Re: Zone defense

["j.hironaka" <j.hironaka@unesco.org>]

At 10:31 03/12/01 -0800, Roy Enrile wrote:
>It looks like the Celtic zone is different from what the Timberwolves are
>running.  Minnesota's sometimes running a traditional zone that Flip
>Saunders says he pulled up from his college films.  The Celtics semi zone
>was used the entire game in Toronto and they've used it before, but
>jumpshooting/passing teams like Atlanta were breaking it.
>
>Against against Carter and Mcgrady (isolation guys), they're just playing
>last years illegal defense, every single play that goes inside.
>It's man to man, with most of the defenders cheating towards the paint(one
>foot in).  When the ball goes to the post or someone gets beat on the
>perimeter, THREE to FIVE people swarm to the ball, and two people are
>jumping to challenge the shot.
>
>The rotations to cut off the first open man are coming hard and
>beforehand, so one on one offensive players are getting frustrated.  When
>the ball gets back out, even Antoine is sprinting to the shooter so it's
>not a wide open J.  It seems to work o.k. when the opponents have
>unconfident long range shooters out there(Kidd, Jefferson, Mo Petersen,
>all the Toronto PF's, the Orlando team without Hill (injured) and Miller
>(foul trouble) ).
>
>Kenny, Paul and Antoine still have abnormally quick instincts for
>deflections from the Pitino era.  But in those days the C's doubled on
>the perimeter and gave up more layups than I've seen from any team ever.
>Now with the crowds inside, there's a lot of collisions, misses and
>defensive boards.  For now, E.W. and Strickland fit this style better than
>a J.J. or Forte(who would've been good in Pitino's press).
>
>Our PF and backup center still can't block shots, and transition
>D is weak though.  Dick Harter seems to have helped the same way he did
>with Bird and Pat Riley.  There's a little defensive pride and hustle
>showing even on a back to back!

Thanks very much Roy for taking the time to write what sure sounds like a 
meticulous analyis on an issue I know very little about (my knowledge of 
"zone" never amounted to more than "2-1-2").

I almost hate to admit it, but your description might be interpreted as a 
good advertisement for the merits of the Obie/Wallace drafting strategy 
(draft guys who can defend and shoot the ball to complement your two iso 
guys). Moreover, you can begin to grasp why Obie would want four guys on 
the floor including his power forward to be able to shoot and dribble a 
little (hence no PT for a "traditional" power forward). Any thoughts?

What's sweet is that down the road at least some of our three rookies might 
be able to create their own shots, in addition to being decent shooters and 
defenders as rookies go. Well yes, I'm just being positive because of the 
impressive and entertaining results of the weekend.

Do you guys think our defense is so dramatically better statistically 
because of a change in coaching system or because of a personnel upgrade 
Pitino wasn't privy too (Strickland and rookies Kedrick and Johnson...plus 
the maturity factor all around the roster)? Of course, it would seem to me 
that Bowen, Griffin and Stith etc. were roughly just as competent on 
defense as Strickland and Eric Williams. But there are unrelated 
circumstances like the new zone rules, for those who don't want to blame it 
all on Pitino.

I don't know what's going on, but the Celts defense has been hellacious at 
times in the past week. You just have to go back to previous years and 
think how rarely we held any team anywhere near under 40% shooting for four 
quarters. If any of this progress is sustainable despite all the evident 
defensive shortcomings (principally shotblocking), we might actually have a 
pretty good team and a pretty exciting year in store.

Joe