Boston Celtics will adjust pick-and-roll defense for Shaquille O’Neal
“Pick and rolls since the days of Bill Russell have been a hard thing to stop.” – Shaquille O’Neal, Boston Herald
“Doh.” – Me, Celtics Town
If you listen to people talk about Shaq’s pick-and-roll defense, he either plays screens like a brick wall or a 38-year old oak tree. The funny thing is, they’re barely exaggerating. Shaq can pull a basketball hoop down with his bare hands, but if you ask him to hedge a goddamn pick-and-roll he looks like a cactus. Or Shaqtus, if you will.
Shaq’s bad enough against the screen and roll that Doc Rivers is adjusting the entire Celtics defense to accomodate him.
“We’ve got to put more onus on the guards,’’ Rivers told the Boston Globe. “We’d be fooling ourselves to think Shaq is going to be out at halfcourt trapping and showing, and all that stuff. So, instead of trying to get him to do that, we’ve got to put the onus on the guards.”
My question: why can’t Shaq just play the team’s scheme? I know he’s chunky and ginormous and slower than he used to be, but if Zydrunas Ilgauskas can hedge, why can’t Shaq? It all comes down to effort, and Shaq doesn’t exert enough on the defensive end. And if it’s not effort, it’s Shaq’s mentality. He doesn’t see his defense as an issue.
“I’ll be all right,” he told the Boston Herald. “The Big Shamrock will not be a problem.” Points for solid third person reference.
“The court’s only so wide, so long,” Shaq continued. “I’ve been around a long time. I think I’ve seen pretty much every defense. As a matter of fact, new defenses were created because of me.
“The good thing about this team is guys want to play defense – especially guys like Rondo. I’m going to be in the back, controlling the paint, blocking shots, getting rebounds and pushing it up. You know, a lot of people forget I am seventh in blocks in the history of the game.”
People do forget it, and do you want to know why? Because you’re THAT bad against the damn pick-and-roll. If you hedged them properly, even once in a while, people might remember that you were once such a prolific shot-blocker. As it is, anything you bring to a defense is overshadowed because — in the words of Bill Walton — you’re the worst hedger in the history of Western civilization.
Doc Rivers explained more of his plan to hide Shaq’s deficiencies.
“The closer we can keep Shaq to the basket, the better for us,” Rivers said. “He’s a force down there, he’s a shot-blocker, he’s a rebounder. We don’t want him away from the basket.” In other words: Shaq either can’t, or won’t, move his feet to help our guards, so we’re going to shove him under the basket where he might not hurt us as badly.
“The biggest change for Shaq is talking on defense,” Rivers continued. “He’s got to be really verbal. He said that’s a little different for him. He’ll do it.
“We went from No. 1 in field goal percentage defense to No. 9. That was due to injuries and a lot of other things, but we were 9 and we want to get that back to 1.”
To do that, they’ll have to overcome Shaq’s weaknesses. A tall task, yes, but one Doc Rivers hopes to accomplish with his defense’s new Shaq rules. It’s odd to change an entire defensive scheme for one man, but desperate times call for desperate pick-and-roll coverage.
One thing about 38-year old oak trees: they’re tough to uproot.
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Celtics Blog, Celtics Columns | Jay King | September 30, 2010
I don’t think they have to change the whole scheme. Celtics defense is simply helping the defender and then helping the the helper. So if the guards have to help Shaq, someone else will help the guards. All players have deficiencies. It’s how you work as a team so that they won’t hurt you too much.
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I agree. The guards need to move their asses as Shaq is 300 lbs+ and trying to have him be nimble is not ever going to happen. You play to your strengths and the Celtics play GREAT team defense. Shaq will rebound and everyone will help each other because that is what team defense is all about. If he gets beat on 5 P&Rs a game then that’s OK as he’ll more than make up for it in rebounds, blocked shots, screening players away from rebounds, and changing shots of players heading to the hoop. That alone will change the dynamics of the Celtic’s defense. Shaq has 4 rings and so P&R really wasn’t that big of an issue was it? Go Cs….love Shaq in green!!!
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We knew what we were getting when we signed him-easy baskets around the hoop, rebounds and a scary, intimidating presence to would be penetrators. Complaining about his pick and roll defense is like saying there is not enough whipped cream on my Sundae-if you are a glass half empty guy you will have a hard time seeing the light. I am grateful and thrilled to have a 38 year version of Shaq on our team. A younger version would not have been ready for “I am, because we are.”
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So you’d rather have 38-year old Shaq than in his prime Shaq?
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I would like Shaq in his prime with the maturity and the ability to get along with other players and share the spotlight that the 38 year old version is displaying so far in Boston. For this team the 38 year old version is a better fit. People who don’t like his skills didn’t watch him score at will in Cleveland. His production for minutes played is still extremely strong. His 2009-10, 12 points and 6.7 rebounds for 23.4 minutes played are still elite player numbers.
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