golden state warriors defensive ranking (Photo: Elise Amendola/Associated Press)
WARRIORS PRACTICE FACILITY, OAKLAND, CA — Not too long ago, in fact almost a year to the date at the annual MIT Sloan Conference on sports analytics, David Lee was taken to the dumpsters about his defense. As Ethan Strauss reported:
The building roared with laughter as (Harvard scholar and sports analytics aficionado Kirk) Goldsberry played footage of Lee’s defensive lowlights. The reel was graced with a graphic that called Lee “The Golden Gate.” It was like a film session wherein a coach embarassess some poor, hapless rookie — only Lee wasn’t present for the roasting. After the visual skewering, Goldsberry used terms like “All-Star” and “David Lee money” as self-evident barbs.
A lot has happened since a year ago, though. First off, Andrew Bogut is healthy again. And secondly, the Warriors coaching staff and front office personnel, as well as Lee himself, may have gotten the message, as Strauss wrote, “Word will certainly get back to Warriors owner Joe Lacob and Warriors general manager Bob Myers, who are both attending the conference, but it’s debatable as to whether such withering criticism matters.”
Now that Klay Thompson has made a shot heard ’round the NBA, all the while holding the Indiana Pacers to just 96 points, national writers are beginning to take notice.
In a piece this morning entitled Golden State Warriors defending at historically high level, Dan Feldman of ProBasketballTalk.com writes:
Lee’s defensive rebounding has fallen off a bit this season, likely because Bogut – ranked fourth in the NBA in defensive-rebounding percentage – is stealing some. The Warriors still rank a robust fifth in defensive rebounding this season.
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If Lee’s defensive rebounding has suffered, his defense has improved in other areas.
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Goldsberry’s critique centered around a stat he created that showed opponents hit 61 percent of their close shots when Lee defended within five feet of the basket.
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In a similar stat – measuring opponents’ field-goal percentage when the defender is “within five feet of the basket and within five feet of the offensive player attempting the shot” – Lee rates even better this year.
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He holds opponents to 48.1 percent – better than Dwight Howard, Tim Duncan and DeAndre Jordan.
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“As I’ve gotten some criticism for it in the past, I’ve tried to get better and better at it,” Lee said. “I think this year, I’ve finally kind of broken through.”
“I’ve really tried to become a better defender,” Lee told LetsGoWarriors today after practice, “Nowadays in the NBA is team defense. I mean, there’s the days when you play against the marquee player. Stopping them with one guy is very difficult and you see all the great scorers in the league, so our team defense is one of the best in the league and I’d like to think that I’m part of that.”
Last year, Zach Lowe of Grantland reported coach Mark Jackson‘s change in defensive strategy:
It’s nice to preach effort and passion and hustle, but the real story starts with boring old X’s and O’s. Mark Jackson, at the urging of his staff, decided over the summer to completely revamp Golden State’s basic defensive philosophy, he tells Grantland. The Warriors last season — without a proper training camp — mostly defended opposing pick-and-rolls by having the big man guarding the screener scamper far up above the screen, toward mid-court, to try to cut off the ball handler out there.
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It didn’t work. Ball handlers turned the corner easily on Lee, Andris Biedrins, Jeremy Tyler, and the rest of Golden State’s bigs, slicing into the teeth of the defense and bending it until it broke. (Note: The Warriors were also tanking.) Deep penetration draws crisis-level help and creates open opportunities all around the floor — spot-up jumpers, chances at the rim for cutters, and wide lanes through which to pursue offensive rebounds.
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Golden State has ditched that strategy. On pick-and-rolls in the middle of the floor, the Warriors now have their point guards try to force opposing ball handlers in a particular direction while the big man on the screener drops down toward the foul line on that side of the screen. The goal is to force the ball handler into a pocket above the foul line — to have the big man (Lee, Landry, whomever) waiting there, walling off the paint, as Stephen Curry or Jarrett Jack chases the opposing point guard from behind. It is the job of Curry and Jack to take away one direction at the start of the pick-and-roll, and to direct the the opposing guard the other way. At times, that means overplaying an opponent’s strong hand. At other times, it means jumping right in front of the screener, blocking the point guard’s path around the pick, and forcing him to dribble away from it.
“(Pick-and-roll) is something that 4-men (power forwards like Lee) get put in fifty times a game and I’ve tried to just get better guarding in iso situations,” Lee said, “I think I’ve really made improvements, but once again it’s about playing to our team defense and sticking to our principles and our coaching staff does a great job of keeping things simple for us.”
“I think we just recently moved up to number three (behind the Pacers and Chicago Bulls),” Jermaine O’Neal said after practice today, “We’re very excited about that. I’m sure you can ask 10,000 fans wherever, ‘Who’s the top three defensive teams?’ I guarantee you it’d be less than 1% that said the Golden State Warriors, just because we have a high-powered offensive team.”
“We take a lot of pride and that’s been from Day One. When we came into camp, we talked a lot about defense and things have just really been starting to evolve,” O’Neal added, “It’s crazy that they were talking about this in Boston, too. They were surprised that we were as tough defensively. TNT talks a lot about the three-point shots that we take.”
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