Half court offense Will wade

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Half court offense Will wade

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I'll take "What are two things that don't exist together?" for $1000 Alex.

80 in regulation, but yeah

I’m not worried about the offense. They have scorers. Defense and hustle are my concerns. 0 fast break points while giving up 24

Scoring and field goal percentage-wise we are among the tops in the conference. It's just that WW chooses with the personnel he has to do a lot of ISO/dribble drive stuff. It has largely worked it just doesn't look a pretty as the ole motion offense with back-door cuts and the like.

Now defense, that's a whole different story. I can't excuse or rationalize it anymore, it's WW's 4th year. I love the guy and I hope he's here forever, but the total and absolute lack of basic fundamentals on defense is embarrassing.

Any team that has someone who can dribble penetrate with any proficiency - that team will carve us up because outside of Cook, we can't keep those type of guys in front of us on the perimeter and it leads to rotations that expose open options all over the court and apparently also we don't teach proper close outs...at least it doesn't look like it. We either fly by or run by and if their guy pump fakes our dude is in the stands and it's 5 on 4 for their offense.

I think the reason we looked better on D against the Aggies is because they didn't have a real dribble drive threat.

I dont understand why people constantly complain about the offense.

Do you not understand we are one of the top offenses in the country?
- Kenpom has us as the #5 offense in the entire country in his adjusted offensive efficiency metric

Do you not understand modern basketball right now?
- Teams who can score easily without "moving the ball" a lot, DO NOT NEED TO MOVE THE BASKETBALL AROUND A LOT. It's a 1 on 1 game for the most part, finding mismatches and letting a better player beat a worse player.

Do you not watch any of the NBA?
- See above, it's a 1 on 1 game now. Cam Thomas for us is the perfect example of this. He doesnt need to be setup to score, he can score at will generally speaking on his own.

Absolutely trash Wade right now for the defense, as it's still clearly not there. But we dropped 94 freaking points last night with a 5 minute over time, finished with 80 in regulation...and you want to complain about that? We've dropped less than 80 in regulation twice all season in 9 games, and that was still 79 against Florida and 77 in a blowout win over A&M.

Wade understands modern offense and how to score the ball, constantly harping on him about it would be like complaining about the 2019 LSU football offense multiple times over.

There are a handful of teams with “good halfcourt offense” gonzaga and Iowa for example. Wade’s teams especially these last 2-3 squads have been efficient as shite and in the modern game that’s the most important thing.

Yea that’s why I mentioned Iowa, their coach has always run some beautiful sets. Beilein and Fran Dunphy were great too

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Now defense, that's a whole different story. I can't excuse or rationalize it anymore, it's WW's 4th year. I love the guy and I hope he's here forever, but the total and absolute lack of basic fundamentals on defense is embarrassing.

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I really think it comes down to a basic discussion as to what does Wade value when it comes to defense? If you listen to many of his press conference you can glean that maybe the biggest metric he values is "deflections (steals)."

Wade is a very analytics driven coach. As are many coaches today. One of the analytic metrics used to "score" great defense is number of deflections per game. However, IMO, the issue with LSU is how do good defenses get those deflections? Is it because they are constantly in front of the ball handler and fundamentally sound on that passing lanes which essentially makes those deflections a BY PRODUCT of good defense? Or is it because they are selling out at all cost to get the deflection?

I think LSU's approach is the latter. If you watch them play you see they are perpetually "ball watching" rather than simply guarding their man. In essence, they are trying to time the pass to knock it a way. In turn, that often causes them to lose who they are defending because that is not what they are focused on. In their on ball defense they are initially in good position. Only to then give it up because they are selling out for a steal.

You also get times where they are in good defensive position...only to have a guy unnecessarily leave a shooter to help. But he's not really coming in to "help" force a tough shot. He's coming in to try to get a steal. That's great...when you get the steal (Waters was terrific at it). But if/when you miss, you've now unnecessarily left a guy WIDE open for a kickout three. The help wasn't necessary because you already had it defended and the guy with the ball was going to have a tough shot/decision because of it. But now that you left the shooter, you've given that guy, who was in a tough spot because of your defense, a very easy decision and a very easy pass to a wide open teammate.

And finally, they employ the pressure. Many times a game they get EXACTLY what you want out of a press. The ball handler is trapped. But FAR too often rather than just standing tall and closing the trap, one (sometime both) of the defender inexplicably leave their feet. It's ALL in an effort to steal the ball rather than just tighten the D. Sometimes they get that steal. But more often they have given a trapped ball handler an unnecessary out to break your pressure. And once he does the offense now has the numbers in transition. Had you just stayed strong the ball handler would have been in a real bind. But, because you value steals/deflections over simply just sound defense you've wasted your initial good play.

The ONLY focus of Wade's defense is steals/turnovers. And guess what? So far, mission accomplished! LSU LEADS the SEC in steals per possession and is currently 14th in the country in that category. Yet, they are 123rd and second to last in the SEC in defensive efficiency. Why? Because unless they are getting a steal, their defense is absolutely atrocious! It is a complete boom or bust approach to defense. Hell, LSU had NINETEEN steals last night! They STILL allowed UGA to shoot 48% and score 92 points.

It's not that Wade "can't" teach defense or that he doesn't have the personnel to be a good defensive team. It's that he OVER-EMPHASIZES one aspect of defense to the detriment of the defense as a whole. Just like the football program with Miles. It's not that LSU didn't have talented players who couldn't play and excel in a more wide-open offense. It was that their coach over-emphasized a lack of turnovers to the detriment of the greater whole (an efficient offense)

Our out of bounds plays are not even peewee level. Atrocious!!