How is defensive basketball going to change/make a comeback?

[Carbine]

With the addition of the stretch bigs or not even playing a traditional big man in favor of floor spacing on offense and switching ability on defense.......

How's it ever going to change? The rim protectors who would have been close to the rim guarding the likes of Eric Dampier types are now being dragged out on pick and rolls or to corner threes. The impact they have has been cut drastically. It's still there but not like it used to be.

Is this literally the very peak of team offensive basketball? What's the next step in the evolution of offense? I think this is it.

What's the defensive counter to all this? Obviously rule changes but I do not believe they are ever going to go back to the way rules were.

[NBAGOAT]

figuring out the optimal way to guard the pnr whether it's drop, switching, trapping etc. That could mean permanently going small. Once that gets countered better along with some harsher illegal screen rules, we'll see a little more offensive diversity

[Marchesk]

With the addition of the stretch bigs or not even playing a traditional big man in favor of floor spacing on offense and switching ability on defense.......

How's it ever going to change? The rim protectors who would have been close to the rim guarding the likes of Eric Dampier types are now being dragged out on pick and rolls or to corner threes. The impact they have has been cut drastically. It's still there but not like it used to be.

Is this literally the very peak of team offensive basketball? What's the next step in the evolution of offense? I think this is it.

What's the defensive counter to all this? Obviously rule changes but I do not believe they are ever going to go back to the way rules were.

The new normal is games in the 120s and 130s. Playing good defense will mean holding a team under 115, but any defense is going to get burned when a team is shooting well.

[FromDowntown]

It is MUCH harder to guard 5 skilled players that can spread the floor. This isnt weal ass 1991 anymore, people have multiple skills now. Everyone can shoot now.

[bison]

With a lakers chip :rockon:

[Nashty]

By having 5 players like Giannis who can guard every position, and then just switch everything.

[ralph_i_el]

If defensive basketball was gone, then we wouldn't see a big gap between the top and bottom defenses. However, the gap is massive. The quality of defense is relative. If scoring is easier access the board, it doesn't necessarily mean defense is less important. If anything, it means putting together a good defense is even more valuable than ever. Defense now means moving your feet, playing the PnR intelligently, covering transition opportunities, and managing your opponent's shot selection with switching and hedging. It's more complicated to play good D than ever.

[Gudo]

Everyone can shoot better now because that is the focus and because you cant rough up players anymore, there is less fatigue and there is more confidence on shots.

[ralph_i_el]

I'm just going through bball ref and clicking random seasons, but it looks like the best defenses and the worst defenses are about 10-15 PPG apart just about every year. That tells me you can play good defense, because "good" or "great" is relative to your peers.

[Marchesk]

I'm just going through bball ref and clicking random seasons, but it looks like the best defenses and the worst defenses are about 10-15 PPG apart just about every year. That tells me you can play good defense, because "good" or "great" is relative to your peers.

It was the same in the 60s.

[Carbine]

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make with that.

Defense is the same level relative to competition as it was in 2005 when 87-82 games were still common.

It wasn't long ago that the Warriors were great on defebs. It can be done, I thought the Raptors last year were very attentive to defensive detail in the playoffs.

So it can be done. But we have so so so many teams that are just straight garbage on defense, basically having the I'll just outscore you attitude.

[Marchesk]

So it can be done. But we have so so so many teams that are just straight garbage on defense, basically having the I'll just outscore you attitude.

Thing was until tonight we didn't see that great Clippers defense. Mavs were making them look bad. So if that can be done to the Clippers, what chance does any defense have? But looks like they've fixed some of their issues and are playing with more urgency. That and the Lakers defense showed up after losing their first game.

[Carbine]

I'd love to see a team employ a full court press at times, or at the very least pick up at 3/4 and apply as much ball pressure as possible.

Kind of like what Pippen did to Magic - even though it didn't effect the final offensive result it at least looked like the defense was competing their ass off and making them work.

How about switching up defenses, throwing in some zone here and there like the Warriors faced against Toronto last finals that had Curry calling it Janky or whatever it was. At least try, you're giving up 120 anyway these days.

How about having a no switch policy on defense? Ever see that anymore? Again, you're already giving up 120, it can't get much worse.

Yeah it's tough to fight over screens, but I've seen plenty of examples that have the defensive player showing tremendous effort to fight over and it works.

Then I see guys/team philosophies that auto switch everything even if it means having their worst defender against the best offensive player. It's just too easy, I'd like to see some show of resistance.