Evaluating conservative defense of Brooklyn Nets

Evaluating the strategy

So do the positive outweigh the negatives in the Brooklyn Nets’ defensive scheme? It’s difficult to say. First off, a poor defensive ranking doesn’t necessarily mean the pick-and-roll defense is the issue. Additionally, even if this aspect of the defense is to blame, it’s unclear whether a different approach would lead to better results.

It’s unlikely that Allen and Jordan are versatile enough to pressure the pick-and-roll. They definitely can’t switch in most cases in most cases, and a hedging strategy would just produce the defensive rotations coach Kenny Atkinson (perhaps rightfully so) is trying to avoid.

What do the numbers say? Opposing offenses have had pick-and-roll ball-handlers account for a lot of their possessions (eighth-highest rate in NBA) and are converting these plays with the 10th-best efficiency. There are too many factors at play, however, to draw too much from this information.

Overall, it’s not clear that Brooklyn’s conservative defense, and in particular its conservative pick-and-roll defense, is to blame for the team’s sub-par performance. If nothing else, however, there are two areas where the strategy could probably benefit from some improvement.

Although fairly obvious, the coaching staff needs to effectively drill into the players which pick-and-roll combinations should be treated more conservatively and which require more attention.

Second, the conservative defense should probably be employed a little more aggressively at times. It’s one thing to have Jarrett Allen and DeAndre Jordan sit back in the paint on pick-and-rolls, but it’s another to have them apply little to no pressure once the ball-handler ventures inside the arc.

It’s possible to maintain all the pros of the approach while also applying a bit of pressure to make things more uncomfortable for the ball-handler. Jordan in particular could stand to do a bit more of this, as the degree to which he casually hangs back seems detrimental at times.

Allen, the younger and more versatile of the two, has managed to effectively toe the line on occasion. With this in mind, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that while Allen has the second-best defensive rating on the team (102.8) behind David Nwaba, Jordan has the second-worst (115.2).

Perhaps the defensive scheme isn’t perfect, but maybe the personnel (e.g. Jordan) provides a better explanation for Brooklyn’s defensive issues. It will be worth monitoring moving forward.

One way or another, the Nets will have to get better defensively if they want to have any hope of competing in the Eastern Conference. Hopefully Atkinson and the rest of the coaching staff are open to making adjustments.