I'd probably agree that Warrick negatively impacted the defense considerably while Gortat was on the court. My statement about Gortat was just an observation of him in isolation. Hopefully, it was the result of unfamiliarity with teammates and responsibilities. It will take several games playing together to see just what kind of effect Gortat will have on this group. Hopefully, his defense will affect our team defense more than the other way around.
Steve
I gotta say: I love the arguments you and Chap have. So often, you agree on pertinent points, but you guys pick out one little idea, twist it around and turn it into a full-fledged debate.
The truth is, Warrick and Gortat got mixed up on defense when they were out there together. I really wouldn't worry too much about this, though. The Suns have a lot of problems that were evident last night, but the fact that Heat players found themselves on offense standing under the basket without a defender in sight on numerous occasions is not a problem that will persist.
Let's be fair: the Suns' team defense is basically a smorgasbord of gimmicks that Gentry is forced to use, on account of the fact that most of the players on this team are small forwards. Playing against the Heat, we needed to layer on a few more gimmicks for a whole bunch of different situations - on pick-and-rolls, does the big man double the dribbler, hedge and get back to his man, or switch, and what do the other three guys do? If you are going to run a big man at Lebron James in the middle of the floor, which big man is it? It's gotta be someone who is tall enough to obscure Lebron's court vision and who is close enough to Lebron before going over to double team; what if that defender happens to be guarding Chris Bosh? Who, then, rotates over to Bosh? That guy has to be tall enough to disrupt Bosh's jumpshot and also has to be in Bosh's vicinity, and that defender is probably going to come from the paint, meaning that another guy has to rotate down a bit; of course, that guy can't rotate all the way over, because he is now responsible for covering the paint if someone slashes into the lane from the other side of the court in addition to covering a perimeter shooter from the wing - so it should have been expected that the Suns would have some defensive miscues. The worst ones (in which players were wide open for dunks) naturally involved Gortat and Warrick, because Warrick has those are the two guys on the team who actually fit the criteria necessary to be able to do all of those things I mentioned above (block Lebron's vision, get a hand in Bosh's face, patrol the paint, etc.). And as big of a change as it is for Gortat, coming from a defensive system anchored by if not completely designed around Dwight Howard to the Valley of the Small Forwards, it's also a huge adjustment for Warrick, as well, who was used to playing with Hedo "I don't care that the Suns have 11 other small forwards, I am not a power forward" Turkoglu and Channing "I would be a much better defender if defense involved me spotting up for 3; I'll even slide over to the small forward position if that will help" Frye.
The point is, don't worry. it's going to take a little time, but I'm confident that, as the team gets comfortable with one another, we'll stop giving up those wide open dunks. We'll be back to giving up wide open 3's from the corner in no time!
