Posted on Tue, Oct. 10, 2006

Warriors place a different kind of emphasis on defense
Assistant coaches will grade each player and the team as a whole

By Geoff Lepper
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

OAKLAND - Each fall, it seems, the Warriors' on-court employees talk
about how they're going to get serious about defense and that doing so
is going to help lead the Warriors out of the lottery hinterlands.

This year is no different. But with a new system from coach Don Nelson's
Dallas days, the Warriors hope their results will be dramatically -- and
permanently -- altered.

Last season, the Warriors did change, at least in the opening month.
Crisp defensive rotations were a hallmark of November, when they held
opponents to less than 100 points on 12 occasions, allowed an average of
only 93.4 points per game and won 11 of 17 contests.

In keeping with the Warriors' history, however, it didn't last. Teams
scored 101.5 per contest the rest of the way against a defense that
frayed noticeably as the season wore on, and the Warriors closed with a
23-42 downward spiral.

To avoid yet another repeat performance this season, Nelson is counting
on the elaborate scheme of grading games he developed during his eight
seasons in Dallas. Each defensive possession will be dissected by the
assistant coaching staff, with the team as a whole receiving a pass-fail
grade, and each player receiving detailed marks on his individual
contributions.

"I won't tell you I'm not playing guys that get low marks ... but it
will have an influence on how much they play," Nelson said. "If they're
consistently making a lot of errors in the game, defensively, I don't
know how we can beat anybody."

Lead assistant Larry Riley, who will be in charge of the system, likens
it to the kind of grading football teams do for their linemen. Players
will be dinged for such infractions as allowing their man to beat them
off the dribble, forgetting to box out and failing to follow the proper
orders in defending a pick-and-roll.

Third-year center Andris Biedrins is looking forward to receiving
specific criticisms for what he says will be the first time in his NBA
career.

"I think it will work," Biedrins said. "Now we can see what we're doing
wrong. It's not only just, 'Mistake.' They'll tell you how you made that
mistake. So it will be easier for you not to make those mistakes in the
next game."

As for the team number, it's a percentage based on the number of
defensive possessions minus the number of individual mistakes and then
divided by possessions. So if the Warriors make a total of 30 errors in
90 defensive possessions, they'll grade out at 66.7 percent.

That's a pretty good figure. Riley pegged 70 percent as the top
realistic level for an NBA squad. Dip to 55 or below, however, "and
you've got problems, real problems," Riley said.

The principles the Warriors are teaching in their man-to-man defense --
which they'll use about 80 to 85 percent of the time -- are similar to
those they used last season, assistant coach Keith Smart said. It's only
the level of commitment that's changing.

"The game is the same," Smart explained. "It's just now, if you're not
over there (on a rotation), you're in trouble."

Notes: Before a team-estimated 3,000 fans, the White team upset the Blue
team -- which featured the starting five -- 70-67 in an intrasquad
scrimmage at the Arena on Monday. Guard Monta Ellis aggravated his
strained right thigh in the first quarter and did not return. His status
is day-to-day. Dijon Thompson hit the game-winning 3-pointer with 0.1
seconds remaining. ... A few days ago, Nelson said he gave one player a
ball and some shooting homework. Sunday, he revealed that player is
Biedrins, who has been told to flip 100 shots into the air each night to
make sure he gets his wrist involved in his free throws. ... A Warriors
spokesman denied an Internet report that Chris Taft will miss the entire
season. Nelson said he expects Taft to be out "for a long time," but the
team's training staff simply doesn't know when the second-year big man
might return from his mysterious inflammation problem.