Is this year's defense better than last year?

[Fafnir]

In terms of Posey's defense, his defense was very good against small forwards.  However, he wasn't anything special against power forwards, which is where he got most of his playing time.  That's one of the reasons that statistically, the impact of his loss isn't really showing up.  In other words, less "small ball" has led to better defense, even though we lost one of our best defensive players.

(For statistical evidence of the above, see here.  I'm not in love with Opponent's PER as the sole way of evaluating defenders, but in this instance, it backs up what my eyes told me.)

I agree with you on this one. Though Game 4 of the finals is still awesome to watch. He guards Lamar with 5 fouls for a long time in the fourth iirc.

The emotional high when Eddie hit that shot to give us the lead that game. I knew we weren't going to lose.

We'll most miss Posey against SFs. Unfortunately LeBron is in our conference....

[Sweet17]

We absolutely need someone better then Scalabrine to throw at him at least part of the time. It's going to kill PP to play him the entire game. Lebron is (slightly) overrated as a basketball player but underrated as a superior athlete. We did great last year forcing him to take alot more Js then he should but way he gets in anywhere near the hoop he is a great finisher..and will get guys like Paul in foul trouble..

[TrueGreen]

I think Tony is a better defender than Posey. During the summer when we were trying to sign Pose all the C's and Doc said TA was the best perimeter defender on the team. And this wasn't posturing for negotiating purposes. What Pose had over TA is experience. His man might go by him ten times, but when a stop was absolutely needed Pose would make the play. Pose just made big plays at big times both defensively and offensively. TA doesn't have that knack. Yet. Watch KG closely. His man gets by him alot, but when the game is really on the line KG won't let us down. KG is also a great help defender as was Posey. TA can take a charge when needed, but his role is to be a man on man stopper and he does that better than anyone on the team.

[Sweet17]

I do think that Tony is a better defender then Posey. But its irrelevant with regards to losing him. Posey is a LEGIT 6'8" guy. He towers over Tony. Rondo might be a better defender then Perkins but it wouldn't help us defend centers at all.

I love Tony but he is too small to match up with Lebron.

[xmuscularghandix]

TA is a better defender of guys his size, IMHO.

TA's PER against at SG is 11.4. But the thing is Tony is a 1/2 and Posey a 3/4.
Posey PER against is 13.4 at SF (which is good) and 21.4 at SG. Of course in fairness to Posey he doesn't have KG at his back anymore which is going to screw with anyone's PER against stats.

If we're going by fairness too, Tony plays a lot more with Powe and Davis at his back... even POB at times.

TP i was gonna say that.

[xmuscularghandix]

It needs to get even better in order to repeat, and it looks like they're on the right track
and no, TA is not a better defender than Posey, I dont know who started that one, but its not true at all

as stated before they are diferent types of defenders, everyone on the team would say that TA was the best man/perimeter defender on the team.