Indiana Pacers: Team defense needs to improve
The Indiana Pacers have hit a rough patch lately, and one of biggest reasons has been an alarming lack of execution on the defensive end of the floor.
The recent return of Victor Oladipo has certainly given the Indiana Pacers a big boost, but his absence was not the only reason the team had been on a losing streak.
Defense has been a problem for the Pacers most of the year, which is somewhat curious considering they have the NBA’s leading shot-blocker (Myles Turner) and one of the best perimeter defenders in the league in Victor Oladipo.
The biggest issue is not individual defense (although there is plenty of improvement needed there as well); the larger problem is the club’s poor execution in terms of team defense.
Indiana has a very good defensive coach in Dan Burke, so the schemes they use are very sound. When the team follows the defensive game plan they perform very well; when they don’t, things can get rather ugly.
During the club’s recent five-game losing skid, Indiana’s team defense was especially porous. Players were not rotating to open shooters or on drives to the basket — dunks and open layups were becoming the norm.
The cause of this seems to be twofold. The first missing element was simply the effort it takes to rotate quickly and be in the right position. The team seemed to lack energy without Oladipo, and it showed in a significant way on the defensive end of the floor.
The other missing piece to the puzzle was communication. During a recent halftime television interview, Dan Burke stated that “guys need to talk” on defense.
This is a basic tenet of team defense, but sometimes even professional players fail to communicate with their teammates when individual defense breaks down and adjustments need to be made on the fly.
At times, Indiana has been very effective on the defensive end of the court — when that’s happened, players are rotating, communicating and making the effort to contest shots.
Other times, these facets of defense have been sorely lacking and opponents have feasted on the Pacers, repeatedly getting open looks at the basket.
It’s bothersome that a team can execute very well in spurts, but too often fail in those same areas. Every NBA team goes through these phases over the course of a long 82-game season, but the key is recognizing and correcting these issues as quickly as possible.
After a strong start, Indiana had begun to lose their energy and focus as a team. Their 107.1 defensive rating ranks 21st in the NBA, and that defensive rating was an appalling 117.5 in four games without Oladipo. His return has seemingly flipped the switch back on for the club, but effort and concentration need to be there no matter who is on the floor.
This is the challenge the Pacers currently face. If they are to make a run at a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, they need to recapture the consistency they had earlier in the season.
One thing that makes this more difficult is that Indiana is not sneaking up on anybody at this point — the league has figured out that this is a good team, so Indiana has become more the hunted than the hunter at this juncture.
The NBA is a league of constant growth and adjustments, and the Pacers are going through a stretch right now where they need to find themselves again.
Next: 2017-18 Week 12 NBA Power Rankings
Having Victor Oladipo back in the fold solves a lot of problems for the team, but maintaining a high level of enthusiasm and execution on a nightly basis is something that continues to require attention — and much of that begins and ends in the area of team defense.