Defense-why so trash?

First, this team is averaging 16 turnovers a game which is 24th in the league. That number should be closer to 12-13 and easily 3-4 TOs a game are bone headed passes or dribbles into traffic that lead to live ball turnovers and easy transition baskets on the other end. They are basically spotting the other team 6-8 points each game with maddeningly stupid plays which makes the defense look worse than it is.

But the defense itself ain't great largely because

* Cousins has a tendency to pout and whine to officials on the wrong end of the court when he doesn't get calls making the team play 4-5 for about 3-6 possessions a game.
* Rondo is small and often doesn't try very hard and in limited minutes he hits the defense hard. The DRtg with Rondo on the court is an abysmal 113.9, when he's off it's a 104.1 which would be in the top 10 like they were last year.
* Solomon Hill is a legit wing defender and has been replaced by a 6'4 SG in E'Tuwan Moore which isn't good for the defense. Moore's on/off numbers aren't as bad as Rondo's but they're pretty close, 109.2 on vs 104.3 off. Basically when he plays the defense allows 5 more points per 100 possessions.

It's not all doom and gloom though. Hill should be back within the next 2-4 weeks and that will help. It also looks like Rondo and Cousins' bad habits aren't enough to tank the defense on their own, it's when they are both on the court not playing defense at the same time that everything goes to hell. So a simple shifting of Rondo to the bench after Hill returns might go a long way to fixing the defense and returning it to the top 10 where it was last year.

I just those things are fixable but it seems it is what it is for at least this season with Gentry at the helm. If the playoffs started today they would face the timberwolves. I like that match up.

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Lol I don't I would much rather the spurs

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Yeah, the Wolves have owned us this year. They are a good team. Solo coming back to guard one of Wiggins or Butler helps a lot, but Jrue having to guard a 6'8" scorer for an entire series is not ideal.

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Solo coming back to guard one of Wiggins or Butler helps a lot, but Jrue having to guard a 6'8" scorer for an entire series is not ideal.

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We should be able to say the same thing about 6'9" Taj Gibson guarding either Cousins or AD, but we dont' care about mismatches, which is why we will never beat a team like Minny, or Houston with Ariza guarding AD, or GSW with Iggy guarding AD. The whole point of the twin towers, you would think, is that there is no other team that can match up with you, and you'd force teams to quit playing small, but instead, we allow them to play a SF on AD, and rarely take advantage of it. Blah blah blah AD isn't good at posting up. Use your arse, and some motion in the offense and get deep position on them, the rest is easy. giving AD the ball 15 feet from the basket with Ariza on him isnt' the best plan.

Then AD isn't this awesome top 5 player if he can't be more efficient in the post against trevor ariza.

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giving AD the ball 15 feet from the basket with Ariza on him isnt' the best plan.

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Only slightly better than Cousins from the top of the key going Allen Iverson iso ball. Then losing the handle and not getting the foul called and pouting. Leading to crap defensive transition, to go back to OPs original topic.