I forgot this was even a basketball sub, thanks for a great write up and not slop

This is too proper and intelligent for r/nba. Go to r/nbadiscussion

i wish the spurs didn’t set wemby up to iso. he’s not a great iso player at the moment. they ran way more schemes with him last season. now i feel like it’s just “give wemby the ball and let him cook”. remember how good that pick and pop with cp3 was? there has been very little of that this season. also why do they just have 0 plays involving both wemby and fox? the lack of shooters limit his rim opportunities as well cause they just pack the paint. if the shooting woes continue like this i wouldn’t be surprised if the spurs drop to the 6th seed. shit maybe even lower

Actual analysis about basketball? I love you, great post

He was guarded a bit differently too. Not as much reliance on sending double teams, which lead to Wemby consistently finding back door cuts in the last game. Kenrich did a decent job just trying to guard him straight up and living with the results.

Great write up. It’s good to finally see comments from someone that actually watched the game lol

We also seemed a lot less afraid in general. The previous couple of games they’d dribble into the paint, see Wemby and then reset, sometimes multiple times in a possession. Seeing SGA/Caruso/Dub either blow past him or go into his body was refreshing. 

Great little write up, I noticed it as well, seemed to work well

Mark is a really really really good coach IMO

The thing about Wemby is his defensive awareness is actually buns

He is a slow processor and easily tricked. His positioning on closeouts is bad, his footwork in the paint is bad, and he wears himself out and becomes less effective at the end of his runs because he lacks the energy to contest things he ought to. He misses assignments in transition. His timing on blocks is poor because he over anticipates the opposing player’s jump, and is still in the “settle down” phase where he tries too hard not to foul.

His stans refuse to see it because he’s the best defender! His detractors won’t admit it because it means a 22 year old who’s one of the best 3 defenders in the world can actually level up. If he becomes even a Serge Ibaka with his timing, he will be impossible to score on in the paint. If he ever approaches even 80% of Timmy or Draymond’s level no one will score on the Spurs at all. But right now, he still plays like a 22 year old.

Great post!

An r/NBA post actually talking about basketball? I never thought it was possible. Great post man, a breath of fresh air in this sub

This is the type of action that coaches and staff dissect after each game and prepare for in the future, as any success against Wemby will be looked at as a blueprint for others until it gets shut down. Great chess match between OKC and Spurs!

Nice analysis (something I never thought I’d say on this sub). OKC was also aggressive on the offensive transition. Was listening to the Down to Dunk podcast this morning and they mentioned that even if it was 3v3, OKC didn’t wait to attack if Wemby was behind the play. If Wemby is out of the defensive picture, that’s an instant advantage.

OKC played scared of going at Wemby in previous matchups last month, but last night was a nice adjustment of turning the Spurs strength into a weakness.

No, I think the problem was much more the ease with which OKC was able to get into the paint in the first place

Barring Castle, who I thought did an AMAZING job against SGA when he was on him, everyone else on the Spurs is putting up no resistance

Fox got bullied so easily at his size, Barnes lacks the mobility necessary at this point, Champagnie is just alright, etc.

When guys are penetrating so consistently and so easily, it just puts Wemby in a near impossible spot

We need this series in the playoffs. The chess match between them will be pure cinema

Spurs were also without Vassell, who has fantastic instincts and is a great defender. That had to help take some pressure off of okc.

One of the things that is nice about having Wiggins, Mitchell, Wallace, or Caruso out there in Lieu of Dort is that they are better at cutting to the hoop and more comfortable actually having to dribble a few times along the way. Love Dort, but against SAS I don’t think we can afford to have him hang out lobbing deep threes, and he isn’t a good enough dribbler yet to attack the rim.

Yeah it was a good scheme, Thunder looked significantly more prepared yesterday

Excellent post, OP. Thank you for an insightful analysis and a great read.

Username checks out OP, haha.

Nice analysis, insightful stuff

It starts with OKC being able to get into the paint all too easily. Any time Jdub or Shai called for a screen, they just denied it and drove left. And it was a straight line drive every time. The way the Spurs wanted to switch was wrong. They were half switching half dropping, which allowed the OKC ball-handlers to turn the corner on any handoff or pick. If they wanted to switch, the switch had to happen at the top of the pick, almost like a hedge.

The other problem was the Spurs were clearly running the same scheme on defense as we saw on Boston which essentially boiled down to “no matter how much the offense moves, whoever’s closest to baseline is guarded by Wemby”. The idea was to always have Wemby within helping distance of the rim, but because OKC was getting into the paint so easily, they were already driving downhill before the backline defense even gets sorted out. You can actually see so many times in the first half Wemby directing his teammates on who should switch on who off-ball so he doesn’t get pulled out of the paint. They’re trying to setup a 1-3-1 zone that’s not really a zone, only for some OKC ball-handler to get by his man as Wemby is pointing out instructions.

Great points. On your first point, I think this was something Kolek did really effectively in the Cup final. I feel like in addition to creating some openings at the basket, it also put Wemby out of rebounding position and opened opportunities for offensive rebounds.

On your third point, did you see the double big minutes as an attempt to allow Wemby to switch out while still having rim protection? I wasn’t watching closely enough

I watched the game with my son and kept pointing out Wemby and to watch him, so we watched him closely and we saw him get boxed out and pushed around.

It seemed our strategy the first few games was to keep Wemby in the paint and kick out to open shooters, which didn’t work because an already mid shooting team was in a huge slump.

We definitely went directly at Wemby significantly more, like you said, getting him out of position for more shots at the basket. It was a great adjustment, I’m curious to see what the Spurs do in our next game

Thats kinda how we beat them a few weeks ago. Neither Garland or Mitchell scored a bunch, but they were constantly drawing Wemby away from the basket and generating looks like this.

Jarrett Allen feasted that game. A PG like Garland or Trae Young that can dribble around the defense and thrives at facilitating while defenders collapse down on them is kindof a hard counter to how the Spurs run their defense with Wemby. Someone like Steve Nash would have been such a problem for them

“Very slightly”

I don’t think thats Wemby, it’s the defensive scheme that Spurs play. They play either 1-3-1 or 2-1-2 hybrid defense on both with Wemby anchored as a warrior which is the rim defender, this guy needs to defend the ball on the paint in that scheme that’s their job, the other guys need to switch and protect the warrior’s back or talk to the warrior. It’s exhausting, and keeping up with the schema is not easy.

This defense only works with quick defenders, that’s why you don’t see it that often, and definitely not in nba. But the way that OKC defeated them was by playing fast and fast breaks, I think by the end the Spurs were gassed.

Great insights!

My thing with the spurs is running a 3 PG lineup but no one can pass to Wemby in a good position or do a lob.

I think i saw similar things in the Boston game. He’s on a minute restriction and they were putting him into most actions and drawing him out to the perimeter to guard out there and he was getting really gassed plus now there’s no one at the rim.

Wolves also went physical with him. Sending Randle to just bully him and it worked in the second half

I did notice one thing. Wemby was so hell bent on punking Chet last night that he was missing obvious cuts or going out of his way to shut him down leaving other shooters open.

He would also refuse to pass out and directly charge Chet even if better options were open for him to kick out too for an open 3.

Chet got punked most the game yeah but at what cost?

Your thoughtful analysis is neither a meme, trolling, or glazing. You have been banned from r/NBA.

They had a great scheme against Wemby. They were fouling a lot tbh, but even with that ….

They knew Wemby was going to be Uber aggressive with them and I felt they gave him more opportunities to do that. Trap him into ¹⁄₁ scenarios where he would handle the ball too much. He’s a phenomenal handler for a guy at his size but average at best overall. I saw a bunch of possessions where he’d fall down or pick up the dribble because of smaller defenders pressuring him and get stuck.

Spurs are going through some shooting woes right now and don’t have Vassell to help space the floor. Things will get better as those things improve. OKC are the champs though and last night they played like it.

It’s why I wasn’t too mad that we had Chet on Wemby more often last night. Sure, Wemby sees red when that blue #7 is guarding him, but I also feel like he’s desperate to go for the highlight on Chet, and outside of the two dunks, it seemed to have sped him up a little and made him more tunnel-visioned.

At times in the second half wemby looked like someone who had been running suicides for the past 30 minutes. He looked like he was having to try so hard to run fast. He looked gassed. No legs

Wemby is notorious for over-helping. He’s a great defender, but more often than not, he’s hunting a block which leads to a man being wide open. The Thunder played a helluva game. But in Spurs circles, fans know sometimes Wemby is out of position trying to get the highlight play which can lead to easy buckets.

Yeah, let’s see how much inner peace those gdamn monks really taught em

iow: j dub is a problem

Thank you for the intelligent analysis. 

This is accurate. He wants his hands in everything. If you move him around he can be neutralized to an extent.

Thunder shot ¹⁸⁄₂₁ 86% in the RA this game. Wemby was a non-factor at the rim which was really odd to watch. Might just be an outlier game though.

Everyone in this thread commenting “aCtUaL aNaLySiS iN r/NbA?” just showing that they also have nothing to contribute to discussions analyzing basketball play

Fourth, knock him down and foul every play. He’s lucky dirty dort wasn’t playing

Randle gave everyone the blue print the other night when he bullied Wemby as if he was a child.