It's been said that a picture is worth a thousand words, so rather than write a thousands words about last night's defensive shitshow, I'll simply link to this animated GIF of Matt Bonner driving the lane for a vicious two-handed dunk. When a guy who dribbles like a drunken toddler is posterizing you, your defence sucks.
Jay Triano's stated goal going into this season was to have the Raptors "protect the house" — meaning he wanted them to defend the lane and not allow easy buckets inside. The house is most certainly not being protected. It would seem the house is guarded by a drugged poodle because the house has been looted, vandalized and then burned beyond recognition. Even a Pistons fan wouldn't live there.
After seven games, Toronto has the best Offensive Rating (118.1 points scored per 100 possessions) and the worst Defensive Rating (120.3 points allowed per 100 possessions) in the NBA. As pointed out by Supersub in this RealGM thread, at their current pace the Raptors would have the best offence and the worst defence since the advent of the three-point shot in the 1979-80 season. This team is making history — both good and bad.
Pinpointing exactly why the team defence is so bad is not only difficult, it's probably futile. It's clear that this roster simply isn't equipped to be a good defensive team, which is pretty much what I predicted before the season. I said this would be a subpar squad in the areas of defence and rebounding, but even I didn't realize it would be this bad. Along with their epic defence fail, the Raptors are also 27th in the league in rebounding differential. Chris Bosh is tied for third in the league with 11.6 rebounds per game, but he's pretty much on his own in that starting frontcourt. He's averaging 11.8 rebounds per 36 minutes this season, compared to 6.8 per 36 for Bargnani (awful for a center) and 4.5 per 36 for Turkoglu (putrid for a six-foot-10 player at any position).
Is it fair to put all the blame for the stupefyingly bad defence on the players? I say no. I think a team's offensive ability is dictated mostly by the skill level of the players, whereas a team's defensive ability has more to do with the ability of its coaching staff to plan a defensive strategy that suits the personnel. Case in point: the Milwaukee Bucks. In the 2007-08 season when they were coached by Larry Krystkowiak, the Bucks finished dead-last in the NBA in Defensive Rating. Last season, defensive-minded coach Scott Skiles took over and their defence improved drastically to 15th in the league. So far this season, Skiles's defence is the best in the league — allowing just 91 points per 100 possessions.
Naturally, there's been significant roster turnover in Milwaukee from two seasons ago. But Andrew Bogut is still in the middle and no position in basketball is nearly as important for setting a defensive tone than center. They've acquired some good defensive players like Luc Mbah a Moute and Hakim Warrick since '06-07, but the Bucks surely wouldn't be such a lockdown force up to this point in the season without Skiles' guiding hand.
Who did the Raptors bring in to assist with their defensive strategy? Marc Iavaroni, who led the Memphis Grizzlies to the third-worst Defensive Rating in the league in his only full season as their coach. I can't say it would have occurred to me that he's the guy I want to be the defensive guru of my basketball team. In fact, it makes about as much sense as hiring Ron Artest to be your psychologist.
Whatever Triano and Iavaroni are trying to accomplish on the defensive end is failing spectacularly and they need to try something else. More man-to-man, different types of zones, more presses... I don't really know for certain, but I'm not a coach. One way I would try to switch it up is by giving Rasho Nesterovic 20-25 minutes per game over the next few games and reducing the time that Bosh and Bargnani are on the floor at the same time. Rasho isn't Dwight Howard but he's still the best post defender on the team.
This team is like the Bizarro version of the Kevin O'Neill Raptors from the 2003-04 season. That team was excruciating to watch because they couldn't score. This year's team is agonizing to watch because they can't stop the other team from scoring. Regardless, Bryan Colangelo is fully accountable for this freak show. It's his coaching staff and most of the players are his acquisitions. Now into his fourth season as President and GM, the Raptors are no closer to being taken seriously than they ever have.
Sweet Raptors Play of the Game: At 5:45 in the first quarter, Raptors up 16-12, the Spurs inbounded to Ginobili on the Spurs logo at halfcourt and DeMar DeRozan got into position to guard him. His rookie mistake was that he got way to close to him that far away from the basket, and Manu simply put it on the floor and dribbled right past him down the middle of the lane. But as Manu started to rise up for the layup, DeMar blocked the shot from behind, right into Chris Bosh's hands. It reminded me of an athletic cornerback who gets burned by a wide receiver, but he has the speed to catch up and make the interception anyway. There's no question DeRozan has the athleticism to be a great defender, with, uh... the right coaching.
