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The 2008-2009 Defense(less) Golden State Warriors

Tim's annual NBA All No-Defense Teams always crack me up: My mid-season NBA All No-Defense Team candidates: Nash, Martin, Jamison, Crawford… and more [Talking Points}

Some Warriors MIA on the list (and we're not talking Paper Planes) after the jump.

Star-divide

Kelenna Azubuike: Just can't stay in front of many swingmen in this league. The focus on this side of the ball isn't always there.

Marco Belinelli: He's at least trying on D which he wasn't doing last year, but his footwork is poor and he doesn't seem to have much grasp of proper positioning. Makes you wonder if he's even paying attention on this side of the ball sometimes.

Andris Biedrins: Easily the Warriors most overrated defender and one of the worst big men in the league in this area. He's incredibly soft down low and for some reason still thinks it's a good idea to jump straight up in the air when someone is driving down the lane without making a play on the ball. Every time Nellie subs in Ronny Turiaf for him the team gets a HUGE defensive upgrade down low.

Monta Ellis: They said... you should try to play D once in awhile. Even during his breakout year last season, he routinely surrendered career nights to random NBA scrubs. On D other players ride him... ride him like a moped! (Sorry bad joke.)

Corey Maggette: If only getting a stop got him to the free throw line. He'd be much more motivated. The silly Mike Dunleavy-esque flops need to go.

C.J. Watson: I guess D-League doesn't stand for Defensive League. Arguably the worst defender on this team.

Brandan Wright: Absolutely lost on D thus far in his NBA career. If he doesn't put on some weight, you just can't play him at the 4 spot with that kind of mismatch. Very worrisome if he's a franchise "cornerstone".

Anthony Randolph: He makes the highlight blocks, but aside from that his D is nonexistent. Add in the turnovers and you can see why his high school and college teams lost far more games than they won.

I have to give it up to Ronny Turiaf. He's the one Warriors who's consistently brought it on D (though not without some mistakes) this entire season. It's impressive especially given that he's playing alongside such a defense(less) roster. Props to him for staying motivated. He goes for the swat more often than I'd like, although I must admit I do love the block party. He's Adonal Foyle with a decent jumper for a big man.

If Turiaf could only rebound, I'd be shopping Biedrins around hard to try and pick up a disgruntled big man a la Amare Stoudemire or Carlos Boozer (risky with his upcoming free agency though) or some kind of All-Star talent ideally at the 1. Here's an idea- start Turiaf for D alongside the defenseless starters and bring Biedrins off the bench for instant boards.

Are the Dubs as defense(less) as I've made them out to be?

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I think you’re really selling Biedrins short… his defensive production is much, much better than it looks. Biedrins is fifth in the league in defensive rebounds per game, pulling those down more often than guys like Duncan and Garnett. For a guy who has no rep as a shot-blocker, Biedrins is also 16th in the league in blocks. And he doesn’t give up a lot of monster nights to opposing centers… power forwards have hurt us far more than centers have.

Biedrins has the hardest job on the team. It’s easier to be Turiaf, who can come in and go full-speed for stretches… Biedrins can’t do that. He has offensive responsibilities that Turiaf doesn’t. Like Turiaf, he has to deal with all the drivers that our perimeter guys let blow past them, and unlike Turiaf, he’s a critical component of our rebounding plan (really, the only component of our rebounding plan). Given that brutally difficult role, Biedrins does pretty damn well. He’s not an impact defender like Dwight Howard, but he’s a solid defender… he’s by no means the problem with our defense.

I think “absolutely lost” is a little strong for Wright — he makes some mistakes for sure, but the effort’s there, and his defensive numbers are actually pretty decent. I’d rather give Monta more than six games back before I really worry about his defense, and while Maggette is a bad defender, he actually times his flops pretty damn well… they’ve contributed to a couple wins for us. Other than that, I think you’ve got ’em about pegged. Atrocious defensive team.

I think the right coach could get acceptable defense out of this roster. Crawford and Maggette are lost causes, and I dunno if CJ and Marco have the lateral quickness to excel, but just about everybody else is either already a decent defender (Turiaf, Jack, Biedrins, maybe even Morrow), or has the skills to be (Monta, ‘Buike, BWright, Randolph). It’s a pretty fast, energetic, athletic roster. You oughta be able to wring some defense out of that.

by onlxn on Feb 5, 2009 2:24 PM PST reply actions  

+1

I think it is very important to note that Biedrins is usually the only big man in a small-ball lineup. Playing with power forwards named Jackson, Maggette, and Azubuike is not usually a good thing defensively for the center. If someone could come up with Biedrins’s defensive stats when he plays with a real power forward (Wright and/or Turiaf, or maybe even Kurz) and when he does not, I believe they would be night and day.

And while I love Ronny as much as the next guy, if his and Andris’s roles were switched, Turiaf would foul out of every game by halftime because of his uber-aggressiveness.

by UncleCliffy on Feb 6, 2009 2:08 PM PST up reply actions  

They might be worse...

Please… Bigs always have their way with the Ws. Sure Biedrins grabs a lot of rebounds, so does Troy Murphy, are we going to call Troy Murphy a defensive specialist now?

by Jaceman on Feb 5, 2009 4:15 PM PST reply actions  

You are too hard on Biedrins

1. He has to make up for the crappy D of our guards.
2. Jumping up straight is not the worst idea if you want to challenge without getting a foul. Ronnys wonderfull defensive upgrade comes at the cost of a big bunch of fouls. Don’t want the Biendrins with 22 min times back……
3. His Big Men D is ok. Certainly not great, especially against huge guys like Superman or Yao. I can live with that.

So I would not get him into your list. However I can live with the rest of it.

by TheGerman on Feb 6, 2009 1:12 AM PST reply actions  

pretty close to right on the money

I didn’t see crawford listed here; I guess is on the big list, but he is exceptional spectacular with his awful D. He challenges CJ for the team’s worst defender…And I agree with the comment above, Brandon Wright is not completely lost; his weak side help can be quite good (although his 4 spot one on one D is awful). Good call on this one…The sad thing is that most of these guys (exceptions: Maguette, Marco) could learn to play good D if their coach was Jeff Van Gundy, Larry Brown or Pop. Too bad….

by dangerman on Feb 6, 2009 10:08 AM PST reply actions  

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