Differences from last year and this year

PPG (04/05) = 93.3 for and 89.5 against for a diff of +3.8
PPG (Current) = 97.6 for and 90.4 against for a diff of +7.2

Looking specifically at Points against since the current Pistons are perceived to not be able to guard Shaq's grandmother. In 04/05 we have 89.5 and currently we have 90.4 So the overall defense has slipped by 0.9 PPG over last season.

Field goal %. Was slightly better last season with a + .14 differential versus +0.06 currently.

One are of concern is rebounding where the team last season had an edge of +1.6 offensive
and +2.6 defensive and now have no edge in either with an even +0 offensive and -0.7 defensive. Still its only -0.7

What I have not been hearing much about is how much the Assists and TO's have improved. Last season the Pistons were even in TO's for/against with 13.8/13.8 and now enjoy a huge margin of 11.3/13.8 for a +2.5 advantage in TO's.

Assists are through the roof this year. Assist differiential last season was +2.3 which was good because LB liked to share the ball. This year its at +5.7 - Almost double.

In Summary the defense has slipped by 0.9 PPG and rebounds have been a problem. But the team has been taking care of the ball so much better with an amazing Assist/TO ratio.

By the way the team has been scoring more and winning more games. Kind of a side issue to most.

We are giving up 100 per game average. Why. One, Delfino has been getting cut out of the rotation. Two, Arroyo is no longer here to keep our offense organized. (Which leads to easy fast break points by the other team off of turns and long rebounds.)

Three, Evans in general is playing pretty poor defense, and Flip is playing the guy a lot of late.

Four, Hunter, due to food poisoning, missed some games.

Five, we are trying to play Delk back into shape after him missing most of a season. And we are matching him up with quick gaurds he can't guard, just mostly to find out how well he can do.

The fact is, we can play good D. Hunter will get healthy. Delfino will get his minutes back as he continues to play good D. And we will be fine.

In the month of Feb the Pistons were only giving up 84 PPG.

Most of the scoring happens with the Starters in and not huge spikes when the bench Evans/Delk hit the floor.

I attribute this mainly to a simple mid-late season slump and to the vast majority of road games ( 7 out of 9 ) this month.

We will see how the team responds with 5 of 7 at home for the rest of the month.

Good work Max. I think this is what Flip meant when is said my way is better.
Minimize passes
Shoot as soon as you're open...make your good percentage shots
open the court with made 3s
play very physical D in the post season...hopefully with home court
more shot attempts = more points, very simple when you already have the tightest starting 5 to work with.

If you're only talking about defense, then the differential numbers are extremely misleading, offense the best defense or no.

The numbers say that the Pistons play at a slower pace this season than last, with their opponents having 87 possessions per game; our opponents averaged 88 possessions/game last season. Adjusting for the pace, the Pistons give up 103 points per 100 possessions, as compared to 101 last season.

Defensive field goal percentage is way up, from a solid 43.0 to a mediocre 45.1. 3-point defensive percentage is down from 33.8 to 32.3; the conflict suggests that the Pistons are having trouble with dribble penetration and help defense is confused, which are in line with observations.

Defensive rebounding is considerably down, from 70% to 68%. That represents a shift from top-5 in the NBA to bottom-5, and although it's not strictly a defensive stat, it is related to our defenders at the rim being caught out of position.

Turnovers forced are even, but the Pistons have never been a team that gambles for steals.

I have some more advanced stats, but although I have no reason to doubt the reliability of the sites I'm getting them from, I don't think they're up to date.

There have been a handful of dominant defensive performances by the Pistons that might be considered at least mild outliers, and the overall trend in defense has not been encouraging, to put it mildly. When I get back from vacation, I'll dump every box score from the last two years into some stats software and see what comes of it - but that won't be for another week and a half. That might be a good thing, really: hopefully they'll have started ignoring Flip's soft BS and reasserted themselves defensively by then.

I'll put the stats aside for now and ask you: which games have you seen a consistently dominant defensive performance in this season? How many, and how far between? Is the overall team defense getting better or worse? Do you trust Flip Saunders to coach defense, and if not do you believe that the players can maintain a high standard themselves?

I'm afraid it's a question of what have you done for me lately...

Last ten games the Pistons are down half a point to 97.1 in scoring, while allowing 96.6 (giving up six more a game versus the whole season average including the last ten). The Spurs over the last ten are allowing 89.8 and the who me? guard somebody? Mavs are holding folks to 90.2. Miami is giving up 97.4, but scoring 104.9 - a bigger margin than the Pistons YTD.

Could be a mid/late season funk that they will come out of in time to kick some butt 'round playoff time, but could also be a continuing trend leading straight to a second round exit.

No boards, no rings.

__________________
"But first, are you experienced? Or have you you ever been experienced? Well, I have."
Jimi

Lee, although once in a very rare while Arroyo did a solid job "organizing" our offense, I really don't think you can credibly make the argument that other teams' fast-breaks have been more effective since he was traded. And in any case, his horrible, turnstyle defense in the half-court and constant stupid and-one fouls cost the Pistons a great many points.

I do tangentially agree with your other point, though: Evans is as bad a defender as Arroyo was. It's the same horrible, turnstyle defense, minimized ever so slightly because he's normally played off the ball for a higher percentage of the time, and to his credit Evans uses his fouls better. But both players are extremely alike defensively - they hustle without purpose and have awful footwork. Absent a "Microwave" style scorer off the bench, the two (now one) of them can be consistently relied upon to get a player on the other team extremely hot.

To get back toward the topic, although the effort seems to be disappearing, that should change as the playoffs approach. What worries me the most is the system, meaning Flip. Regardless of what the numbers may or may not say, the defense is getting less precise and more haphazard, and Flip seems to be indifferent to that. That the three (maybe the only three) players on our team who consistently play very good defense - Hunter, Delfino, Davis - seem to be in his doghouse only adds to my doubts.

The recent trend in points given up is concerning.... as you pointed out it's not indicative of the whole season and we're not giving up much more than last year...
I'm trying to get a handle on any differences in defensive schemes from LB's tenure....only thing I can come up with is the occasional use of zones which hasn't proven successful... more confusing than anything.
The other difference is less trapping... but we haven't seen Delk and Hunter together much either... LB also cut down the traps with Arroyo in the lineup.

We have to be honest and say that opponents bigs have been able to shoot over Ben or simply out weigh him for better inside position.
I would like to see Davis & Cato give Ben some help... keeping in mind all of the other benifits Ben gives the team besides just low post defense...
he simply gets to spots quicker than most bigs... this helps in drawing charges ... getting to loose balls etc.
I find it humorous at some of the man love some folks have for the Euro bigs... how many of these guys can effectively use defensive footwork?
How many Euro bigs have gone deep into the playoffs?... even the Spurs benched Rasho for not cutting it when the heat was on...
never once saw Darko come up with a loose ball... but I sure saw a lot of defensive lapses when he was over agressive and left his man wide open.... shot blocking is just a small part of adequte defense....
Older players can make up for foot speed by using smart positional play.

Not suggesting that Cato or Davis will turn around the recent defensive trend but it would be nice to know if they'll help come playoff time.

__________________
Big or Bust

Just had a couple of minutes to look at some last ten game nums before heading out to dinner.

I like opponent's scoring as a percentage of your team's scoring as good measure of total defense - kind of makes up for differences in playing style.

Over the last ten games, the best defensive teams are...

1. Kings - 91.4% - RonRon is back
2. Spurs - 91.6%
3. Heat - 93.7%
4. Grizzlies - 95.1%
5. Mavs - 95.1%
- average winning percentage of 76%.

Pistons rank 11th at 99.5%.

Worst last ten game teams in terms of this defensive measure are Blazers, Hornets, Jazz, Warriors, Knicks.

I'm not sure who might have some nums on zone effectiveness.

__________________
"But first, are you experienced? Or have you you ever been experienced? Well, I have."
Jimi

ThreeFTD - Thanks for the props but I don't recall Flip ever comming in and saying anything eluding to my way is better or any animosity or desire to show up LB in anyway. He is just a guy that was a given a great opportunity and is trying to make the most of it.

dba - The last 10 games or more specifically the 9 games this month since the back-back Clev wins arguably have been the lowest point of the season and it coincides with the win-loss record. So the team has not been using smoke and mirrors to win so far this month they just have not been winning much with the 5-4 record to date. So you are choosing the worst period of this season.

Last season up to the 11 game win streak that started on March 30 the numbers were far less impressive. I recall an FG differential much lower than the final totals and a point differiential under 2 PPG.

Basically Stern took away much of what the Pistons used in the 03/04 season and last season was a tale of trying to beat our heads against the wall still trying to make it work. The late 11 game win streak saved us from winning under 50 and things did relax a bit in the post-season which is what many recall of how the Pistons were playing D.