Our friend James Ham at The Purple Panjandrum talked with Samuel Dalembert on everything from defensive communication, watching tape, and being named the starter. Here’s a snippet, followed by the link:
TPP: Last night you guys got killed on a handful of alley-oop dunks by the Lakers – is that a communication issue because you guys just haven’t played that much together?
Sammy D: It’s both. I would say it’s communication and positioning. A lot of times when you’re playing, you got to get down a little bit and see where the ball is at and see your man. It happened to us like a few times and I was the victim of one of them. I was very upset at myself and that’s why I started to communicate a little bit more out there and trying to get everybody going and communicating. As you can tell, they are a very experienced team. Kobe Bryant saw it, I saw it and I should have anticipated it because I seen them talking, going like this (points to his eyes). You know, with my experience, I should have been vocal quicker and I blame myself on one of them or two of them. But we worked on that today.
Check out the rest of the interview here.
Dalembert taking over defensive communication on the court might be the biggest key for what this team does moving forward. They’ve been a pretty atrocious defensive unit in the first five games. Yes, they make defensive runs and have gotten key stops in their victories but overall, they’re giving up way too many points, way too easily.
If you look at what a team like Boston does or what Chicago does, they have one man at the back of the defense barking out all of the communication and letting his teammates know what is about to happen. Kevin Garnett does in Beantown. Joakim Noah does it in Chitown. And now Samuel Dalembert will do it in Sactown. Knowing what’s going on and what is about to happen (calling out screens, cuts, etc.) is huge for being a good defensive team at anticipating the opponent. I think Dalembert taking it upon himself the responsibility of being communicative will be a great addition to the team.
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