...Danny Ainge figured out a solution, a way out of this morass of fronting defense... That article hits some interesting points. Save one. The fronting defense. Fronting the post throughout the game is a scrambling defense employed when you have big men incapable of defending the post man to man. You usually employ fronting in combination with a pre-emptive full court press to force turnovers and long-shots. Long shots, as the adage goes, produce long rebounds. When the offenses biggest rebounding threat is under the basket waiting for the ball to drop, the ball usually ends up about 2-3 feet behind them and out of reach. This is why Paul Pierce, a 6-6 SG averages 7 rpg. Your guards have to take a bigger responsibility for boxing out their men, and in the process negating the chance for second chance shots in the paint. This also allows your best ball-handlers to immediately run the break from the bounce with their big men trailing, and (oddly enough) a step or two ahead of their defenders as a result of the fronting. If Ainge convinces the interim coach, and his next hire to force the Celtics bigs to defend man-to-man in the post you can bet on some bad squads blowing out the Celts on a regular basis. The playoffs may not be in the cards for a season or two.
. . . force the Celtics bigs The who now? If Ainge trades Blount and Walta (as mentioned in the article), Chris Mihm is going to look like a pituitary case in the team photo until Raef LaFrentz returns next year. The playoffs may not be in the cards for a season or two. In the words of Dexter, "Ahh, you theenk?" Is Danny trying to bring back an All-White Celtics? They already ditched the black Converse.
Anyone else pissed off at the annoying habit the players have of double teaming the ball after a pick? Why cant these guys hedge for each other, or even switch if they have to? I'm seeing way too many easy baskets off of pick-and-rolls. It's little things like these that the players just have to learn, and then maybe they can get the team back on its feet. Offense is great, Danny, but seeing the team win is better.
