Post by DERRENMATTS on Sept 11, 2005 2:05:38 GMT -5
I know we have a thread about this already running around somewhere. But I'm too lazy to go searching for it.
I just wanted to reiterate that if our defense was to tighten up a bit, we'd be looking at a better record this coming year than we had last year, including the time Walker spent with us. Our offense is already a pretty strong one, even if we weren't executing as well as it could have been. But we were a poor defensive team, a poor rebounding team to be more specific, and that made our high scoring offense a moot point. We scored a ton, but we gave up just as much.
So its only logical that if we can lower the amount of points we give up, and we keep our offense where it is, we'll be a better team.
Not to diminish Walker's impact with our team, but after his initial impact he made, we leveled off to close to where we were. He did push us from a game under .500 to 9 games over, but after our streak of winning 11 of 12 games, we went 7 - 8 the rest of the way. That initial push was enough to get us into the playoffs, though.
Stats show that after Walker came back to Boston, the difference between the amount we score and the amount we give up was +1.3. Prior to his return it was at +0.9. So his impact was a +0.4 turnaround. We were already a high scoring team before him, but when he came back, he made us even more dangerous. But like I mentioned earlier, we were scoring more, but we were also giving up more points.
Walker essentially made us a more powerful offensive team, but not any better defensively.
If we tighten up our defense, and rebound the ball better, our record should reflect how much better we've become as a team.
As a team, we have a lot of defensive players. But many of those players are relatively young. Our best defenders are still in their rookie contracts (Perkins, Allen, Banks, Reed). But these players should start seeing more minutes on the court this season and we can only hope that their contribution on the defensive end will be noticeable.
If our defense (which includes rebounding) takes a step forward from last year, we could see a 50 win season (assuming our offense remains strong).
I just wanted to reiterate that if our defense was to tighten up a bit, we'd be looking at a better record this coming year than we had last year, including the time Walker spent with us. Our offense is already a pretty strong one, even if we weren't executing as well as it could have been. But we were a poor defensive team, a poor rebounding team to be more specific, and that made our high scoring offense a moot point. We scored a ton, but we gave up just as much.
So its only logical that if we can lower the amount of points we give up, and we keep our offense where it is, we'll be a better team.
Not to diminish Walker's impact with our team, but after his initial impact he made, we leveled off to close to where we were. He did push us from a game under .500 to 9 games over, but after our streak of winning 11 of 12 games, we went 7 - 8 the rest of the way. That initial push was enough to get us into the playoffs, though.
Stats show that after Walker came back to Boston, the difference between the amount we score and the amount we give up was +1.3. Prior to his return it was at +0.9. So his impact was a +0.4 turnaround. We were already a high scoring team before him, but when he came back, he made us even more dangerous. But like I mentioned earlier, we were scoring more, but we were also giving up more points.
Walker essentially made us a more powerful offensive team, but not any better defensively.
If we tighten up our defense, and rebound the ball better, our record should reflect how much better we've become as a team.
As a team, we have a lot of defensive players. But many of those players are relatively young. Our best defenders are still in their rookie contracts (Perkins, Allen, Banks, Reed). But these players should start seeing more minutes on the court this season and we can only hope that their contribution on the defensive end will be noticeable.
If our defense (which includes rebounding) takes a step forward from last year, we could see a 50 win season (assuming our offense remains strong).
