be surprised if lebron wins a DPOY 3-4 times in his career.
verse i dont underestimate Yao defensively, to me he is an ok defensive player due to his size but stating that this rockets team will be bad defensively because Yao is gone to me not true. basketball is a team sport and this rockets team is a GOOD defensive team without Yao in the middle. Remember the rockets playoff game against Portland at home Chucks BIG defensive play at the end of the game. That is great DEFENSE and i still believe this team is still going to be in the top defensively just cause they play GOOD TEAM defense. But just thinking that a team does not have a shot blocker means team is going to be bad defensively is wrong. Look at charlotte Okafor and Wallace are shot blockers but they are not a good defensive team. Look at GSW beidrins,turif, randolph can block shots but are definetly not a good defensive team. Having a shot blocker helps but shot blocking does not define a good defensive team. Their is alot more to playing defense than blocking shots. plus they could throw in Dorsey if he can stay out of foul trouble and play team defense now he can block some shots for you.
As for Lebron he can be a beast on the defensive end. he has all the skills to be a top notch defensive player due to his size and speed and athletism. cant really compare Shane and Lebron they are two definetly different species. Shane is text book defense, Lebron is just a freak of athlete.
I agree in some respects. However, Yao wasn't a shot blocker more of a shot alterer... When Deke went down we still played Portland and LA tough. Our team now requires everyone to rebound, where as we could count on Yao and Scola to do a majority of the rebounding. Our defense now works like this... Ariza and Battier force the 2 and 3 spots to take jump shots, hopefully tough ones. We will have to double the top power fowards when Scola is checking them one on one or we go with Chuck on the tough PF's and Scola can check the weak centers like Dampier, Przybilla, Oden, Nene... LA has way too many weapons at the 2/3/4/5 for us to contend with... However we will still be competitive on the defense end every night.
As I said before... I'd like to add that, Teams more perimeter oriented will have a bunch harder time dealing with us now. Like the Suns, Warriors, Bulls, etc.... They aren't going to be a mismatch problem against us anymore like they were in the past. Usually we would find ways to end up taking them out but it was still rough and we usually outscored them instead of completely shutting them down like we do against most teams. Yao was a big time Shot-alterer and an above average shot blocker. His intimidation will be missed along with his presence and impact of just being there. Being 7'6 alone, makes him an above average defender because of how many shots he will end up altering. Problem was, when Yao went to the bench. Teams could often times score like they were doing a layup drill especially if Deke didn't come out which was usually the case in the past 2 seasons. If Chuck Hayes or Carl Landry were centers coming in for Yao, teams would score easier against us in the paint because we would have no anchor defensively. Most teams that can score in the inside whenever they want are the best teams in the league. Which include the Lakers, Celtics, Magic, Cavs, Spurs, etc..... All those teams are elite, contenders and what those teams have in common is that they all have an interior scorer. Usually we would take out the Magic and Spurs, because Yao would be able to defend Dwight and Duncan easily, Not so much anymore. Dwight is probably going to score and play better than ever against us now and same with Tim Duncan.
LewLLOYD (great name by the way. Sweet Lew was one of my original favorite Rox...the Drexler one man fast break prototype!): Sometimes life puts you in a pickle and your forced to do something superhuman, something above your normal capabilities. For short periods, you're able to harness that adrenaline rush, focus it, and succeed.in your endeavor. However, the prospects of continuously succeeding over extended durations...permanent durations...are truly unrealistic. During the Rox 22 game streak, they were great. After Yao took his familiar place on the IR, the Rox were nothing short of phenomenal. In time, though, the adrenaline fuel ran out and they fell back to earth, culminating in yet another 1st round loss that would be blamed on McGrady. Last year, we shocked the world, taking the eventual champions to 7 games and providing them with their toughest test of the postseason. We turned the Staples and Toyota Centers into Vietnam and Korea, employing guerilla tactics no one could see coming, nor prepare to defend on the run. In time? Those tactics couldn't circumvent the fact that for as much heart as we had, we just didn't have the munitions necessary to win the war. Asked to play this style in stretches, I believe in this team. JVG was right to say we have a team full of knife fighters. We'll cut you to pieces if you dare to engage us. But the rest of the league blessed with quick guards and true post players might as well be holding assault rifles, ready to tatter our paper paint defense system. My guess is you'll be real proud of this team. REAL proud since everyone loves an underdog. But why go in, knowingly, as the dog when there are opportunities to get the defense system requisite to winning the war? Sure, we'll be entertaining, gritty, tough, and lovable. But we'll ultimately break down and lose. Shane's no spring chicken and will start to lose a step. Put a red carpet in the painted area and watch his defensive status plummet. Ariza is young and talented, but his defensive forte is playing passing lanes, not squaring up a perimeter player and denying penetration. Sure it may work for a small stretch of the season, but the book will get out on this team that all you have to do is penetrate relentlessly and play bullyball down low. It'll get around and when it does, it won't be pretty. Asking this team to be defensively competitive isn't rooting for the dog, it's sending a lamb to slaughter.
Agreed that going eraserless is a scary though. I'm going to miss Deke a lot more than I miss Yao. Lets hope for the best with Dorsey, or that Morey will acquire a big that can be a defensive force immediately.
