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Patrick James :@justin

In the Bolts thread you called Green “a nice perimeter defender,” if I recall correctly.

Everything is relative, as they say.

@Sammy
We do give up a lot of inexplicably easy layups. I think the team as a whole is really missing someone to give more detailed help on their motions in the defense (Ron Adams perhaps). When we help, we overhelp, often with two of our guys leaving men open for easy passes. When we show, we don't help enough, and the opponent can tell we aren't actually putting up any real resistance. The way we have been abused on pick and rolls this year shows both of these a lot. If a guard wants to drive, he knows the big man showing off the pick isn't really trying to stop him (underhelping). If the guard looks to pass, the rolling man is always open (because both players overhelp to the guard).

@Patrick James
well compared to green's post defense

@Sammy
all of those thigns are coachable, just not with brooks and no great defensive assistant

Also shows a clip of a baseline drive, where no one helps because no one is aware of what's happening with the ball. KD is the main culprit in this clip as he had the best position to rotate and help.

@justin

In the Bolts thread you called Green "a nice perimeter defender," if I recall correctly.

@justin
That just seems silly, though. Gay was boxed in by two sidelines. Green could have easily manned-up there if he had any defensive sense - give up a little more room to the baseline so you can't get beaten around the open court side, then force Gay behind the backboard or into an out of bounds turnover if he really tries to drive. That seemed much more a case of poor defensive IQ.

Green's defensive problems have been well-hashed here. More interesting to me was the team defensive breakdowns later in the post. The best one is where Marco Bellinelli is able to get Thabo on his hip going right (despite Thabo obviously hedging to try to make Marco go left), Durant quickly showing on the help at the free throw line, but not holding his position long enough before retreating back to his man on the wing, then Serge being late to rotate into the lane to challenge the shot. The result is a way too easy layup right down the middle of the lane.

@Keith

Yep... Pruiti says Green is playing off him because he doesn't have the quickness to stop Gay from getting to the rim.

@justin
Was that Gay in the first clip (the only one I could see)? That seemed like plain dumb defense. He sat in between the three point line and basket for no reason. Essentially, he gave up a free three point shot by not defending anyone. I assume he didn't know his teammates were behind him, but even then, defend the man you can rather than no one.

Green's quick but he has poor technique guarding the perimeter, and he's not quick enough to guard guys like Rudy Gay who is featured in one of the clips.

@Bryan
Green seems quicker even than Durant, though obviously Durant's length gives him and edge as a defender.

Green is pretty quick. He can defend SF’s just find. The problem is, he never has the chance.

i would assume thabo has dropped off as well, thats what the look test tells me at least. russ was always bad at man defense and i dont think that has changed.

@Sammy
For those of us who aren't subscribers, could you give the down and dirty of the article? I assume it's not just Green.

Guess I shoulda posted this here: The clip with Durant’s quick show and quick retreat was especially perceptive. He’s done that a lot this year and it always just LOOKS wrong.