Comments on: Greg Monroe struggled with pick-and-roll defense in opener

By: Thursday And-1 links (with some Portland love) | ProBasketballTalk

Thursday And-1 links (with some Portland love) | ProBasketballTalk — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 15:56:00 +0000

[...] center Greg Monroe has some work to do on learning how to defend the [...]

By: Jakob Eich

Jakob Eich — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 23:39:47 +0000

It was just something that stood out to me and surprised me. Pick and roll defense is something very fundamental and I though Monroe would come out this year and have his fundamentals down so we could see some other refinements to his game. I see him as a player who will have a playing similar to Tim Duncan’s (not very athletic but smart basketball) and we can’t have him making mistakes like this.
Indiana is a big and very athletic team. We wont be outrebounded that badly every game but Monroe and Jerebko arent very strong players with great size. Monroe can be a very good rebounder, but he wasn’t on the floor long enough to get a lot of them against Indiana. Jerebko will improve as the season goes on. What stunned me was that Ben Wallace was the best rebounder in a Pistons uniform once again, at least to me. I’ll never get tired of him, he ‘s just a first-class grinder.

By: Max

Max — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 22:44:22 +0000

I was struck by just how big the Pacers were. I just commented on Hibbert but the dynamic thing about the Pacers is Paul George, I think their opening game against the Pistons probably witnessed the largest shooting guard to ever start in the NBA’s history and while Daye is 6-11 and people clamor for him to start at the 2, he could put on weight for 5 to 10 years and he’d still be smaller than that first game’s 6-10 Paul George. I think they are going to be very surprising to people this year and I don’t think there is a larger starting unit in the league so they were a pretty bad matchup for these small Pistons.

By: Max

Max — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 22:39:02 +0000

Hibbert might not be elite but I’m scratching my head while trying to figure out if there is a bigger starting center right now than him. He’s 7-2 and looks about as wide as two Tyson Chandlers.

By: frankie d

frankie d — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 19:45:11 +0000

agree with patrick.
monroe is a smart guy and while he doesn’t have the quickest feet in the world, defending the pick and roll is as much about smarts as anything. monroe is a smart guy with decent athleticism, so he should ultimately be ok. he was pretty good at it last year.
but the team’s lack of size just kills them. the team needs a big guy who can take up space and keep guys out of the lane. they need a ricky mahorn-type player who will simply be there defensively and keep guys from pushing monroe and JJ and daye under the boards while they pound the pistons’ defensive boards.
it would also be nice if they got a big guy – like fesenko – who had decent feet, and the size and length to disrupt the pick and roll. i’d rather have another interior defender chasing the P&R, while monroe concentrated on rebounding, because he seems to have a real knack for it.

By: Patrick Hayes

Patrick Hayes — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 17:33:11 +0000

I’m not all that worried about Monroe’s P and R defense, although there were a couple instances where he didn’t look great in that respect vs. Indiana. He was OK on it last year. His biggest issue vs. Indiana to me was that he and Jerebko were simply overpowered by virtually any big the Pacers put in the lineup. And the Pistons as a whole didn’t play with much toughness on D.