Part of me wonders if players like Crowder and Bradley took some lessons from last year's playoffs and realized that it wasn't worth it to always play 100% on defense during the regular season only to have yourself break down during the playoffs.
Even if you assume that people are playing at half-effort though, the defense is still absurdly bad.
I think that's possible (and have wondered it aloud here myself). Especially since Crowder reinjured himself early in the season.
It's our PnR defense that's atrocious. Last year everyone fought through picks a lot, but this year, everyone but Smart goes under them. Of course, going through a pick is a great way to sprain an ankle or jam a thumb (see: Chris Paul). So maybe there is some merit to taking it easier. But that means that bigs need to do a better job slowing down the ballhandler so that the guard can get back to his man, and everyone needs to do a better job of defensive rotations, especially when it comes to boxing out defensive rebounds.
I think the best cure would be to start the defense further away from the basket. It's a lot easier to go under a screen 28 feet from the basket than 23 feet away. Requiring teams to make multiple screens and passes leads to poorer shots, more turnovers, and better defensive rebound positioning.
Yeah, this about sums it up, along with our lack of defensive rebounding and less overall defensive intensity. It's like our bigs have never defended a PnR before. They never just "hedge" out to slow down the defender. It's like they must switch or they absolutely overcommit and leave the roll/pop guy open. But this is what you get with bigs that aren't too mobile and not able to guard out on the perimeter in that fashion.
Granted, to be fair, up until this year Al only did this occasionally, since he was a center. Now that he's chasing stretch fours around, he's involved in many more PnR defenses.
