Offense is fine — Defensive Rating bottom five in the league is the real problem

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Offense isn't the issue. Defensive Rating bottom five in the league — they're going to hit a wall the moment they face real offensive firepower in the playoffs.

The half-court help rotations are not running. Last night: five consecutive drive-and-kick possessions in Q3, open shooter every single time. That's a scheme failure, not a personnel failure.

High-offense teams flaming out in round one is the most predictable story in sports. Coach has maybe a week to build something functional on that end. Otherwise, first round exit is already written.

Bottom 5 Defensive Rating and people think this team wins a title. I keep saying it here and I'll keep saying it until somebody listens.

The correlation between defensive rating rank and title wins is one of the strongest in all of sports analytics. There is no path to a championship with a bottom-10 defense in the modern NBA.

Offense isn't the issue. Defensive Rating bottom five in the league — they're going to hit a wall the moment they face real offensive firepower in the playoffs.

The half-court help rotations are not running. Last night: five consecutive drive-and-kick possessions in Q3, open shooter every single time. That's a scheme failure, not a personnel failure.

High-offense teams flaming out in round one is the most predictable story in sports. Coach has maybe a week to build something functional on that end. Otherwise, first round exit is already written.