Originally Posted by
Kingspoint
Defense wins Championships.
The current roster of the Portland Trailblazers is set up to win a Championship.
Portland will earn the #2 seed in the Western Conference this season and meet Golden State in the Western Conference Finals. From there, anything can happen.
Defense is the least understood element of basketball. In the current NBA climate, it's less understood than it was 10, 20, 30 and 40 years ago mostly because it's rarely played. Contracts are given to the players who score the most. Interviews after games are given to players who score the most. Championship trophies are given to teams who play the best Defense. Cleveland had the two best ISO scorers in the NBA in Irving and James. Golden State had the better combination of a team Defense and an Offense that creates the highest shot percentages in the league.
Here's why Portland's current roster is set up to Win a Championship:
1. Their continuity. Their rotation players have played together the longest than any team other than Golden State. This means that they have the opportunity to communicate better on Defense than any other team than Golden State and San Antonio, if they are committed to playing Defense.
2. Their experience. Though they were the youngest team in the NBA last season by average age, their rotation players all have 4-7 years of NBA experience, except Nurkic, who has about three. It's hard enough to play Defense in the NBA when you don't know the plays the other team is running. During a player's first 3-4 years in the NBA, all they are thinking about is scoring and if they are standing in the right spot on Offense. Defensively, as each year passes, each NBA player gleens the ability to recognize an opponent's play and what and where all five players will be doing and moving on a given play. Nobody does this year after year better than the Spurs. It's their (Pop's) signature. Everyone is committed to learning it.
Where it breaks down for teams is when anything other than all five players recognise the opponent's entire play and anticipate where to be defensively. Breakdown ocvurs if one doesn't know it all, more if two don't more if three don't, etc. Bur, here's where it gets more difficult. The Defense must be communicated by all five players continuously. This is where San Antonio is always superior to the rest of the league. They don't have better talent, usually worse, in fact, but they are always better prepared and they execute better defensively. For teams other than San Antonio who are changing Coaches and players all the time, this communication is difficult to create. Golden State has an experienced core that communicates it well, and Durant is an excellent, dedicated defender the last couple of seasons.
3. Lillard and C.J. have reached the level of decent defenders, whil Aminu, Harkless and Turner all play Defense at an All-NBA level, but more importantly, they now all have the knowledge of knowing most, if not all, of the opponents' plays and not just can, but are communicating with each other, the defensive assignments on each play that will best interrupt the play and create a more difficult FG attempt.
4. This is a negative and a positive: Nurkic is still a year or two or three from gleening the entire opponent's plays and assignments, but Nurkic' defensive desires and rim protection allow the other four players to take more chances to overplay passing lanes and to get closer to the ball and to push people off of the three-point line without the greatef consequence of giving up a play in the lane. Lillard, C.J., Moe, Turner, Chief and even Connaughton, who has a very high basketball IQ, unlike Crabbe, are all telling Nurkic where to be on Defense, while Nurk naturally knows to simply guard the paint and the rim.
5. The entire team is deducated to Defense this year, led by Lillard. Lillard switched to a vegan diet to get himself more trim and to make himself quicker and to give himself more sustainable energy. He knows that his scoring output will drop this season simply because he will be expending a tremendous amount of energy defensively. He's already demonstrated it throughout the preseason and in the first two games. Steals and blocks aren't measures of Defensive performance. They're fantasy stats, especially blocks. A kicked ball is better than a block that goes back to an opponent because it allows for the defense to reset while a shotblock leads to an easier shot attempt as the defensive shell is broken down at that point. But, Lillard had five deflections, a steal and three blocks against Phoenix (Bledsoe and Booker are the starting Guards) in three quarters, and fiur deflections, a steal and a block in the first half against Indiana (Oladipo and Collison are the starting Guards).
Nurkic dropped 35 pounds in the offseason so he can have more stamina and move more quickly on Defensive switches. There are no defensive metrics that measure defense very well, as defense is all about switching, interruption of the opponent's play, forcing a lower percentage shot, chasing the opponent off of the 3-point line, securing the defensive rebound, getting back defensively in transition, getting in front of and stopping the ball, and communicating correctly with each other constantly. It takes a lot more energy on Offense, does not get rewarded by the press or the paycheck, and consequently, does not get played by 90% of the league's better scorers. Nurkic is dedicated to becoming a good defensive player.
Turner's realistic goal is to be All-NBA Defense. Aminu already is if you look at him game after game. Whoever Aminu guards always has a subpar game. In addition, Aminu has 28 Rebounds through two games and had 16 points last night. Moe is very good defensively, but he's dedicated this season to being great.