I LOVE Posey but I can live with pierce and Tony Allen on defense andd Maggete in this system will look better on defense I am sure of that
probably we will lose a little on D but winning a lot on O makes us stronger over all
This is exactly how I am thinking. I love Posey. He brings defense, rebounding, toughness, clutch shooting, and stretches the floor. But Maggette would just make this team scary good. I think everyone's initial thought when the "Big Three" came together was that we would score a lot of points. And they immediately built a defensive juggernaut. This could give us the best of both worlds.
That's not the way it works.
I usually say that team defense/defensive schemes are either extremely underrated or extremely overrated and the later is happening here.
Do you know who else runs our defensive system? The Pacers. They also have a top3, if not the best, defensive assistant coach in the league. Nevertheless, their defense is absolutely terrible much of the time. The main reason for that is the absence of a top-notch wing defender (although Granger is a more than decent one).
Coaches talk a lot about rotations and defensive concepts, like they're talking about a ballet with everyone supposed to be acting in concert. This all sounds like good, intelligent, very impressive. But it's bull
Edited. Profanity and masked profanity are against forum rules and may result in discipline. and they know it.
Sure, good post defenders can help (though we are also thin in that department), but they can't do everything. They can give you protection, but you also need your perimeter guys to protect them. Post defenders need "consistency", but if you don't have a good one-on-one wing defender and your post players are attacked from everywhere and in every possible way, not even a Duncan+KG tandem will save you.
I have serious doubts that Maggette's points can make up for this. In fact, it's very possible we can become a less efficient offensive team, simply because we can't get so many stops (assuming Maggette is indeed a bad defensive player, I'll come back to this).
Also, we don't have so many good defensive players like you seem to think. Maybe Giddens can be one but he's only a rookie by now. At this moment, without Posey and PJ (who played a very specific defensive role), Scal is our best defensive player coming off the bench.
A specialist wing defender is very, very important in the NBA (because of the refereeing "orientations"). Who was the last team to win a championship without a lockdown perimeter defender defender? Posey, Bowen, Prince, Devean... That's how important a defensive wing player is these days.
So, if you think that Thibodeau's defensive scheme is going to transform bad defenders into good defenders, you're being delusional. If you think that the effect of not having good defenders coming off the bench will be small, you're being delusional.
In another thread, someone wrote something like this (quoting from memory):
We saw this playoffs how important are penetrations and drawing fouls. Maggette can do that.
I agree. But is this sentence an indictment or an endorsement of replacing Posey with Maggette? Honestly, I can't say.
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Pierce and Allen were, in effect, poor defensive players for several seasons. Sure, they had the capabilities, but it wasn't until they got into TT's system that they played well consistently on defense (with the exception of Pierce's first two seasons or so).
Sorry, but I can't agree. Was Allen playing in TT's system during the 2001 ECF?
I see nothing about Maggette that would suggest he couldn't play defense. He's quick, athletic, and strong. Perhaps, like Pierce and Allen, all it will take is some motivation (since, like Pierce and Allen, Maggette has been called upon to be his team's offensive spark, as well.)
You have a point about Maggette defensive ability. Maybe we're underrating his defense. I've never payed him that kind of attention needed to make a proper assessment. I'd have to seat, watch his games and take notes. The fact that he doesn't look good stands though.
On the other hand, the "quick, athletic, and strong"... The meme that goes "quickness, awareness and effort is all that takes to make a good defender" is nothing but enjoyable fiction. All those things play a big role (and there was a certain degree of true to in it during the handchecking era), but they're not enough. It's impossible to make a good defensive player in the NBA if he lacks skills. There are lots of small things that we generally don't even care about as fans: where to look at when the player you're guarding receives the ball (very important, for example, to avoid biting fakes - many defensive mistakes that people generally attribute to "mental lapses" are, in fact, due to poor fundamentals), how to move your left foot when a player that receives the ball with his backs to the basket likes to drive to the right and you want to force him to go left, aligning your shoulders, identifying passing lanes, closing out with "high hands, low ass" as they say, so many things.. a few days ago I read in this blog that Pop fired some guy because he was unable to talk while playing.. You can't teach these skills in a training camp; fundamentals are a matter of habit and practice. Duncan or Bowen are not great defenders because they are hiper-quick, super-athletic or smarter than anyone else but due to their mastery of fundamentals (especially Duncan). To some extent, and in different degrees, the same is true to guys like Pierce, Allen and Posey. Again, I really don't know about Maggette. But I'm sure that it's not only a matter of "effort" and "system".
Topic: Maggette says he could be willing to take pay cut to come to Boston (Read 84724 times)