Avery's Defense

[Employee8]

I love Avery's attitude and I love his energy but I'm starting to worry about his ability to penetrate through screens.  It seems to me that he's starting to become ineffective when the offense sets up its plays because he's easily taken out of the game when picks are set.  He doesn't quite help out on the defense too when he gets screened.  Simply goes around the player and catches up to his assigned man, leaving the other completely unguarded.

Pick and rolls are going to come easy against Avery methinks.  Anyone noticing this too?

[Fafnir]

What?

His ability to go quickly through screens (usually over) is one of his best assets defensively. By quickly recovering to his own man he eliminates the need for additional help from player beyond the initial two defenders who are involved in the pick and roll.

Last time someone cited his synergy numbers he was elite in iso plays, and very good in P&R as well.

[Roy H.]

Last time someone cited his synergy numbers he was elite in iso plays, and very good in P&R as well.

Yep.

0.7 points per possession allowed, good for 21st overall
0.6 PPP allowed in isolation plays; 27th overall
0.75 PPP on P&R ball-handlers; 70th overall

He's allowing a 31.6% FG% overall, including 30% on isos and 34.1% on P&R ball-handlers.

[Employee8]

What?

His ability to go quickly through screens (usually over) is one of his best assets defensively. By quickly recovering to his own man he eliminates the need for additional help from player beyond the initial two defenders who are involved in the pick and roll.

Last time someone cited his synergy numbers he was elite in iso plays, and very good in P&R as well.

Seriously?  I agree that AB is superior in 1 on 1 defense but when it comes to the offense establishing its plays, AB gets stuffed up easily with those screens.  I've been noticing that a quite few times over the last month but we've been getting lucky that they don't capitalize on those man advantage when they get a pick and roll successfully executed.

I didn't want to include stats in the OP because he doesn't go up against the opposing team's first string PG too often.  So his numbers are based on the opposing player's second string PG, which doesn't really show his true defensive capability against top notch PGs in the game.

[Fafnir]

I disagree about him getting hung up on picks too often. Every player gets picked off, it happens to everyone. But Avery Bradely is easily the best Celtic player at fighting through screens. Additionally his recovery speed also allows him to catch up to the play when his man does get a step.

Additionally this statement:

Simply goes around the player and catches up to his assigned man, leaving the other completely unguarded.

Isn't this exactly what the P&R ball defender is supposed to do? The C's don't switch much at all and his job is to get back to his man as fast as possible and allow the base defense to set itself and not shade the lane against the ballhandlers penetration.

Helping off the ball handler in the pick and roll is typically a gamble that said player won't drive effectively or won't hit the shot. It can create turnovers but overall you want Avery Bradley sprinting back to his man. The other player who's man sets the pick is likewise responsible for recovering to his man and a third player typically rotates to a shade help position to prevent the roll pass from being an easy one if necessary.

Bradley is executing the C's defense very well.

I didn't want to include stats in the OP because he doesn't go up against the opposing team's first string PG too often.  So his numbers are based on the opposing player's second string PG, which doesn't really show his true defensive capability against top notch PGs in the game.

This is true, he often is guarding the backup PG, but in defending the pick and roll he has been very successful when he's on the court. What more can you ask of him other than doing well when he's out there? The backup PGs in the league don't shoot 34% in the pick and roll as ballhandlers when guarded by most defenders.

[fanofgreen]

The only issue I see with AB's defense is staying down on pump fakes, other than that he's one of the best defenders I've seen in along time, especially get around on-ball screens and staying with his man.

[azzenfrost]

One man full court press. Enough said.

[Employee8]

You have a point that he does an effective job of guarding the players that he's on the floor with.  I agree he's been doing great, but I'm wondering about the future and what's going to happen when he gets matched up to the elite PGs in the game.

I wish I could have the skills of editing out the highlight reels of the game last night like they do at Red's Army to show you exactly when he got stuffed on the screens, and how he simply abandons the person who screened him in the first place in a mad dash to get to the person he is supposed to guard.  The problem is, his help defender is also defending the PG so by the time AB gets back to his assigned man, the help defender has to run back to guard the person who set the pick first.  Problem is, this guy who set the pick is absolutely wide open for a good second or two so I'm surprised that not many teams are taking advantage of this.  Perhaps the team we've been going up against who sets those picks are not good perimeter shooters so we're getting away with these.

But if it's Bosh setting up those picks and then getting wide open because AB leaves Bosh to go defend Chalmers or whoever, the ball's getting dumped back to Bosh, who's lights out at these types of shots.

Or maybe I have no idea how to defend a pick and roll.  Perhaps AB is doing it all right and I'm making no sense here.

[Fafnir]

Problem is, this guy who set the pick is absolutely wide open for a good second or two so I'm surprised that not many teams are taking advantage of this.  Perhaps the team we've been going up against who sets those picks are not good perimeter shooters so we're getting away with these.

But if it's Bosh setting up those picks and then getting wide open because AB leaves Bosh to go defend Chalmers or whoever, the ball's getting dumped back to Bosh, who's lights out at these types of shots.

The responsibility to close out on the pick and pop shooter is not on the ball handlers defender unless its an outright switch. Its either the big man's job or the third help defender if the big has to hard help on the ball handler.

Bradely recovering to his man so quickly makes it so that the big man's primary defender can get back to Bosh or whomever sets the pick that much faster.

[Employee8]

Problem is, this guy who set the pick is absolutely wide open for a good second or two so I'm surprised that not many teams are taking advantage of this.  Perhaps the team we've been going up against who sets those picks are not good perimeter shooters so we're getting away with these.

But if it's Bosh setting up those picks and then getting wide open because AB leaves Bosh to go defend Chalmers or whoever, the ball's getting dumped back to Bosh, who's lights out at these types of shots.

The responsibility to close out on the pick and pop shooter is not on the ball handlers defender unless its an outright switch. Its either the big man's job or the third help defender if the big has to hard help on the ball handler.

Bradely recovering to his man so quickly makes it so that the big man's primary defender can get back to Bosh or whomever sets the pick that much faster.

I'm slowly being beat into submission here but shouldn't AB at least put a body on "Bosh" for awhile until the offensive play gets to be so that those pick and roll situations aren't so lethal anymore and the two defensive players can swap back to their regular assigned man?

[Fafnir]

Problem is, this guy who set the pick is absolutely wide open for a good second or two so I'm surprised that not many teams are taking advantage of this.  Perhaps the team we've been going up against who sets those picks are not good perimeter shooters so we're getting away with these.

But if it's Bosh setting up those picks and then getting wide open because AB leaves Bosh to go defend Chalmers or whoever, the ball's getting dumped back to Bosh, who's lights out at these types of shots.

The responsibility to close out on the pick and pop shooter is not on the ball handlers defender unless its an outright switch. Its either the big man's job or the third help defender if the big has to hard help on the ball handler.

Bradely recovering to his man so quickly makes it so that the big man's primary defender can get back to Bosh or whomever sets the pick that much faster.

I'm slowly being beat into submission here but shouldn't AB at least put a body on "Bosh" for awhile until the offensive play gets to be so that those pick and roll situations aren't so lethal anymore and the two defensive players can swap back to their regular assigned man?

Absolutely not, because at that point the Heat would force Bradley to switch onto Bosh.

If Bradely puts a body on Bosh then the ball handler can either drive against a big man he has an advantage on or back the ball out and complete the switch.

Then Bradley is guarding Bosh and can get posted up, compromising the defense.

[LooseCannon]

One of the goals of a pick and roll is to try to get defenders to switch so that you get mismatches such as a guard like Avery Bradley finding himself against a big man who can shoot over him.  AB ending up guarding a player like Chris Bosh one-on-one is pretty much the worst outcome.

The Celtics (and the Bulls) play a complicated form of pick and roll defense.  As I understand it, Bradley is supposed to chase the ballhandler.  The guy guarding the pick-setter is supposed to help on the ball-handler, a third player rotates to help on the screener, and the other two players protect the passing lanes.  Bradley's job is to follow the ballhandler, who is temporarily double-teamed.  When Bradley catches up to his man, everyone can rotate back to his original assignment.  Bradley (or Rondo, for that matter) is fast enough to close in on an opposing point guard before he can stop, plant, turn to face the basket and get a jump shot off.  If he drives, the player originally guarding the screener (usually a big) is in his path to contest a layup.  The easiest pass to the open man is usually a long pass which will allow the Celtics defense enough time to close out on a jump shot.

If the screener is getting open, the problem is that a third defender is not rotating properly.  Another problem that can occur is if the screener's defender doesn't trust the third player to rotate properly and doesn't double-team the ballhandler properly.  These are the sort of defensive failures that probably lead to Doc Rivers leaving rookies on the bench.