This team feels like a potential juggernaut hampered by defensive liabilities.
Tyrese/Pascal are negative defenders. Tyrese very much so, Pascal a bit negative but can be good in moments. They are both fantastic offensive players.
The rest of the starters are good to great defensively, and we often lose games because of Tyrese especially getting picked on by opposing guards. If we play the Cavs in Rd 1, Mitchell/Garland are going to spam any Tyrese PnR and make him guard them. How do you deal with this? Feels like we don’t help him at all, and also still make Pascal chase guards and wings around screens while he struggles mightily with it. What is the playoff plan when teams are better and better prepared?
Edit: People are losing it suggesting Pascal is a “negative” defender. “Negative” may be a bit aggressive but he certainly isn’t some all world defender you all are suggesting he is. He was years ago but has not been that and certainly hasn’t been on the Pacers, not sure what y’all are watching.
Edit: https://x.com/naptownjosh/status/1779269766731174306
https://x.com/naptownjosh/status/1779270223834837029
by BaseballNo6013
15 Comments
Are you out of your mind? Pascal is one of the best defenders at his position in the game today. His defensive prowess is one of the reasons he won a championship, has been an all star.
You don’t know ball
Disagree about Pascal. I think it has a lot to do with scheme. I don’t know that we really have much of a defensive strategy (other than just try to stop them). Also, this is totally anecdotal, it seems we (and at times refs) frequently bail out the other team on possessions that we’ve defended well.
Tyrese is one of the worst defenders in the league. I still remember a few games ago he just let Schroeder drive to the net with 0 resistance. Pascal on the other hand? You’re nuts to think he’s a negative.
You know who’s even more infuriating and getting consistent minutes? Doug! Not only is he awful defensively but offensively he’s got one thing, running around picks trying to get open, and he’s not good at it anymore. Either keep him out the rotation like the second half or play Walker those minutes.
Why is a big chasing through screens like a guard? They are playing Pascal on the defensive end wrong.
to compare Tyrese and Pascal defensively you are out of your mind. Pascal is an amazing defender. Tyrese is THE worst defender in the league by a wide margin.
We would do so much better on defense if we just cut off baseline cuts. I haven’t done the research to know how many per game we are giving up. Perhaps I should. But, how many possessions do we lock up and then they get a wide open pass to a baseline cutter? I think this is a problem when Nembhard and Nesmith have to be on-ball a lot because they aren’t there to stop it.
Statistically there’s only 4 positive defensive players on the roster
2 of them are centers and one doesn’t play very much
There’s only so much you can do with that
I would say Siakam is average defensively, not negative. Tyrese is obviously bad.
Siakam: in the 19-20 season he finished 15th in All-Defense voting having top-15 marks around the NBA in Defensive Win Shares, Defensive Plus-Minus, and his elevated play on this end helped Toronto to the second round of the playoffs and he himself was an All Star that year. That was 4 years ago, he’s seen a dip in defensive production since then as the league has adjusted to different offensive systems and foul calling. Currently, in his tenure with the Pacers, his defensive stats hover right around Net-0 implying a level of league average play on that end as an individual. BUT defense stats are extremely reliant on context and *team* performance – one could surmise that his individual stats leave something to be desired therefore he himself isn’t a good defender but this is flat out wrong. The eye test paints a different picture, using his center of gravity and length he’s able to muscle against stronger bigs in the post where only his smaller size can be a problem as we saw Jarrett Allen sling some hook shots over him. However, guarding Evan Mobley who uses old school post moves and back to basket moves similar to Siakam, we saw last night how good he is at making defensive reads to stay in front of him and challenge Mobley at the rim again and again. Siakam’s quick footwork and lateral speed also tends to cause problems for guards and perimeter players and this has been well showcased in several games (recent Toronto, Lakers, Dallas, and GSW games have plenty of good examples). He struggles to understand the defensive scheme at times, as to be expected joining the team mid season and having to learn on the fly. ideally in the offseason he learns to tandem with Turner better to utilize Myles as a shot blocker while shifting over to prevent passes in the lane and box out Turner’s man – there’s been instances of this on display and it works beautifully.
Haliburton has been an obvious negative on defense all year but more recent play suggests he’s learning ways to be productive on that side of the court despite his shortcomings and this is mostly by reading passing lanes and bothering shooters curling around screens – two areas he’s really improved on and has caused a handful of turnovers. he might never be a POA defender or have lower body strength to handle physical drives but he can learn to utilize his length better at the rim still to be a problem – let guys blow by and then bother the shot attempt using his reach. the team is also getting a lot better at knowing when to double to help him as teams hunt him relentlessly. the current starting group is getting pretty good at rotating – but rim protection and boxing out still needs some improvement. the MO all year has been chase guys off the line to prevent threes, whether Myles gets there to block the shot or not we’d rather they score a two and we score a three.
Folks have already commented on Siakam.
As for Tyrese, he’s quick, he’s long, he knows the game… it’s his effort/mentality that’s the problem. I get the impression that he believes no matter what he does on defense, he thinks he can overcome it on the other end. It’s a really poor attitude to have.
Rese is a bit of a pussy defensively. That’s mostly okay but what it does is takes his actually decent team/rotation defense reading and makes it look bad. Let’s attacking players finish easy even tho he knows it’s coming. He obviously reads the game well and he’s like 6’5 so he should be able to get in those lanes and muck it up more. He got quite a few blocks this month actually. But it could be better if he was tough.
He’s probably just being safe, not to get hurt. Like a QB not taking hits.
His on ball is just doggy. He’s not athletic enough to be a natural at it and probably doesn’t work on it.
Score more points then the other team
Tyrese’s main problem is work ethic. He clearly doesn’t want to put effort in on the defensive end when he has the physical ability to do so. Hopefully with more maturity that will change.