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What is wrong with the Jazz Defense

O

oldtimer

Well-Known Member
Last year people said our defense was bad because Boozer and Memo couldn't guard the pick and roll. Jazz fans have also complained that we don't guard the three point line. Lately I've seen lots of talk about missing defensive rotations (helping the helper) type problems. I do not know why our guards are having so much trouble guarding the high screen and roll. Opposing point guards seems to drive uncontested to the hole all game long.

I'm starting to wonder if the problem is not the players, but the coaches. I've read that Jerry Sloan liked to force base-line, while other teams like to force middle. I have no idea what Corbin's defensive strategies are, but they look bad. I think coaches matter and I point to the coach of the Bulls, Tom Tibadeau (spelling bad). He benched Boozer early in the year for his defensive rotations and now says Boozer is playing much better defense. Chicago is playing very good defense at the moment.

Celtics, Bulls, Thunder all play real good team defense and they switch like crazy. Whatever they are doing I think we need to employ that type of system. I think if the Jazz fixed their defense they would be winning some of these close ball games instead of finding ways to lose.
 
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oldtimer said:
So you believe its the players and not the system the jazz are using.
Click to expand...

I believe it's the coach most of all. I said for the last 18 months to fire Sloan and hire Thibodeau and we missed the boat. Chicago does not have elite defenders yet they're buying into his philosophy and kicking *** on that side of the ball.
 
What is wrong with the Jazz Defense? Their is none. I am amazed the Jazz can never stop the three. Boler said that during the month of Feb, Jazz opponents shot 44% from three. That is a staggering stat. Our wings just can not stop anyone. In my opinion, the perimeter is hurting us the most. The second part that hurts is our rebounding. We have little chance of winning when we get out rebounded.
 
KrazeeEyeKilla you were absolutely right. Thibodeau is a stud coach and I love his defensive philosophy. Why can't we employ the same system?

I try to read about the jazz every day, but since Corbin was hired I have not seen anything reported about his defensive system. Does anybody know if Corbin's defensive system is the same as Sloan's (ie force baseline)? I would love to know what they are supposed to be doing, because it looks like every man for himself out there.
 
The team has been weak on D for several years at least. Some could be players, some must be coaching. They seem totally intent on doubling almost anyone in or near the paint, at the cost of leaving folks open at the 3 pt line. We seem to have a habit of giving wide open 3s at the end of games.

And Jerry Junior seems to be employing all he "learned" from 7 years under Sloan. I agree with the poster above about Tibadeau. Couldn't they at least steal someone for assistant who know Tibs defense?
 
Um, Jazz philosophy is to force to the middle, and most other teams try to force baseline.

Jazz decide to show on the pick and roll, forcing the defender being picked to go between the two bigs to get back to his man. The other defending big not in the pick and roll generally zones out, trying to guard both the big rolling and his own man in the second it takes the wing/PG to recover to his man. If the rolling big cuts hard, the big in the pick and roll will switch while the zoning big takes on the pick and roll big.

Two things happen that cause problems. First, the small can't recover to his man, forcing the zoning big to go one on one, leaving essentially a two on one with the guard and the zoning big's man. Second, a defending wing is forced to collapse to cover this two on one, leaving a wing open. Third, one or both of the offensive bigs have long range shooting ability, stretching the zoning big way too much, and eventually leaving one of them open. Fourth, the showing big does a poor job delaying the guard, and the whole defense breaks down trying to cover that deficiency.

It all starts with problem number 4. A bad, slow, inept show by the big causes problem one to happen. Problem one can happen even with a good show, and a number of our guards often fail to recover on their own accord.

Maybe the Jazz could go under screens more, but it's kind of a lazy philosophy to generally go under screens instead of fighting through them. You should go under screens to adapt to the player, not as a general strategy.

I will say that a lot of it has to do with Jefferson. At the beginning of the year, I was actually pleased with how he showed on the pick and roll. He made sure the guard had to back off a bit, or take longer to go around him without fouling. However, teams picked up on his inability to recover to his man (or his fellow big's man) in a timely manner, so they started to take advantage of that. I think Jefferson has recently started to turn back to his man a bit more quickly in the last ten games or so, and that has opened the lane up for the guard to get into.
 
We've been doubling down in the paint since I began following the Jazz more than 15 years ago. I remember once during those first years I was watching them that Hubie Brown explained that it was Jerry's philosophy to give up the three ball because the percentages were in our favor that they'd miss. Well, guys shoot the three a lot more confidently today and Jerry simply refused to acknowledge this and was too stubborn to change. To make matters worse, with poor defenders i we've had in the paint, we were forced to continue to do this in any case.
 
Does everyone realize that when guys are shooting a lot of three's it doesn't mean that we need better wing defenders. It also relates to interior defense as well. If you let them far enough into the paint than the defense sucks in and it allows open 3 point shots.

It is absolutely the defensive scheme. Greg Popovich is very stricts on never allowing 3 point shots. He says if you are guarding somebody in the corner don't leave your man. When the entire team knows which guy is staying home it allows the other players to know there role of helping. It creates structure on defense.
We haven't had structure on defense for a long time. And its chaos and that is why we all can remember guys chasing 3 point shooters for over 10 years. We have never been good at stoping the 3 point shot.
Back in the 90's when the 3 point shot was rarely taken and the mid range shot was king the Jazz defense was great. The game has changed! We need to worry about the 3 point ball more and that is why Popovich has had one of the best defenses over the past decade. The rest of the league changed while we got stuck in Sloan's ways.
 
I think this has been Corbin's biggest fault thus far. Offense is surprisingly good, but rotations have been far worse since Sloan left. Guys are losing their man almost constantly. I have noticed Corbin rarely uses the zone where Sloan was able to use it effectively against the right lineups. Of course I also have to throw out the arbitrary "Al is not a true center", because on D he is not much of a help defender.
 
Darkwing

I don't mean to be contrary, but that is opposite of what Deron Williams said when he was traded. Deron said the Nets defense was weird because Sloan was always trying to force baseline and Avery was forcing middle. You may be right, but I thought it was exactly backwards. Either way I don't think it completely the power forwards fault. Favors shows hard and gets back to his man quickly and we were still getting beat by New York. Maybe the help defense needs to come from another player on the pick and roll.
 
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