More on Speights and Defense

[jemagee]

From the ESPN rookie watch - reviewing rookie big men

Speights is playing great on offense. No surprise there. But to be a better defensive force, he needs to learn to try to deny his opponents good post-up position. It's not possible to deny them the ball totally, but forcing them to catch the ball a step or three beyond where they want it is the first line of defense.

[Skates]

It will help when he adds a few pounds of muscle in his upper body and trunk areas, plus he needs to understand that defense is not all about blocking shots.  Unlike Sam, Speights can use the excuse of being young and inexperienced.

[Derek Bodner]

It's sometimes quite impressive how accurate a good draft writeup can be.  This is from DraftExpress from last January.  Detailed, yet accurate to this day:

Defensively, Speights still has a long ways to go until he?d be considered ?trust-worthy? enough by an NBA head coach to see significant minutes at the next level. His fundamentals here are extremely poor, showing very little in terms of a real defensive stance, giving up excessive space in the paint, biting excessively for pump-fakes, not being very effective rotating over to help out on team defense, and doing an extremely poor job hedging the pick and roll. His commitment here leaves a lot to be desired, as he?s often fairly lazy closing out on shooters, and generally doesn?t seem to put in the greatest effort on this end of the floor. A lot of that has to do with his overall focus-level, which just isn?t always there.

Speights can block shots at this level, even if he?s not freakishly explosive, but his excellent timing, hands and wingspan really make him a factor. He has a knack for sticking his hands in the right place at the right time, and can even swat away some shots with his left hand. This same knack/timing and terrific tools show up in his rebounding too, where he can be dominant at times when he really puts his mind to it, especially on the offensive end. He?s especially impressive with his ability to tip-in the missed shots of his teammates with terrific touch, and go after his own field goal attempts with a put-back dunk. He?s already the 8th best rebounder per-40 minutes pace adjusted in the country amongst players in our database, and that?s despite the fact that he forgets to box out occasionally, and has a tendency to coast from time to time.

It'd definitely focus and technique.  Hopefully it's correct.  I agree on denying his man position bit.  He bit on a # of pumpfakes last night as well.

[RickyPryor]

Sam is the anointed King of allowing good position down low, by the way.  Only in these past couple years do I EVER see him (occasionally) meet his man at 12 feet.  That's why - at last count - he's been dunked over 10,000 times by a larger man.

Speights is raw for sure.  But defense is about desire and technique.  Overall I believe he has the desire...he plays with some fire for the most part.  The technique comes from coaching.

And he's had none.

[Skates]

I have seen Speights pick up little things from Reggie and Brand this year and I keep hearing that he has been a willing student in practice, so I am pretty hopeful for him.  He will likely always need a pretty strong coach, particularly a stickler on the defensive end (Thibodeau is still my choice for next year).  He has not shown any kind of attitude issues and is said to work hard.  A lot of the pre-draft items I read on him said he wasn't lazy, but that he did not know how to push himself past a limit when he hit one.  With guys like Brand and Reggie, who seem to love to go hard in practice, around a good coaching I think he can translate his physical gifts into being a solid man defender/rebounder and an outstanding shotblocker down the road.