Brian Scalabrine Credits Darren Erman, Now With Boston Celtics, for Shaping Golden State Warriors' Elite Defense

http://www.masslive.com/celtics/index.ssf/2014/08/brian_scalabrine_credits_darre.html



Brian Scalabrine credits Darren Erman, now with Boston Celtics, for shaping Golden State Warriors' elite defense

Print Jay King | mjking@masslive.com By Jay King | mjking@masslive.com
on August 08, 2014 at 12:30 PM, updated August 08, 2014 at 12:41 PM



This story might need a disclaimer. For obvious reasons, Brian Scalabrine probably doesn't want to give former Golden State Warriors head coach Mark Jackson many props. The two clashed enough that Scalabrine, an assistant, was essentially banished to the D-League midway through the season. He said Jackson's unwillingness to hold players accountable contributed to the staff's division.

So keep that in your head as an asterisk, if you want. But during a Thursday interview with The Doug Gottlieb Show, Scalabrine credited Darren Erman -- who is now with the Boston Celtics -- for shaping the Warriors' elite defense last season.

"My coaches were Doc Rivers and Tom Thibodeau. And that Warriors team was a talented team that was like on the cusp, believe me," Scalabrine said during the interview. "And you'll see this year (with Steve Kerr replacing Jackson, who was fired), because I think they'll be better organized, at least offensively. It would be hard for them to be better defensively. They were third in the NBA in defense. And a lot of that had to do with Darren Erman, who was there and is now with the Celtics. But they were an average offensive team. With all that talent, an average offensive team."

The coaching situation last season in Golden State turned pretty bizarre. Erman also had his issues with Jackson and was fired for reportedly taping private conversations between players and coaches. That didn't deter the Celtics, who employed Erman as a coaching assistant under Rivers, from rehiring him this summer. He was named the director of NBA scouting, but, with the departure of Ron Adams, could receive consideration to join Brad Stevens' coaching staff. Erman is highly-regarded for his Xs-and-Os knowledge.

Scalabrine, in case you're interested, explained parts of his beef with Jackson. During the interview with Gottlieb, the redhead sounded like maybe he didn't want to air all of his grievances. But he clearly believes Jackson limited the Warriors in a major way.

The money quotes: "Generally, as a staff we really didn’t prepare our team to be championship-caliber nor did we prepare our team to eventually be championship-caliber."

And: "I respected him as a head coach going into that, but after a while, it was just like us not doing what I would feel like our job is. It was just kind of frustrating."

Those are strong words. And Scalabrine named a couple of examples. First -- and he brought this up before being asked about Jackson -- he thought Jackson coddled Stephen Curry on the defensive end, rarely giving him the most talented matchups. In Scalabrine's eyes, the Warriors should have been pushing their star point guard to become a complete player, like Thibodeau and the Chicago Bulls did with Derrick Rose.

According to Scalabrine, Curry wanted to defend the Chris Pauls and Tony Parkers of the world and would have been capable with the right coaching staff, in the right scheme, if he had been asked to do that on a daily basis. But Scalabrine suggested Jackson took "the easy way out."

“As a staff, Coach Jackson made that decision in saying, ‘Hey, I’m not going to challenge this guy," Scalabrine said. "I’m not going to push this guy to be better on both ends of the floor. I want to save him for the offensive end.’"

Even saving Curry for offense, the Warriors finished about league-average on that end, an obvious disappointment given the amount of talent there. Scalabrine pointed that out, saying he thought the offense could have been better organized. And then he mentioned Harrison Barnes, a 2012 lottery pick who broke out in the playoffs as a rookie, but regressed during his second season.

“Harrison Barnes should have been like an elite player in the NBA, taking the next step after his rookie year,” Scalabrine said. “It’s just like unfortunate that he didn’t get a chance to do it.”

If Barnes starts realizing some of his potential and Curry begins to play better defense ... well, is anybody else really excited to see how the Warriors continue to evolve?




bob
MY NOTE:  GSW's Elite Defense? I give a ton of credit for the GSW's showing in the playoffs, short-handed as badly as they were, but "elite defense"? I'd love to hear Outside's opinion on that. I hated losing Ron Adams but, if this story can be believed (and I'm keeping my powder dry for now), we may have gotten a consolation prize that's worth something.



.

"GSW's Elite Defense?"

An oxymoronoic statement to be sure.

I thought at first that the article was from the Onion.

Yes, Bob, I do think their defense was among the best in the league this past season. And in other news, yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

The Warriors in recent memory haven't been known for their defense, or, to be more precise, were known for their lack of it. But that changed with the arrival of Mark Jackson.

I have mixed feelings about Jackson, and Scal may credit Darren Erman for the Warriors' defense, but Jackson changed the mindset regarding defense when he arrived. Even though they were popularly known for the Splash Brothers and three-point shooting, Jackson emphasized from his first day on the job that defense would be the key to them become contenders, and they improved in that area every year.

Although his career has been checkered with injuries, Andrew Bogut has been the defensive anchor that has made it possible. Having a defensive-minded, rebounding, shot-blocking center -- "rim protector," anyone? -- allowed them to build the defense around him. They turned Klay Thompson into a versatile perimeter defender, let Steph Curry play the passing lanes and pick opposing guards' pockets, brought in an elite perimeter defender in Andre Iguodala, and drafted guys like Draymond Green and Harrison Barnes. All that more than made up for mediocre defense by David Lee.

The stats regarding last season are interesting. The Warriors were fourth-best in points allowed per 100 possessions (Drtg on the page in the link; you have to scroll to the right), behind only Indiana, Chicago, and the Spurs. That is the key stat for me, not opponent points allowed, where the Warriors were 21st, which is skewed because they played at the sixth-highest pace.

http://bkref.com/tiny/XWkfy

The Warriors were also fourth in opponent FG percentage (behind only Indiana, Chicago, and OKC) and third in effective field goal percentage (behind only Indiana and Chicago).

Here's an article that talks about the Warriors' defense last season being among the league's best:

http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/03/07/extra-pass-golden-state-warriors-defending-at-historically-high-level/

The author even gives David Lee credit. I particularly liked a graph in the article that showed the Warriors' defensive rating (points per 100 possessions) historically versus the league average.



As the graph shows, they've reversed the decades-long trend of "Run TMC" and "Nellie Ball."

A lot came together this past season to make their defense effective, and they haven't yet shown the sustained defensive excellence that they had in the '60s and '70s when guys like Wilt, Thurmond, and Al Attles were around. To me, an elite defense is one that performs at a high level consistently over multiple seasons, and they haven't done that yet. But they are built to perform that way, and as long as Bogut holds out (or even longer if Ezeli matures to do what Bogut does), then they could become an elite defensive team.

Ooops. I guess I need to change my image of the Warriors.

Sloopjohnb wrote:Ooops. I guess I need to change my image of the Warriors.

It will take a while to break that image. It was (sigh) decades in the making.

I can be a little slow about reversals in long term trends.

When the Clippers made good player moves and became a very good team I just assumed that Donald Sterling must have sold the team.

IF Golden State truly has a solid defense, I'm happy to see it associated with someone who's now with the Celtics.

Sam