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What ever happened to our Elite Defense?

Adjusting to the new rules a bit and we've had a handful of good defensive games and a handful of bad defensive games. Problem is the offense is seemingly doing the opposite of what we do on the defensive end so we can't put together a complete game.
 
Then is it still optimal to have a defense focussed team in today's NBA with the new rules?

I guess time will tell, but I'm sure there's still a place in this league for teams to be built around defense and have success. The days of relying completely on defense though to go with an anemic offense are impossible to overcome.
 
No, we played Gasol twice and Jokic. Gobert is a liability against shooting centers

I don't know if you can really call it a liability when it's the best way to go about things, but it is a difficult circumstance and makes everyone else's job tougher
 
I don't know if you can really call it a liability when it's the best way to go about things, but it is a difficult circumstance and makes everyone else's job tougher

thats a nice way of saying its a liability
 
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I'm not sure defense is still a thing with this freedom of movement bs.

I've watched a lot of games this year. To play great "Defense" this year you need 2 things from what I've seen..

1. Your opponent missing easy shots or taking bad shots
2. Your opponent turning the ball over

So basically, luck. Any semblance of actual defense is a foul.
 
I'm not sure defense is still a thing with this freedom of movement bs.

I've watched a lot of games this year. To play great "Defense" this year you need 2 things from what I've seen..

1. Your opponent missing easy shots or taking bad shots
2. Your opponent turning the ball over

So basically, luck. Any semblance of actual defense is a foul.

I don't like this freedom of movement thing. Why fix something that ain't broke?
 
Its playing marc gasol twice and jokic. Gobert is a liability against shooting centers
This. Frank Vogel wrote the book on how to beat us when Orlando came to town in 16/17. He had Vucevic take Gobert out to the arc, and Payton kept driving on Hill. If anyone else helped, Payton dished out to the open man (he finished with 28p, 9a). The only reason we won was Vucevic had to go off the court at some point - he played 32:58 and was +10, Biyombo played 15:02 and was -17, and we won by 7 (source: https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201701140UTA.html).

Against the Grizzlies, they put Gobert in a PnR and if he switches, the guard exploits the mismatch, otherwise he goes to the bucket and Gasol stays on the arc, forcing Gobert (or Favors) to stay on him. I didn't watch today's game but I assume the Nuggets would have done something similar.
 
1. Adjusting to the rule change
2. The offense being so bad it has seeped over.

It's hard to play good defense with energy when you are really struggling on the offensive end. It's just human nature.

Last year we were 1st in defensive efficiency and 16th in offensive efficiency. Seems like we played good defense just fine despite a less efficient offense than we have this season as we rank 14th.
 
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