It's no secret that the Nets are rebounding. After winning 18 games in their last 20 games, their total record of 27-13 is second only to the Celtics-what made them change?
It's defense! They put more defense in it!
If November 27, 2022 is used as a reference marker in the time dimension, then the gap between the Nets before and after that day can be described as a big difference. Before that, their loss of points per 100 rounds was the ugly 19th in the league, followed by the beautiful fourth in the league.
At the beginning of the season, the defense of the Nets was extremely poor, and everyone said that the Nets was a solo team, not only offensively, but also defensively, which was the reason why their defensive efficiency fell through the bottom.
Before the change of coach, the defensive strategy of the Nets is not very clear, the players fight on their own, they often do not know how to protect each other after a change of defense, and are often beaten by the other side to score easily.
Looking at the position and movements of Owen and the bottom line players, is this in joint defense or one-on-one defense?
Simmons went to the bottom corner for some reason, but there was no one to make up for it in the middle, and he was easily cut empty.
Sometimes, do not need any particularly complex advanced twists and turns, just some simple pick-and-tear and cover can completely tear up the defense of the Nets. In this process, especially Simmons performance is very poor, his defensive communication with his teammates is almost ineffective, missing a lot of space for the opponent.
Whether to clip the ball holder or replace the defense, did not explain.
The meaning of squatting pit was unknown after pick-and-roll, and it was easily pierced.
Or pick-and-roll, no pressure on the ball holder, watching the other side shoot.
Is it a problem of ability to prevent pick-and-roll? If you can't even guard against top defensive configurations like Durant and Simmons, there's no reason for others to defend themselves.
In the final analysis, defense eats not only one-on-one personal ability, but also communication and running-in. After all, this is a matter of five people cooperating with each other and wiping each other's buttocks. Now, the new coach Jacques Vaughn has successfully transformed the defensive end of the Nets, and he skillfully uses the unlimited defense strategy, which not only gives play to the great advantage of the Nets' individual defensive ability, but also does not allow them to be fooled by the offensive strategies of their opponents.
Vaughn changed the Nets defense.
As we all know, unlimited defense change is a common tactic, which is very simple to implement and can turn the opponent's attack into one-on-one. If you have enough one-on-one defensive resources, this set of play is a cunning plan to reduce ten meetings with one force. Forcing the opponent to hit your line of defense.
Does the Nets have such defensive resources? Apparently there is. In this winning streak of the Nets, the defensive combination of Kraxton-Durant-Simmons has surfaced. After a pick-and-roll, you can often see this scene: Simmons sometimes defends against the opponent's ball-holding guard, sometimes against the opponent's most powerful big man (he made seven mistakes is his masterpiece). Clarkston sent the cover under the basket and swayed with his opponent on the three-point line.
Simmons had a clear mind and changed his big hat directly to Levier.
Kraxton defended Murray alone.
Simmons + Clarxton made a mistake outside the three-point line.
Simmons defended Varan under the basket, Clarkston made up for the defensive cap.
Among them, the one who needs to be praised most is Clarkston, who has played an impressive role in the unlimited defense of the Nets, especially his lead at the top of the arc, and even said that if there is no Clarkston who can defend from one to five, the unlimited defense effect of the Nets will be reduced by 50%.
"what he contributes to us is very special. He can defend the point guard and block shots under the basket. He is a young and energetic player who can not be replaced in our team." This is Durant's comment on Clarkston.
Clarkston is a candidate for DPOY
The data may help you fully understand the value of Clarkston in the unlimited change of defense. so far, he is the player in the Nets who has dropped the offensive player's shooting percentage the most, allowing his opponent to shoot only 40.6%. This figure is second only to Robert Williams, who has played only a few games in the league. At the same time, Clarkston averaged 3.9 3-pointers per game, but the average shooting rate of those three-pointers was only 29.6%.
When dealing with small players, Clarkston can use his feet to keep up with his opponents, and can also use his arm spread to interfere with shooting, so basically the backcourt players can't get any benefit in front of Clarkston. He has 23.9% of the percentage to match the backcourt players, while these guards shrouded by Clarkston's defense have a hit rate of only 39.7%.
Do not lose your position, but also higher than you, in case you lose your temper
Clarxton limit interference CJ catches three points
Jacques Vaughn's opinion may best explain Clarkston's value: "he began to learn to influence the game in different ways, he saved us in many rounds, he can protect the frame, he can sweep the bottom of the basket, he can retreat quickly." He means too much to us. "
Unlimited defense change, the first clear Nets defensive thinking, second let Clarkston from a simple frame blue-collar to cover the entire half of the best defensive player, and his change can also represent the Nets in the transformation of the new coach of the miniature Nets-everyone in the defensive end of a new look, the whole team is also completely different.
Excellent, and even top single defense ability, coupled with more and more skilled defense tacit understanding, to ensure that the Nets in the game ultra-high defensive lower limit.
What does it mean to change defense infinitely? Tactical backward
But for those of you who are familiar with the unlimited change of defense, you must know that although this set of defense is effective, it is also easy to be caught by opponents, especially in this era when small balls prevail, where dislocation after pick-and-roll has become the norm. The most common scene is that the small guard is eaten by the big man, or the big center is trained by the opponent.
With Clarxton, the Nets are naturally not worried about military training, but Irving is obviously the easiest point to be targeted in the starting lineup, and in the face of this problem, Vaughn designed a set of early defense strategy, which helped Owen very well.
In most cases, the Nets will try their best to change defense without the ball before Owen is named, and through the communication of Durant, Shaquille O'Neal and others, Owen will be removed from the defensive front and replaced to a safer bottom corner.
Durant's defensive command is of great significance, and this round he gave the order in advance to change Owen to the bottom corner.
Durant saw through the fake pick-and-roll, and Owen bypassed it directly.
In this way, the Nets can hide the biggest weakness of the defensive end as much as possible, and at the same time infinitely magnify their unique advantages-- thus, the defensive improvement of the Nets (at least the main lineup) is obvious-- the top single defense ability, coupled with more and more skilled defense tacit understanding, to ensure the Nets ultra-high defensive lower limit in the game.
After keeping the basic set of defense, the superstars of Durant and Irving also gave full play to their due power. you can often see the Nets instigate a counterattack immediately after a defense, relying on their inexplicable personal ability to complete a fast break. extinguish the morale and confidence of the opponent:
Pay attention to Simmons' protection of Owen and the defensive communication with the players.
However, unlimited defense change is by no means a panacea. Although it can solve the communication problem at the defensive end of the Nets and give full play to the absolute advantages of the individual, it is absolutely not applicable to every scene. There are always some loopholes that cannot be eliminated by unlimited defense bonus.
For example, their rotation lineup, when Durant, Simmons, Clarxton this group of defense core is not in, Seth-Curry and Joe-Harris these two people will be focused on the opponent, especially in the offensive and defensive transition phase.
The game in which the Nets ended a 12-game winning streak by the Bulls may be a wake-up call to the Nets. When Durant took over the game in the third quarter, a big hole was dug by the rotation at the beginning of the fourth quarter. The Bulls set up a small lineup and kept picking up speed to impact the Nets. Simply do not fall positional warfare directly let Drazic and Dosum start to fight-- this is not something that can be solved by unlimited defense. It is the necessity caused by the lack of individual movement ability and mobility.
Drazic started, Dorsom rushed all the way.
Dorsom, one more.
The same is true against the Pelicans, when Seth Curry or Joe Harris are present, they are always thrown to pieces by the strong Pelicans.
Curry can't stop Marshall at all.
Marshall fouled Joha.
See Joha's eyes glowing
Adebayor: Joha, I'm here!
The data also show that the Nets have lost 1.15 points per round so far this season, and the 19th place in the league is not excellent.
The duck was the first to feel the smell of spring, and Durant realized the team's hidden danger at the end of his 12-game winning streak: "our defensive coverage is not good, it's a little slow, and we always run after the ball."
When the Nets realized that rotation was not enough to resist pressure, and replaced the main force with the solution of unlimited defense + Durant superstar ball to end the game, the Bulls unexpectedly found a means to restrain the Nets-false cover-not to give the Nets the possibility of changing defense tactics to interfere with the Bulls' attack, and let de Rozan solve the game with the simplest and most direct mid-distance, making the Nets look like they were at the beginning of the season.
Vucevic gave false cover, de Rozan fought one-on-one.
Continue the next round.
Vucevich took away two men under a false cover (Curry's defense was not clear), White easily hit the target.And this undoubtedly throws a new problem for Vaughn, with the opponent's in-depth study of the Nets defense system, they can still find ways to crack their defense-changing tactics. If the Nets want to go further, then in the playoffs, there will be not only de Rozan, but also the playoff versions of Butler, Alphabet and Tatum. And Dong Chi Chi, Booker, Curry.
In the next half of the season, if Vaughn can continue to patch his team, continue to solve the team's shortcomings, but also can see the dismantling moves in the game, the upper limit of this Nets may be far more than we can imagine.
