protecting the paint

[hpantazo]

Doc said it wasn't the fault of the bigs tonight, it was the guards who kept reaching and letting guys go by them, which put pressure on the bigs. I agree with him.

that's a copout. we cannot protect the rim right now. there is no fear in opposing players attacking the rim with our current lineup. when Perk was here, even if a guy got past his man on the perimeter, he knew Perk was most likely gonna be rotating over.

or how about Big Baby's charges. anybody noticed the lack of Baby rotating over to take a charge?

I disagree. I mean, this isn't junior high school, players are not afraid to drive because a guy like Perkins is in the paint. There were plenty of games with Perkins where we got killed just as badly inside. When guards allow drible penetration the whole defense falls apart and it's almost impossible to rotate quickly enough to cover up, and no intimidator will change that.  If you mean a shot blocker, Steimsma blocked 6 shots tonight and that didn't stop anyone from driving to the basket.

At least Perkins would put a hard foul on a guy who drove to the rim. Who does that now? No one. Not saying that would turn these losses into wins, but right now, the lane looks to be about 50 feet of wide open space to anyone who wants to drive it.

How many hard fouls did Perkins give in the 2008 playoffs? He rode the bench most of the time while we played Posey with the big three and Rondo. The difference was that we didn't let guys get past us on the perimeter, which Posey was great at stoping as well.

You are right. Perk was absolutely garbage during the playoffs. I am just glad we got rid of him. But, I can't wait to watch his team in the finals this year.

Sheesh, you would think we traded away Bill Russell here. Check Perks minutes and his stats during the 2008 playoffs. If all you want is a thug in the middle to foul people I'm sure we can sign a WWE guy for cheap. Perk had his qualities, but he had many limitations as well.

[TripleOT]

Doc said it wasn't the fault of the bigs tonight, it was the guards who kept reaching and letting guys go by them, which put pressure on the bigs. I agree with him.

that's a copout. we cannot protect the rim right now. there is no fear in opposing players attacking the rim with our current lineup. when Perk was here, even if a guy got past his man on the perimeter, he knew Perk was most likely gonna be rotating over.

or how about Big Baby's charges. anybody noticed the lack of Baby rotating over to take a charge?

I disagree. I mean, this isn't junior high school, players are not afraid to drive because a guy like Perkins is in the paint. There were plenty of games with Perkins where we got killed just as badly inside. When guards allow drible penetration the whole defense falls apart and it's almost impossible to rotate quickly enough to cover up, and no intimidator will change that.  If you mean a shot blocker, Steimsma blocked 6 shots tonight and that didn't stop anyone from driving to the basket.

Perk is one of the  best players in the league at "mucking" up the paint.  Shaq last year was good at it too.  JO, without much lateral movement, and not willing to put his body on anyone,(and creaky knees in danger) can not play physical and instead resorts to reaching (hence the 13 fouls in 60 minutes, one every 4.6 minutes of play).

KG is also unwilling or unable to put his body on anyone.  He has never been a box out rebounder, but can't jump over everyone like when he led the league in boards.  Playing next to Perk, KG could get away with not using is body int he paint.  Paired with a corpse like JO, or shorter players like Bas, KG is an absolute liability in the paint as a defender and rebounder.

This is what a lot of people don't get about Perk.  His synergy with KG was very important.  If DA could have gotten even a decent tall, widebody to pair with Garnett, the loss of Perk wouldn't hurt as much.  But JO is toast, Shaq couldn't last a whole season, and with $7m a year money going to scrubs like Dalembert and Kwame Brown, DA couldn't afford to bring anyone in.  

Watch OKC games.  Perk allows Ibaka to freelance at both ends, because Ibaka doesn't have to spend a lot of time leaning on guys.  Maybe a guy like Pryzbilla could step in here and help, if healthy, but it doesn't seem like the Cs are on his radar.

Against Miami, halfway through the third quarter, I got so frustrated with the Cs interior defense (and Miami's easy time at the rim) that I pulled up a shot chart and counted.  Miami was 24 of 29 at one point 83%. That's ridiculous.    

[winsomme]

Doc said it wasn't the fault of the bigs tonight, it was the guards who kept reaching and letting guys go by them, which put pressure on the bigs. I agree with him.

that's a copout. we cannot protect the rim right now. there is no fear in opposing players attacking the rim with our current lineup. when Perk was here, even if a guy got past his man on the perimeter, he knew Perk was most likely gonna be rotating over.

or how about Big Baby's charges. anybody noticed the lack of Baby rotating over to take a charge?

I disagree. I mean, this isn't junior high school, players are not afraid to drive because a guy like Perkins is in the paint. There were plenty of games with Perkins where we got killed just as badly inside. When guards allow drible penetration the whole defense falls apart and it's almost impossible to rotate quickly enough to cover up, and no intimidator will change that.  If you mean a shot blocker, Steimsma blocked 6 shots tonight and that didn't stop anyone from driving to the basket.

Perk is one of the  best players in the league at "mucking" up the paint.  Shaq last year was good at it too.  JO, without much lateral movement, and not willing to put his body on anyone,(and creaky knees in danger) can not play physical and instead resorts to reaching (hence the 13 fouls in 60 minutes, one every 4.6 minutes of play).

KG is also unwilling or unable to put his body on anyone.  He has never been a box out rebounder, but can't jump over everyone like when he led the league in boards.  Playing next to Perk, KG could get away with not using is body int he paint.  Paired with a corpse like JO, or shorter players like Bas, KG is an absolute liability in the paint as a defender and rebounder.

This is what a lot of people don't get about Perk.  His synergy with KG was very important.  If DA could have gotten even a decent tall, widebody to pair with Garnett, the loss of Perk wouldn't hurt as much.  But JO is toast, Shaq couldn't last a whole season, and with $7m a year money going to scrubs like Dalembert and Kwame Brown, DA couldn't afford to bring anyone in.  

Watch OKC games.  Perk allows Ibaka to freelance at both ends, because Ibaka doesn't have to spend a lot of time leaning on guys.  Maybe a guy like Pryzbilla could step in here and help, if healthy, but it doesn't seem like the Cs are on his radar.

Against Miami, halfway through the third quarter, I got so frustrated with the Cs interior defense (and Miami's easy time at the rim) that I pulled up a shot chart and counted.  Miami was 24 of 29 at one point 83%. That's ridiculous.    

yeah there's really no debate at this point. even when we traded Perk the argument was that Shaq would be back, not that we don't need someone like Perk. we've never really been okay without an intimidating presence in the middle.

I'm sure Danny knows this. I mean there were even reports in the off season that he was trying to trade to get Perk back.

anyway, DA has to figure this out for us. It's painful right now watching teams attack the rim at will.

[bfrombleacher]

Of course this ends up being a Perk thread.

Anyway Stiemsma is showing promise and perfect timing too.

Our defense looked so porous because KG and JO were not showing up. People are already calling it in and are saying that the Celtics are far too old but I'm not too worried. I think they just need to get back in shape after the lockout. Bass is indeed not as good as Glen Davis on defense but I think he will get better as time goes by.

There was a thread on Rondo's defense worsening but its really because our bigs are a step slow on the rotation. Rondo is beasting lately.

[celticinorlando]

entire defense sucks.

[Celtics18]

I think it's fair to say that our defensive performance so far this season falls on both guards and bigs.  The guards are not doing a good job keeping players out of the lane and bigs are not doing a good job protecting the rim once those guards get in the lane.

I don't see us continuing as the worst defense in the NBA, unless KG really is completely cooked.  I remember based on the pre-season thinking that KG and JO was one of the best looking interior combinations I'd seen in a while.  Did they both really just age ten years since the regular season started?

The D will turn around. 

[Chris]

How many times did Jarrett Jack get to the rim uncontested tonight? Jarrett Jack. Are you kidding me. There is no one on this team to make anyone afraid to drive to the hoop.

Thats not about the center though.  I don't care who is protecting the basket, if you let guys get into the paint at will, the big men can't do much.

This is what we have seen at times throughout the last few years.  With their standard pick and roll defense, if they are half a step slow, or hesitate at all, they are done.  And currently, between the perimeter guys not fighting through picks, and the big men slow on the rotations, whoever is under the basket doesn't stand a chance.

[theswitch]

How many times did Jarrett Jack get to the rim uncontested tonight? Jarrett Jack. Are you kidding me. There is no one on this team to make anyone afraid to drive to the hoop.

Thats not about the center though.  I don't care who is protecting the basket, if you let guys get into the paint at will, the big men can't do much.

This is what we have seen at times throughout the last few years.  With their standard pick and roll defense, if they are half a step slow, or hesitate at all, they are done.  And currently, between the perimeter guys not fighting through picks, and the big men slow on the rotations, whoever is under the basket doesn't stand a chance.

And even if they step up and make a nice play on the penetrating guard, there's nobody to box out the two offensive bigs around the basket for the easy put-back. Landry had 5 offensive rebounds and Kaman had 3, leading to really easy buckets, and that's a major reason why.

[Chris]

How many times did Jarrett Jack get to the rim uncontested tonight? Jarrett Jack. Are you kidding me. There is no one on this team to make anyone afraid to drive to the hoop.

Thats not about the center though.  I don't care who is protecting the basket, if you let guys get into the paint at will, the big men can't do much.

This is what we have seen at times throughout the last few years.  With their standard pick and roll defense, if they are half a step slow, or hesitate at all, they are done.  And currently, between the perimeter guys not fighting through picks, and the big men slow on the rotations, whoever is under the basket doesn't stand a chance.

And even if they step up and make a nice play on the penetrating guard, there's nobody to box out the two offensive bigs around the basket for the easy put-back. Landry had 5 offensive rebounds and Kaman had 3, leading to really easy buckets, and that's a major reason why.

Exactly, as soon as the first line of defense is broken, the rotations pull the big men out of position for rebounds, and they need basically flawless rotations to get the backside man down there to protect for the drop-off pass, or the offensive rebound.

This is really why I think they are going to need to become much more of a zone team.  They can run their old defense at times to try to shut a team down for a stretch, but they need something more like a zone to take away the pick and rolls more regularly, and allow the big men to hit the boards, because the rotations are not happening.

[SHAQATTACK]

Right now I'm just passing time , watching the old get older , tapping my toes , waiting for all those huge contracts to expire ... and hopefully draft some "serious" NBA recruits who can play with vigor in the paint.

[kozlodoev]

How many times did Jarrett Jack get to the rim uncontested tonight? Jarrett Jack. Are you kidding me. There is no one on this team to make anyone afraid to drive to the hoop.

Hey, Rondo was right up there for the mop-up duty in today's papers, saying that Jack is "one of the best in the NBA at splitting the pick and roll". What a joke...