Charlotte Bobcats' Defense - A Closer Look

[spectre]

NBA.com Sortable Team Stats (http://www.nba.com/statistics/sortable_team_statistics/sortable1.html)

NBA Team Defense Per Game Statistics - 2009-10 (http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/team/_/stat/defense-per-game/sort/avgFreeThrowsAttemptedOpponent/seasontype/2)

Opponents' PPG - 1st (93.81)
Opponents' FG% - 6th (0.448 )
Opponents' 3 pt FG% - 2nd (0.338 )

On the flip...

Opponents' 3 pt Attempts - 30th (1696)

Teams shot more 3s against us than any other team...yet we held those same teams to the 2nd worst % in the league.

Opponents' FT% - 1st (0.743)
Opponents' RPG - 6th (39.63)
Rebound Diff - 10th (1.2)
Blocks per Game - 7th (5.43)
Opponents' FTA - 1st (20.9)
Opponents' Points Per Shot - 3rd (tie - 1.18 )

Felton
DRTG
08/09 - 107
09/10 - 103

PER Diff:
08/09 - (+) 2.9
09/10 - (+) 2.1

Jackson
DRTG
08/09 - 114
09/10 - 103

PER Diff:
08/09 - (+) 2.6
09/10 - (+) 1.8

Wallace
DRTG
08/09 - 102
09/10 - 100

PER Diff:
08/09 - (+) 5.9
09/10 - (+) 2.8*

Diaw
DRTG
08/09 - 109
09/10 - 105

PER Diff:
08/09 - (+) 1.7
09/10 - (-) 1.2

Mohammed
DRTG
08/09 - 106
09/10 - 101

PER Diff:
08/09 - (-) 9.2
09/10 - (+)5.8

*Crash's PER Diff. is off the charts this past season at the PF spot.

Comparing the last 2 seasons, every player (at their natural position) with the exception of Nazr had their PER differential get worse, yet their DRTG...which measures team defense...got better.

Note: DRTG came from Basketball Reference (http://www.basketball-reference.com/) & PER Differential came from 82Games (http://www.82games.com/).

[BRNC]

great work spectre...obvious team defense was better...probably more time together helped...

[Marvel]

Charlotte Bobcats' Offense - Let's Not

[spectre]

Bumped because of the TT discussion. Would our team defense suffer swapping out Boris for TT?

We know our team is top notch in defense. The question is...can we just swap out one for another and keep the high level? Could we swap out two players? The whole team, so long as Larry Brown is here? Who's the most integral player? Crash you say? Is it because of his help D, his steals or him getting better defending the perimeter (still average to slightly above IMO)?

Is it the sum or is it the parts?

[BRNC]

I think it more the sum of the scheme spectre...to a large degree with reasonable complex (which we have) defensive schemes you have to have players with at least above average BB IQs...so it would depend on the players switching out...in the case of TT

I've thought his time went down for two reasons...

1) He started taking ill-advised quick-jumpers too often...
2) He seemed to be having trouble "getting" the rotations on defense...

He certainly appears to work harder (at least in games) than Doris...at least he gives the impression he's trying to get it rather than (Doris) disappearing...but it would be a tough call and one guy "screwing up" shifts screws your defense...that's why Bass gets no time with SVG...

[GoBobs]

As well as our D played last year I think we have a lot of room for improvement.

We give up way to many open looks at the three to the other teams best shooters. The team needs to get better at recognizing who the opposing shooters are and choosing who we are going to leave open.

Teams that are good at making the extra pass also tend to chew us up because they exploit the fact that we help so much. There were games vs the Celtics this year where we just saw layup after layup after layup. Part of this is just experience part of it is there are sometimes when it is better not to come help. We don't need to send an extra guy at Kendrik Perkins until he beats us a few times one on one.

What is really scary is some of our best defenders don't even play that much. Tyrus Thomas is our second best defensive player and has all kinds of natural ability there. He has a rare combination of length, hops and hand speed.

Thomas and Wallace are going to be a deadly combo because they can both get you steals and blocks. Hopefully we can add Hendo to that list next season too.

Ajinca is another player who could have a big impact. There is no doubt he will block a lot of shots if he can find some minutes in the lineup. Between him and Chandler playing more minutes then he did last year we could be better at the Center position.

[teej]

What is really scary is some of our best defenders don't even play that much. Tyrus Thomas is our second best defensive player and has all kinds of natural ability there. He has a rare combination of length, hops and hand speed.

If Larry had to rank them right now, I have a feeling it'd look like this.

1. Gerald
2. Tyson
3. Jack
4. Theo
5. Raymond
6. Graham
7. Boris
8. Tyrus
9. Diop
10. Henderson
11. Hughes
12. Nazr
13. DJ
14. Brown
15. Lexy

That's on how well they fit into a team defense. That's why Stevie and Hughes got minutes over Hendo. Tyrus is a great 1-on-1 defender, and he'd be about as difficult for the average joe to score on as Dwight Howard or LeBron, but he's not smart enough to fit into our team D. Same for Lexy.

[GoBobs]

Tyrus Thomas DRTG 96 is the best on the team. I put Gerald ahead because of his defensive rebounding.

[spectre]

Tyrus Thomas DRTG 96 is the best on the team. I put Gerald ahead because of his defensive rebounding.

He also had an opponents' PER of 20.

As I said TT plays reactionary defense. He forgets about his guy way too much.

[BRNC]

^...and is out of position way too much...not a good team D player by any stretch...:facepalm:

[Ghost Kat]

Bobcats as a team played great defense last year. I'm not sure they have this, But i'm going to guess more points were scored in the paint then anywhere else. Why? Because ALL of or big suck. Replace Diaw with UPS or Tyrus and I bet nothing drops off. Felton might be the wild card, He's a great on ball defender and since picking up Capt. Jack he doesn't have to chase SG's around all night.