Originally Posted by
kAzE
I keep seeing different versions of this comment in various threads. While it's true that our offense is better than our defense, we might actually have more room to improve on offense than defense. We still commit a ton of unforced turnovers, Grayson still hasn't really been himself since Michigan State, Bagley still only goes left, and Duval still hasn't really found his place on the team yet. If Grayson had been his usual all-american self all year, or we make a couple fewer dumb turnovers, we could be 24-1 right now, even with the atrocious defense.
These guys are all offensive players. ALL of them are better on offense than D. There is no Matt Jones or Amile Jefferson on this team. My point is that we might actually be closer to our defensive ceiling than our offensive ceiling. So the "our offense is fine, we need to improve on D" comments don't make much sense to me. We need to improve on both ends. Just because we're better than almost everyone else at offense doesn't mean we can't still improve a lot on that end.
I sadly agree. I think this team can get so much better on offense. I unfortunately don't see how to fix some of the following issues: forcing turnovers (Allen has never been good at forcing TOs. Duval's reaction speed is shockingly slow for a PG. The bigs block shots but don't poke balls), preventing penetration (it's a modern Duke team. This ain't happenin'), on-court awareness (Duval and Bagley seem to be the biggest culprits of this), PnR defense (Carter is getting better but it's still not great), and communication (does this get fixed in a year? Probably not).
Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things. - Winston Churchill
President of the "Nolan Smith Should Have His Jersey in The Rafters" Club