Defensive Rim protection chart shows Stewart is great, Cade is awful....

[Cowology]

Cade's post-D has definitely been bad but he also frequently has his back to the basketball and winds up chasing cutters. His defense overall is pretty suspect. He does have the tools to be above average and, like zeeb, I'm not too concerned with it at the moment. Dude is carrying a lot as essentially a 2nd year player.

The Ivey thing is interesting, but he's got that Westbrook like ability to block shots and the strength to battle down low. He's undoubtedly at his best when he's just reacting and not thinking. His processing time will eventually catch up (or the game will "slow down" as they say).

But man, Beef Stew...dude. I want this guy to be better than he is. Just a *little* bit better inside. Just a *little* bit better from deep. Ugh... So close, but it's clear he's gotta be our backup 4/5. It makes sense for other teams to be interested in him though. The guy has value and would look good in one of these more Superstar-centric builds. He'd look great in either LA team, MIL, NY, DAL, Philly, etc. We just need more offensively out of a starting 4 and he ain't it.

[bstein14]

Cade's post-D has definitely been bad but he also frequently has his back to the basketball and winds up chasing cutters. His defense overall is pretty suspect. He does have the tools to be above average and, like zeeb, I'm not too concerned with it at the moment. Dude is carrying a lot as essentially a 2nd year player.

The Ivey thing is interesting, but he's got that Westbrook like ability to block shots and the strength to battle down low. He's undoubtedly at his best when he's just reacting and not thinking. His processing time will eventually catch up (or the game will "slow down" as they say).

But man, Beef Stew...dude. I want this guy to be better than he is. Just a *little* bit better inside. Just a *little* bit better from deep. Ugh... So close, but it's clear he's gotta be our backup 4/5. It makes sense for other teams to be interested in him though. The guy has value and would look good in one of these more Superstar-centric builds. He'd look great in either LA team, MIL, NY, DAL, Philly, etc. We just need more offensively out of a starting 4 and he ain't it.

Ivey 100% isn't poor on defense for lack of effort (at least this season)... he's surprisingly (since his mom's a coach) bad at positioning himself right, bad at transition D, bad a knowing what the opponent wants to do, etc. He's someone who could get by without needing all the fundamentals because he was so much more athletic than everyone else but at the NBA level his lack of defensive IQ hurts for sure.

I think Ivey has played really hard this last stretch of games but just often times some dumb TOs and dumb mistakes on defense that hurt us. But I think he's going to figure it out as time goes on.

[zeebneeb]

Part of the reason is, undoubtedly... Cade drops down after switches and is left with a big so he's trying to contest a player bigger than him... But that's only part of the equation he also does poorly against the guy he is guarding as well... part of the reason he defends more shots than anyone within 6 feet of the basket is because he isn't putting up resistance ahead of that to keep his opponent out of the basket area.

Ivey appears to be an elite defender within 6 feet of the basket... he can use his athleticism to elevate up and I would say he gets many of his blocks down at the basket area he isn't blocking a ton of jump shots.

If nothing else, this chart is pretty interesting to look at and see how players do against our guys in comparison to how they normally perform on a nightly basis.

Opponents are always trying to get Cade out of the game because they can't handle him on offense, so they attack him over and over again to get him in foul trouble.

Regardless of the reason, Cade has proven he can do much better than that, so he got to do better, he can be a good defender when he is focused on the defensive end, he's been laughable on defense for a while.

The bolded cannot be talked about enough.

The opposing teams game plan, from start to finish when playing Detroit, is Cade centric.

Neutralize, bother, bump, attack, everything to get him off the floor. Cade adjusted his defense, to stay on the floor, as he was picking up fouls constantly, and being taken off the floor.

There is a reason the past 10 games Cade has been averaging 30/8/5 on great splits, because even players like Knox, and Livers starting, give Cade a slight amount of room, and extra seconds to operate, as they have to be guarded somewhat, both on the perimeter, AND for the drive.

Imagine Cade with even average NBA starters surrounding him.

This is what I'm waiting for. Pressure relief.

[Billl]

Duh. He's a point guard and not particularly a good leaper. The problem is that our overall defense is really bad , so our pg ends up being the guy rotating back way too often. If would would actually fight through screens and keep guys in front of us, this would be a non-issue.

[ComboGuardCity]

Cade is actually an excellent defender when he’s engaged. The Celtics game in the last minute is a perfect example. He locked up Tatum. The problem is:

1. He’s got to expend everything on offense
2. He’s on a bad team so there is no point in expending even more energy

[Invictus88]

He's been very bad defensively. That's hard to argue. Some of this is a terrible defensive scheme where guards end up switching onto forwards constantly, but also he does seem to just play "no fouls" defense at the rim, and pretty routinely lets guys waltz down there for easy shots where he just stands straight and casually puts an arm up.

And in the modern NBA where bigs gets stretched out to the 3-point line, you need your guards to be able to defend shots near the rim from the guys they're guarding.

A lot comes down to conditioning IMO. He looks exhausted just playing one side of the ball most nights.

Most if not rbrty all-star guards would be terrible with your premise.

What's the "premise" exactly? We see the stats right there. He is the defender on a lot shots at the rim and he doesn't put up resistance. The speculation would be if he's allowing his own man to get to the rim and score over him more than the other guys on the chart, or if he's just bad as the help guy and shouldn't be put in that position.

Ivey and Ausar don't have the same problem and they are smaller or the same size as Cade.

Ivey doesn't defend at the rim because he lets his man blow by him on the perimeter.... thus the low number of incidences.

[BDM22]

Most if not rbrty all-star guards would be terrible with your premise.

What's the "premise" exactly? We see the stats right there. He is the defender on a lot shots at the rim and he doesn't put up resistance. The speculation would be if he's allowing his own man to get to the rim and score over him more than the other guys on the chart, or if he's just bad as the help guy and shouldn't be put in that position.

Ivey and Ausar don't have the same problem and they are smaller or the same size as Cade.

Ivey doesn't defend at the rim because he lets his man blow by him on the perimeter.... thus the low number of incidences.

You definitely gotta come with some numbers to back that up. Ivey gets blown by, but Cade has some of the most egregious blow bys of the year by far, and he defends the worst opposing guard every night. Ivey's bigger problem is more committing dumb fouls where he gets caught in the air (trying to block shots when he should just be solid) and just getting lost on switches more than getting blown by at this point. That's why he's in foul trouble damn near every game it seems. Somewhere in between Cade's "I'm just gonna casually put a hand up" and Ivey's out of control approach is probably the answer for both of them.

From a pure man-to-man perspective, Ivey's 4th on the team in defensive FG% allowed at 48.5% behind Stewart, Duren, and Ausar. Cade Is 12th, giving up 52.7% to his man. Obviously defense is highly team oriented, and difficult to just call that a fact, but Stew/Duren/Ausar being the top 3 gives this a bit more credit. Again, Ivey's problem is more awareness in team defense situations. Everyone on the team is bad at that outside of maybe Stew and Duren, but Ivey stands out as particularly bad there.

And of course the issue that every single guard has on this team in that they're terrible at getting over screens. I would not say anyone stands out there because they're all horrible.

I get it that Cade gets somewhat of a pass because he has a high workload on offense, but call a spade a spade. We don't have to pretend like reality doesn't exist.

[Invictus88]

What's the "premise" exactly? We see the stats right there. He is the defender on a lot shots at the rim and he doesn't put up resistance. The speculation would be if he's allowing his own man to get to the rim and score over him more than the other guys on the chart, or if he's just bad as the help guy and shouldn't be put in that position.

Ivey and Ausar don't have the same problem and they are smaller or the same size as Cade.

Ivey doesn't defend at the rim because he lets his man blow by him on the perimeter.... thus the low number of incidences.

You definitely gotta come with some numbers to back that up. Ivey gets blown by, but Cade has some of the most egregious blow bys of the year by far, and he defends the worst opposing guard every night. Ivey's bigger problem is more committing dumb fouls where he gets caught in the air (trying to block shots when he should just be solid) and just getting lost on switches more than getting blown by at this point. That's why he's in foul trouble damn near every game it seems. Somewhere in between Cade's "I'm just gonna casually put a hand up" and Ivey's out of control approach is probably the answer for both of them.

From a pure man-to-man perspective, Ivey's 4th on the team in defensive FG% allowed at 48.5% behind Stewart, Duren, and Ausar. Cade Is 12th, giving up 52.7% to his man. Obviously defense is highly team oriented, and difficult to just call that a fact, but Stew/Duren/Ausar being the top 3 gives this a bit more credit. Again, Ivey's problem is more awareness in team defense situations. Everyone on the team is bad at that outside of maybe Stew and Duren, but Ivey stands out as particularly bad there.

And of course the issue that every single guard has on this team in that they're terrible at getting over screens. I would not say anyone stands out there because they're all horrible.

I get it that Cade gets somewhat of a pass because he has a high workload on offense, but call a spade a spade. We don't have to pretend like reality doesn't exist.

One guy is on the far left of the chart in terms of incidences... the other guy is much further to the right... with the guys to the right of him all being centers.

I'm not saying Cade is good on defense but you comparing Ivey to him and saying Ivey doesn't have that problem speaks more to lack of incidences versus how well he actually defends them. No other numbers are necessary. Just watch basketball games and see Ivey repeatedly get blown by on the perimeter forcing a switch.

[BDM22]

Ivey doesn't defend at the rim because he lets his man blow by him on the perimeter.... thus the low number of incidences.

You definitely gotta come with some numbers to back that up. Ivey gets blown by, but Cade has some of the most egregious blow bys of the year by far, and he defends the worst opposing guard every night. Ivey's bigger problem is more committing dumb fouls where he gets caught in the air (trying to block shots when he should just be solid) and just getting lost on switches more than getting blown by at this point. That's why he's in foul trouble damn near every game it seems. Somewhere in between Cade's "I'm just gonna casually put a hand up" and Ivey's out of control approach is probably the answer for both of them.

From a pure man-to-man perspective, Ivey's 4th on the team in defensive FG% allowed at 48.5% behind Stewart, Duren, and Ausar. Cade Is 12th, giving up 52.7% to his man. Obviously defense is highly team oriented, and difficult to just call that a fact, but Stew/Duren/Ausar being the top 3 gives this a bit more credit. Again, Ivey's problem is more awareness in team defense situations. Everyone on the team is bad at that outside of maybe Stew and Duren, but Ivey stands out as particularly bad there.

And of course the issue that every single guard has on this team in that they're terrible at getting over screens. I would not say anyone stands out there because they're all horrible.

I get it that Cade gets somewhat of a pass because he has a high workload on offense, but call a spade a spade. We don't have to pretend like reality doesn't exist.

One guy is on the far left of the chart in terms of incidences... the other guy is much further to the right... with the guys to the right of him all being centers.

I'm not saying Cade is good on defense but you comparing Ivey to him and saying Ivey doesn't have that problem speaks more to lack of incidences versus how well he actually defends them. No other numbers are necessary. Just watch basketball games and see Ivey repeatedly get blown by on the perimeter forcing a switch.

So Cade being far to the right just means he's staying with his man so well down into the paint and thus defending more shots there? But not that he allows his man down there a lot and just doesn't provide much resistance at the hoop? And Ivey's at the left because he's never even in the neighborhood when his man gets to the rim (even though that's where all of the guards are)? lol ok.

I would say Cade being far to the right probably indicates a bit about his man-to-man D, but also that in this defensive scheme, him being the guy that defends the guy parked in the corner often makes him one rotation away at the rim and he's not very good at that, so that should probably change.

A lot is also the terrible switch-everything scheme that makes it easy to get him guarding big forwards that he can't defend, and teams will go at him intentionally because they want him to get in to foul trouble, and he's not a great defender.

The visual check would say that Cade hasn't really put in much effort on defense for like 90% of these games. In that 10% he's pretty decent there, but in the rest, he's at the bottom of the league and with the lowest effort on the team. You can tell very easily when he really wants it, because the effort level is totally different. It gives me some hope that if the team becomes decent we'll see his effort level increase on that end purely on motivation to win, but it's a bummer now.