ESPN Insider Rquest (Worst Defence EVER)

[osh kosh bosh]

http://insider.espn.go.co...%26page%3dPERDiem-091119

thanks.

 

[airmaxpenny1]

Knicks?

 

[JD617]

In Toronto, 'D' stands for dreadful
It's nice to be right twice.

Before the season I opined that the rebuilt Toronto Raptors would be either a raging success or spectacular failure. I had no idea they'd be both at once.

Offensively, they are an unqualified success: The Raptors lead the NBA in offensive efficiency, scoring 111.5 points per 100 possessions. Toronto also sports the league's third-highest true-shooting percentage thanks to a devastating array of shooters as well as the league's lowest turnover ratio thanks to steady ball handlers like Jose Calderon and Hedo Turkoglu. With two sweet-shooting big men spacing the floor in Chris Bosh and Andrea Bargnani and capable scorers at all five spots, they're impossible to defend.

As for the defense … um, have I mentioned the offense?

Despite owning the league's top offense, the Raptors are 5-7, so you may have guessed that their D has been, well, below par. Actually, it's threatening to rank among the worst defenses in NBA history. Through a dozen games, the Raptors have surrendered 113.3 points per 100 possessions, far and away the worst mark in the league.

To understand how bad that is, consider this: The Raps are allowing three points more than two other teams (Golden State and Memphis) that have become synonymous with barely trying at that end.

Still, we're not hearing much about Toronto's struggles on D because it has been masked a bit by the team's middling pace. The Knicks and Warriors play at a much faster pace, and as a result, they surrender more points per game than the Raptors, leaving Toronto "only" 28th in points allowed per game. But on a per-possession basis, it's not even close -- Toronto is easily the worst.

Watching Wednesday's 104-91 loss to Utah, it wasn't hard to find the flaws. First of all, let's break it down. The number of points allowed, 104, doesn't sound bad until you realize it was primarily a half-court game. Utah made only 94 offensive trips and missed out on several opportunities to worsen the damage. The Jazz missed 10 free throws, for which we can't credit the Toronto D, and were only 3-of-11 on 3-pointers. The Jazz didn't have their full roster, either: Starters Mehmet Okur and C.J. Miles sat out with injuries, and undrafted rookie Wes Matthews and little-used Kyrylo Fesenko began the game in their place.

Still, the Raptors couldn't stop them. On the second play of the game, Fesenko -- one of the league's slowest players -- rumbled in on a fast break against Calderon. Amazingly, Calderon couldn't stay in front of him and surrendered a layup after Fesenko stepped around him.

Calderon got an opportunity to re-enact the scene later when Utah scored a fast-break layup off a missed free throw. After a quick outlet, Deron Williams attacked Calderon one-on-one on the wing and blew past him for an easy deuce. If you don't believe me, you can ask DeMar DeRozan about it. He had a spectacular view of the play from five feet away but never got in position to deny the drive.

In fact, sad-sack help defense seemed to be the overwhelming problem for the Raptors. At different times, both Calderon and Bargnani were caught with their back to the ball while a Jazz player laid it in no more than two feet away.

And while Calderon was getting torched on the perimeter, Bargnani in particular was awful as the last line of defense. I've said this before, and I'll say it again: Calling him a center is like calling the guy who programs the synthesizers for Depeche Mode a drummer. He might be the worst help defender in basketball.

On one particularly brutal sequence, Bargnani was the help defender on a pick-and-roll with Williams and Carlos Boozer. His options: (A) show hard, (B) hedge and race back to Boozer or (C) just stay with Boozer. His choice: (D) none of the above. Bargnani watched Williams breeze by, stood in place as Boozer cut to the hoop and watched Boozer lay the ball in off a pass from Williams. He moved perhaps three feet the entire duration of the play.

On another help situation, Bargnani was actually more or less in the correct position when Utah's Ronnie Brewer drove past his man toward the hoop. Shocked by this state of affairs, Bargnani deftly avoided taking a charge against a man driving right into his midsection, permitting yet another Utah lay-in. Somehow, by the end of this play, Brewer was directly behind Bargnani, who was basically trying to block the shot with the back of his neck.

Worst of all may have been Toronto's overall effort level. The Raptors play a small lineup and start three weak defenders (Calderon, Bargnani and Turkoglu), so you might expect that they'll have struggles at the defensive end. But once they were beaten, I never saw any of those three players get back into the play. Their modus operandi was strictly turn, watch and hope.

As I said, it's still early, and perhaps the Raptors can clean some of these things up once they play a good stretch of home games. Eight of their first 12 games were on the road, and against fairly strong opposition, too -- their opponents' win-loss record when not playing the Raptors is .544.

That said, they surrendered 54 points in the paint to a team with two injured starters and did so pretty much without a fight. It would be one thing if I caught them on a bad night, but this was typical of their first dozen games. The previous game, for instance, they allowed 61.5 percent shooting and a whopping 68 points in the paint in a 130-112 smackdown in Denver.

If it doesn't improve, all that gorgeous offense and sweet shooting won't matter one bit and they'll be headed for the lottery. With their best player heading into free agency, the repercussions of such a result could be long-lasting.

---

[h3]A couple other notes:[/h3]

Maynor​

• I wrote about the strong crop of rookie point guards a few days ago, and it appears we have another to discuss. Jazz rookie Eric Maynor earned playing time when Williams missed two games to deal with family issues and made the most of it. He had a double-double in a win over Philly, 24 points in a close loss to Cleveland and then 15 points and six assists off the bench on Wednesday.

What makes Maynor a particularly good fit in Utah is that he and Williams are both 6-foot-3, which means they can pair in the same backcourt without creating too many defensive issues. On a Utah squad that faces a sudden scarcity of wing players while Miles and Kyle Korver recover from injuries, that's a major benefit.

• As good as Toronto's offense looks, it would be even better if not for the disastrous start by Jarrett Jack. One of the Raps' big free-agent pickups is shooting only 34.7 percent and averaging a meager 10.8 points per 40 minutes. His 5.58 player efficiency rating is among the worst at his position, and like his Raptors mates, he's had issues at the defensive end. Although Jack can defend bigger guards well, he has a lot of trouble against dribble penetration. For instance, Maynor completely wrong-footed him on a crossover Thursday and blew right past for an easy deuce.

I should note that Jack got off to a very slow start last season before blowing up down the stretch when he took over as the Pacers' starting point guard. It's possible he'll exhibit the same pattern here, and for the Raptors' sake, I sure hope so. He's on the hook for three more years after this one at $5 million a pop.