Defense

["hironaka@xxxxxxxxx"<hironaka@xxxxxxxxx>]

On the face of it, Shammond and Vinnie seem like 
potential coach killers. I guess some would argue that's 
not a bad thing in our case.

What stands out most is their poor defense, if 
sonicscentral.com is to be believed. How will Chris 
Wallace justify adding guys who get "D"s and "F"s on 
defense?

Dick Harter has his work cut out for him. If the Celtics 
continue to play good defense next year, he deserves a 
big raise.


SHAMMOND WILLIAMS
Defense: Soon thereafter, Williams' myriad defensive 
lapses were costly against Dallas and Houston, and he was 
replaced in the rotation by CBA callup Randy Livingston 
(....) 
On a poor defensive team, Williams was probably the 
Sonics' worst defender. Despite excellent speed, for 
whatever reason (lack of defensive intensity?) he does 
little to stop opposing guards on the perimeter. As an 
undersized point, he can be overpowered in the post. His 
worst defensive trait, however, is a tendency to wander 
instead of sticking a player without the ball. This leads 
to frequent open perimeter jumpers which killed the 
Sonics when Williams played regularly (...) I had faith 
in Williams until this season, but he was quickly exposed 
to me for what he is: a selfish shooting guard forced to 
play point because of his size who plays no defense 
whatsoever. I was quickly off the bandwagon. So too were 
other Sonics fans. While last year the consensus at games 
was that Williams should be playing more and Davis less, 
some of this year's loudest moaning from the crowd was 
when Williams was brought in to 'spark' the team. One 
guess how well it worked.  
Grade: F 

VIN BAKER
Defense: Again, Vin was unwilling to use his body to his 
advantage and play the game of positioning and angles 
that is critical to effective post defense. The 
opposition could also take Baker out on the perimeter and 
blow by him now that added weight has robbed him of much 
of his old quickness. Then, too frequently, Baker was not 
on defense at all on fast break situations, instead 
loitering in the front court. While this is excusable 
from the ancient 39 year old Ewing, it was unacceptable 
for Baker. The one defensive area Baker did improve last 
season was in blocking shots, but even this was a mixed 
bag. In his late-season agressiveness defensively, Baker 
often overextended himself, leaving his man open for a 
dunk on the interior. As well, Baker too frequently 
spikes the ball out of bounds as opposed to tapping the 
ball to a teammate to start a fast break. Grade: D 


***

-------------------
L'e-mail gratuit pas comme les autres.
NOMADE.FR, pourquoi chercher ailleurs ?