Brimah as defender versus shot blocker. Huge improvement!

[bleeny72]

Brimah's defense changed in the second half, making us a far better team. Other than on the Kurtz tip shot, Brimah's defense matured in the second half, significantly.

He has had two negative tendencies:
1. Over helping on ball handlers leaving open interior passes (and easy layups).
2. Going for blocks too far away or on too difficult of shots, leaving offensive rebounders wide open.

In the second half, Brimah stood his ground, waiting for dribblers to come into his zone. This led to blocks, shot alterations, a steal, and numerous restarts of offensive sets from nervous guards. Also, Brimah had 7 defensive rebounds, which is his career high. What does this come from? Better positioning and smarter defense.

Lastly, this helped him from stupid fouls, keeping him in the game. If Brimah can continue to grow, we become so much better immediately.

 

[dogpause]

He was well-rested.

 

[zls44]

He was well-rested.

He actually played a lot of first-half minutes.

It was like he and Purvis hit a switch at the 10:00 mark of the second half defensively.

 

[bleeny72]

He was well-rested.

Not about stamina level, about the way to play D

 

[mauconnfan]

He would have had another block except TSam tried to take a charge and the foul was called - he flipped that one out!

 

[Danzz]

#1 is the big one that gives up offensive rebounds.

 

[Fishy]

He had one glaring example in the second half where he ball-hawked and Kurtz had an open layup off an offensive rebound - but he did do better.

But also the guards did a better job of staying in front of their men and preventing penetration. The defense truly falls apart when the guards fail to stop the ball and Amida becomes a kid in a candy shop racing around to swat shots. I think when you're seven-feet tall, relatively inexperienced and able to jump the way he can, everything starts to look like an opportunity to fling a shot back into the stands.

 

[James]

that rejection on horford got me so hyped. him( i mean brimah still leads us in a ton of statistical cataggories) and purvis are just steadily improving...

 

[Danzz]

#1 is the big one that gives up offensive rebounds.

And that is themost important thing Brimah has to learn: when to go for the bloc

He had one glaring example in the second half where he ball-hawked and Kurtz had an open layup off an offensive rebound - but he did do better.

But also the guards did a better job of staying in front of their men and preventing penetration. The defense truly falls apart when the guards fail to stop the ball and Amida becomes a kid in a candy shop racing around to swat shots. I think when you're seven-feet tall, relatively inexperienced and able to jump the way he can, everything starts to look like an opportunity to fling a shot back into the stands.

And that is the thing he has to learn: when to go for the block and when to box out. He is getting better at it.