Dr. Petrie and the Awful Misdiagnosis

who only see 93 points a game over the last 5. Not NBA people who see through the statistics.

I think GP knows what is going on.

My defense IS my offense.

Apparently, that’s all we need to know.

I mean, I think it is now safe to say that the Kings got screwed with the Artest trade. The kings desperately need defenders at the guard and 3 spots, and they gave away one of the best NBA defenders who is a starter on a championship team for two bench/role players.

When I read Petrie’s comments I was wondering if we were watching the same team. Shots obviously aren’t bouncing our way right now, but our D is so bad they can’t even stop a nosebleed.

if defense doesn’t exist.

I agree with GP if he is expecting better defensive sets created by more efficient offensive sequences, that would be a natural course of action if that were the problem. The reality lies in poor communication, bad rotations, lack of effort, and a transition defense that would more appropriately be called stagnation defense.

I see what GP is saying as: with the current personnel, the most realistic way of improving is through offense.

One of the things that jumped out at me from the Pistons game was the Kings shooting 2-18 from 3, and 14-21 floor. A 28% night from the arc and a 71% night from the line could have brought a win. I think perhaps that is what the Kings are looking at here, inasmuch as they are closer to being a better offensive club than a better defensive club. None of this changes your point, which is that this team will not get significantly better unless they become a much different team on the defensive end of the floor.

Sometimes it’s just easier to deflect the conversation, onto something else rather than having to answer the tough questions.

that the defense is a mess. It has been for several years now. You’re right that addressing that should be the team’s top priority. But I don’t think the fact that GP glossed over that point is necessarily an indication that he doesn’t understand it.

His responsibility is to ensure the quality of the team’s play over the fan experience. Granted, neither is going very well right now. But it seems like a reach to conclude that it’s because he’s not paying attention on the basis of this statement, particularly given his history of caginess when making public statements. Is there more concrete evidence that he has been remiss?

How many people are trying to rationalize away GP’s comments.

As if: I like GP, therefore GP can never be so blatantly wrong.

the lobs. The three point line has been guarded more assiduously of late, but shots went down. Nothing more they could have done… UNLESS, they had changed their strategy and played man-to-man to deny the hot shooters the ball. But that seems to be a tall order these days in the NBA.

Seems like I have heard that one before… I do think that a better offense helps, but clearly they lack defensively. I would say, again, that is due to poor team defense. They have good individual defenders, but until they can play as a team defensively they will keep losing.

But they have the makings of a pretty good offensive team. They are going to have to outscore teams to win. That’s the reality of it, and Petrie and everyone else knows that.

And good offense does help your defense. It gives you something to play for and puts more pressure on the other team to score.

But, even though we are last in defensive efficiency at 109.5 per game and our offense is at 104.1, our offense to defensive differential is only 5.4 pts per 100 possessions. And, last season our offense was 102.4 and defense was 107.2 with a differential of 4.8 per game. So, while our defense worsened by 2.3; our offense only got better by 1.7.

So, as badly as we feel about the defense, the overall different between the 2 sides of the ball aren’t that so far apart. So, if Geoff feels that if we were more efficient on offense that we wouldn’t be giving up so many points off of turnovers and fast breaks, then we could be closer to say a 105 offesive and 105 defensive efficiency. And, be in more games.

I wasn’t there so I don’t know, but I’m guessing that GP didn’t say he was happy with the defense. But he might have had more hope for our offense coming into the season.