StatsCube: Amid roster overhaul, Bobcats' defense slipped

[spectre]

John Schuhmann - NBA.COM (http://www.nba.com/news/features/john_schuhmann/statscube-preview-2011-CHA/index.html)


The Bobcats fell just one place in offensive efficiency last year, but one only team (Cleveland) regressed more defensively from the previous season, when Charlotte was the No. 1 defensive team in the league.

At the time Larry Brown was dismissed, the Bobcats already ranked 17th in the league defensively. So it wasn't his dismissal that caused their regression. And it wasn't the Wallace trade either, but the numbers show that Charlotte suffered more defensively after Wallace's departure than after Brown's.

When you compare the Bobcats' defensive numbers from the season before, it appears that the departure of another starter is what really hurt them. They weren't much worse in defending shooters or rebounding misses last season, but they allowed their opponents to shoot more free throws and they forced far fewer turnovers.

Forcing turnovers was where the Bobcats' defense fell off most. And the departure of Raymond Felton, who led them in steals in 2009-10, had something to do with that.

With Felton signing in New York (and eventually being traded to Denver), D.J. Augustin was promoted to starting point guard. Not only did Augustin fail to match Felton's steal numbers, but he couldn't match his own steal numbers (per-minute) from the previous season. In fact, back-up Shaun Livingston had nearly as many steals as Augustin in less than half as many minutes last season.

For the season, the Bobcats allowed 107 points per 100 possessions with Augustin on the floor and just 100 points per 100 possessions with him on the bench. That's the difference between the 10th-worst defense in the league and the fourth-best.Link has all sorts of charts showing where the author got his conclusions.

[DY_nasty]

DJ does suck on defense - but I think a lot more of it has to do with the lack of any size inside, no cohesion on defense as whole, and the fact that we've matched up with Miami and NY on top of that.

Again, DJ does suck on defense.

[spectre]

DJ does suck on defense - but I think a lot more of it has to do with the lack of any size inside, no cohesion on defense as whole, and the fact that we've matched up with Miami and NY on top of that.

Again, DJ does suck on defense.

I absolutely agree...our bigs have no clue how to rotate so he has no cover on any lapses. Losing Crash didn't help him at all, nor did it help in that steals statistic mentioned in the article.

What gets me tho is DJ's dropoff this season. Just going by DRtg (and I know there's more involved then what goes in this calculation...but there really is no good defense stat) this year so far he's at 116, down from 112 the season before. That actually equals Caleron's worst season in that category. Steve Nash has never had a DRtg over 115.

Those two have long been considered the weakest defenders at the PG spot in the league.

That's scary territory. DJ looks like he's not making an effort on D, and that concerns me. I wouldn't have said that in year's prior.

Like all these discussions the sample size is only 8 games. Hopefully he can bring that number down as the season progresses.

[dav7z]

Good find ;; Felton brought a defencive attitude ever time on the floor. And set a tone for the other guys . Wallace had the same mind set. One thing for sure Salis isn;t a defencive coach . He talks about toughness but i don't think he instills it in the players minds . Hes a good people coach but i don't think hes a good teaching coach . Whitch make me wonder if hes the right guy to coach such a young team??
As far as DJ hes never focused as much on defence as he has other parts of his game . If he got after it like Felton does on that side of the ball . He would be a top 10 point in the league. Even now Walker keeps his man out of the lane better than DJ does . And DJ bulked up tons over last season . He looks much stronger , he has speed . He just don't move his feet well. Or seem to give as much effort on that side of the ball.

[Marvel]

The bench stat can be misleading. When DJ's on the bench, he's not playing against quality starters and our frontcourt of Smack and Mullens is an upgrade on the defensive end over White and Diaw. So most of that time other teams are playing their bench vs our bench.

Not defending DJ's poor defensive abilities, but that frontcourt of White and Diaw is probably thee worst in the entire league.

[Plowright]

You Americans sure do love your stats and grading methods for players +/- PER all these things :D jokes. How about the good old eye test? The problem DJ has is staying in front of his man, he can NOT stop guys driving past him, it has actually really hurt us this year as we are having to collapse the defense to make up for it. Hence why team like Orlando and Atlanta toasted us from 3.

[DY_nasty]

I remember him staying with Collison and Wall and other guys like that last year. Now? He's abnormally lost - which I could forgive if he played passing lanes with the same type of focus as Kemba, but he doesn't.

I can deal with a point guard who doesn't play d a lot more than a big who doesn't though. I think everyone can agree with that.

[spectre]

I remember him staying with Collison and Wall and other guys like that last year. Now? He's abnormally lost - which I could forgive if he played passing lanes with the same type of focus as Kemba, but he doesn't.

I can deal with a point guard who doesn't play d a lot more than a big who doesn't though. I think everyone can agree with that.

Absolutely...and I'd like this thread to be more about our (lack of) defense then just another way to pick on DJ. With the rules on handchecking it's impossible sometimes to keep some guards out of the paint. A big has to pick up on that AND someone has to adjust to guard his man. Either due to youth, lack of training camp or stupidity we're not doing any of that right now.

[ballwhore]

I don't think it's effort I think his lateral movement on defense leaves much to be desired and he doesn't take risk for steals because he doesn't want to get beat but he might as well. He is just not good at it! I think it's going to take a coach riding his azz to be better at it personally but by then he'll be playing with some bigs that can clean that up. Just to laxed out there on D.

[teej]

@Ballwhore So you're saying Larry Brown was good for him after all? Because that's the only kind of coach that's going to ride him about it.

[ballwhore]

HELL NO! Larry Brown wasn't good for sh#t when it came to DJ. He will always be politically correct and say LB helped etc. but after he strained his abdominal and LB was on some other sh#t he was ready to leave. LB's coaching methods are a things of the past and may be better served at the high school or college level. Him and LB stayed in the same condo's in South Park the first two years over there where the Grape is I think that was the name of it and he hated even seeing his car. He degraded DJ in practice several times calling him a dumb ass mother fucker all kinds of sh#t but he loved Raymond enough to pick a buger out of his nose. Anything anyone done wrong in practice or on the court it was DJ's fault. Yeah! Yeah! come on with your post about he should man up but you guys don't know the half. So Tee J if no coaches ride their points about playing defense maybe it's not as big a concern in the NBA as we make it out to be...

[adam187]

clearly the answer is to trade dj for felton

[Plowright]

Well shit... you think we got worse at defense. No way!? Thank god we have the almighty stats cube to tell us that Because i was beginning to think we were locking teams down. ALL HAIL THE ALMIGHTY STATS CUBE

[SWedd523]

Of course we aren't as good on defense. But playing the Heat twice, the Magic, the Knicks twice (now), etc. sure doesn't help

[teej]

Guys, this article is based on last season, playing all other 29 teams multiple times.

And ballwhore, my point was more that DJ just had a coach ride him about defense, and we saw how that turned out. Jerry Sloan (when he was around), Gregg Popovich, etc. all ride their point guard the SAME WAY as Larry did. And it says a lot about DJ's attitude that he's not going to get better at something unless a coach is riding him about it. He should want to get better on his own.

[spectre]

Guys, this article is based on last season, playing all other 29 teams multiple times.

And ballwhore, my point was more that DJ just had a coach ride him about defense, and we saw how that turned out. Jerry Sloan (when he was around), Gregg Popovich, etc. all ride their point guard the SAME WAY as Larry did. And it says a lot about DJ's attitude that he's not going to get better at something unless a coach is riding him about it. He should want to get better on his own.

Yeah...I thought that was obvious since it was talking mainly about last season vs the year before. There had only been 8 games before tonight played. Apologies...probably should have made that clear.

[spectre]

Kemba's D vs. Lowry last night was borderline outstanding. He'd pick him up 3/4 court and stick with him most times til he gave up the ball. He sagged "just enough" to mess with the post up guy while staying close enough to Lowry/Dragic where he could recover if they got it back.

He busted thru screens almost every time (that's going to be a huge deal vs. PGs who get theirs by screening), and I even saw some good pick/roll defense working with Boris and with Mully at the top of the key.

He drew at least 2 charges. He got 8 boards, but as I mentioned above he did not do it by "cheating"...laying off his guy and hanging around in the paint. It's his quickness both north/south and east/west, and so far he's utilizing it on both sides of the ball.

So far I'm really liking this. I look forward to seeing him go up against the real scorers in the league.

[Chef]

kemba can play d. always has, his limitation at the nba level will be his size.

the thing i have noticed over the years is that dj can play one on one d when he wants to. he is just not a defensive minded player and lapses big time. he has always had trouble with pick and rolls and needs to really work on wanting to get through the screen. some players are not defensive minded and unless they are super competitive like jordan was will never really care about it.

[Marvel]

Kemba's D vs. Lowry last night was borderline outstanding. He'd pick him up 3/4 court and stick with him most times til he gave up the ball. He sagged "just enough" to mess with the post up guy while staying close enough to Lowry/Dragic where he could recover if they got it back.

He busted thru screens almost every time (that's going to be a huge deal vs. PGs who get theirs by screening), and I even saw some good pick/roll defense working with Boris and with Mully at the top of the key.

He drew at least 2 charges. He got 8 boards, but as I mentioned above he did not do it by "cheating"...laying off his guy and hanging around in the paint. It's his quickness both north/south and east/west, and so far he's utilizing it on both sides of the ball.

So far I'm really liking this. I look forward to seeing him go up against the real scorers in the league.

Told ya. Be interesting to see him D up on Wade, Kobe, Monta, Ray. His defense is BADASS.

[Marvel]

kemba can play d. always has, his limitation at the nba level will be his size.

the thing i have noticed over the years is that dj can play one on one d when he wants to. he is just not a defensive minded player and lapses big time. he has always had trouble with pick and rolls and needs to really work on wanting to get through the screen. some players are not defensive minded and unless they are super competitive like jordan was will never really care about it.

Agreed. When DJ's locked in on the defensive end, he can stick with his man, but gets lost on pick n rolls. I wish we had a p&r defensive specialist to coach him how to defend them. Unfortunately, he's an offensive minded player.

[Boomer]

losing Gerald Wallace ain't going to improve team defense, that's for sure

[spectre]

Told ya. Be interesting to see him D up on Wade, Kobe, Monta, Ray. His defense is BADASS.

I'd guess those guys would be too strong for him, but I wouldn't mind seeing him try. I was thinking (short term) steph curry...doesn't he get a lot of points coming off screens? If he's more of an opportune outside shooter with a quick release Kemba might struggle trying to get back to him. Most of you guys know Curry's game better than I do.