From Randy Hill of FOXSports.com:
If playing exemplary defense worked for Boston — as it has for the San Antonio Spurs, Detroit Pistons and last decade’s Chicago Bulls — why in the NBA world do so few teams make that commitment?
Well, playing defense can be physically demanding.
But is laziness the main reason? Laziness and the sense of entitlement that accompanies big loot always can be credited with making serious defense hard to come by in professional basketball.
Now before you attempt to drag some statistical paradigm into this rant and insist that — by the numbers — NBA teams really do dig in and play D, just find your remote and sit down. After that deep breath, locate an NBA game on one station and a high-level college game occurring at the same time on another channel.
Watch the NBA game for about five minutes, then jump over to the college game for five. Go back and watch the professionals again, then switch back to the student-athletes.
If you didn’t notice the disparate intensity in the defense, you probably found a women’s college game. But if you were watching the men’s team from the University of Texas, Purdue, or Michigan State, for example, get a load of those defensive stances. Hey, the knees are bent, defenders don’t turn their backs to the ball and cutters are bumped and forced out of harm’s way.
On the NBA game (unless it’s Boston or Cleveland), perimeter on-ball defenders are in full retreat instead of moving side to side (hello, Steve Nash) or just standing up. Cutters are trailed through the lane and close-outs are performed with mediocre gusto.
You may not care. You may prefer watching games that feature waves of scoring and highlight maneuvers. So do I. But college basketball offers several big-time teams that play at a warp-speed pace with blitzkrieg-style defenses they use to furnish the pace they desire.
That’s right. Pressure defense is the easiest way to generate tempo.
Hill makes a good argument. But I’m not convinced that “laziness” or “self-entitlement” are responsible for the relative lack of defensive intensity in the NBA. The North Carolina Tarheels are scheduled to play 30 games this season. That’s 52 less than the NBA’s 82 game regular season. The Boston Celtics played a combined 109 regular season and playoff games last season. The NBA game is also eight minutes longer than the college game. Not to mention the stress of flying from city-to-city every other night.
The NBA season is a long grind. It’s physically impossible to play with a one-and-done mentality over the course of 82 games. It doesn’t make sense to play 48 minutes of pressure defense either. The NBA has outlawed all forms of handchecking. Defenders can literally beat their man to a spot, hold their ground and still be whistled for a foul.
Hill blames the lack of defensive execution on coaches being “reluctant to alienate big-salary players by cutting into playing time.” There may be some truth to that. But there’s only one Tom Thibodeau. There’s only one Gregg Popovich. And there are only a handful of players like Kevin Garnett.
Defense is about effort. But it’s also about will-power. It’s about the will to win. Every player says they want to win, but I’d argue that the league’s best defenders want to win more than most. All-NBA defenders are competitors. And you can’t teach the will to compete.
I’ve read similar arguments elsewhere. When comparing the college game to the pros, “purists” always attempt to paint NBA players as apathetic or NBA coaches as subservient. Defense definitely wins championships, but comparing college basketball to the NBA is an exercise in futility. The season length and talent level are incomprable. In fact, the “intensity” level in college basketball that Hill praises often results in unforced errors and bad decision-making on both sides of the ball.
