I’m sick, so chances of this post being as in depth and stellar as one that would appear on Waiting For Next Year seems unlikely. Having said that, one thing I’ve been very curious about lately is the relationship between pace and defensive efficiency - if there is one.
I say this because of how much talk there always is, year in and year out, surrounding the Cavs and how slowly they play. I have a tendency to believe that fast play leads to poor defense - it’s difficult, I believe, to exert energy on defense and always be setup to stop your opponent if you’re busy running up and down the floor in transition. Consequently (in the words of AC), I think that Coldstone’s emphasis on defense would coincide with a resistance to a fast paced offense.
That’s only intuition though. I have no actual idea as to whether or not there’s any correlation between how fast a team plays and how good or bad they are on defense. Time then to look at some numbers.
The ten fastest teams in the league are: Golden State, Indiana, Minnesota, Denver, Phoenix, Sacramento, Houston, New York, Memphis, and Chicago.
The ten best defenses in the league are: Orlando, Boston, the Lakers, Charlotte, Milwaukee, Oklahoma City, Cleveland, Miami, San Antonio, and Utah.
As you can see, there is no overlap. None of the ten fastest teams are also one of the ten best defensive teams and vice versa.
Here’s a breakdown of where each of the twenty teams listed rates in both categories.
TEAM PACE DEF
GSW 1 29
IND 2 17
MIN 3 27
DEN 4 15
PHX 5 25
SAC 6 24
HOU 7 14
NYK 8 26
MEM 9 23
CHI 10 11
ORL 22 1
BOS 24 2
LAL 11 3
CHA 25 4
MIL 15 5
OKC 14 6
CLE 27 7
MIA 28 8
SAS 23 9
UTA 12 10
Given the proximity of teams like the Bulls, the Lakers, and the Jazz to the top 10 in both pace and defensive efficiency, a relationship between slower play and good defense is likely not absolute - but there does appear to be some modicum of truth to the notion that strong defense may be boosted by a measured pace.
In order to really prove anything, extensive analysis would have to be done by looking at data from multiple seasons, but at least the next time you hear someone grumbling about why the Cavs play so slow, you can throw back one possible reason why.
